1st sausage results and questions

I made 2 different sausages this weekend; a beef stick variety and summer sausage. The beef stick was made without casings and came out pretty good. Using a jerky gun I was able to 'shoot' consistent pieces right onto an extruded metal screen. The summer sausage was stuffed into synthetic casings. It too tastes pretty good. What I'm not happy with is the appearance of the summer sausage casings. The casing ended up fitting very loosely around the meat. I smoked them over low temps (140-170)for several hours. I eventually hit a plateau where the internal temp wouldn't rise above 148. I bumped up the smoker's temp to around 200 but the internal temp actually started dropping. I double checked the meat temp with another thermo to make sure what I was reading was legit; it was. I also used 2 separate thermos on the smoker. So, I ended up finishing the sausage in the oven but had to bump up the temp to 270 to reach an internal temp of 160. Once I did hit 160, I immediately hosed them off and did a quick ice bath to bring the temp down. Did I use too high a cook temp? Did that cause excessive shrinkage thus giving me slack casings? It's basically aesthetics as the product does taste pretty good, but I want that nice tight casing for presentation. Any suggestions, thoughts observations would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul

This is probably just a matter of lack of experience in casing. As you make more sausages you'll get the hang of casing it tightly and the amount of pressure you need to apply to do so. For now, take comfort in the rustic appearance of your sausage - you can't expect make it as uniform-looking as a mechanized commercial factory sausage stuffer.

It took me a few casings (I was using 1 pounders) to get the hang of it. By the 3rd one, they were looking pretty good. I don't think they were under stuffed, at least no visible air pockets were showing.

I suppose it is possible that you used too high cooking temperatures, which caused fat inside your sausage to render and the sausage to shrink, giving the appearance of loose casings.

Were there any holes in the forcemeat (not air pockets) that looked like they could've once been filled with fat?

Was there any liquid fat in the casings after you cooked it, or did any run out into your smoker or oven?

I suppose it is possible that you used too high cooking temperatures, which caused fat inside your sausage to render and the sausage to shrink, giving the appearance of loose casings.

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that's my guess too

I'm in agreement with the temp issue. On a positive note, I did 2 batches of fresh sausage this last weekend that turned out fantastic. I did a spin on bratwurst with fresh jalapenos and also a traditional Italian. Real easy and very tasty!

Paul

Paul, what are you using to stuff your casings?

Dave,

Sorry for the delayed response. I used the the grinder itself. It's a Cabelas with a 1/2 hp motor. It cranks out the meat pretty quick.

Paul

You might have a fat smearing issue then. Did you stuff on the first grind or grind, mix, and push it back through the stuffer (even with a kidney/stuffer plate?)

I have had some smearing issues doing that, resulting in crumbly textured sausages. I read that another option is to season the meat in advance, and grind and stuff in one operation. However I've never done this as I think it is important to develop a primary bind in your sausage by mixing the lean meat with itself and some liquid.

To remedy my smearing issue I bought a 5# vertical piston stuffer for like $100 and it works amazing.

What are you using to smoke the meat at low temps? I'm curious about setting up my smoker to do that as well.

Martin,

I use one of the following two set-ups:

For "cold" smoking below 100 degrees I use a soldering iron placed in an old pan full of wood chips. Works great, generates a lot of smoke, but you have to agitate the chips every couple hours because the ones closest to the heat get used up.

For "warm" smoking i.e. 130-190 degrees I use the WSM and charcoal with a very small fire and one vent barely cracked. It holds temps great, but you may want to keep an eye on it because it will creep up to 200+ if you're not careful.

Another option to consider is the pro-q cold smoke generator, people really seem to like it and at $35 it's pretty affordable.

Dave,

I ground, then mixed, then chilled in the freezer, then stuffed. I only pulled out meat from the freezer what I needed at the moment during stuffing.

Martin,

Using my WSM, I Minioned the charcoal; I think something like 6 briquettes. I also used both water pan AND clay saucer with water! The air temp that day was already around 95 and I was shooting for 150-160 smoking temp. 2 out of 3 bottom vents were closed and the 3rd was only cracked. Used 3 fist sized chunks of apple wood for smoke. From what I've read, 170 is a critical temp when smoking sausage. Above 170 your fat starts to render down and yields an inferior product. Once the fat renders, you can end up with a mealy or crumbly texture that also has a drier mouth feel. That in mind I was really watching the temps for several hours but evidently hit a plateau and impatience took over . The fact that I ended up with rendered fat between the sausage and the casing tells me my temps were too high (from finishing them off in the oven).

Paul