I was fortunate to receive from a friend at church a large amount of venison & elk, some ground, mostly steaks & the like.
I thought I'd go ahead and make some summer sausage with the ground. Using Len Poli's 'venison SS' recipe.
First the dry ingredients:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Ven_SS_ingredients.jpg)
Had four pounds of ground venison and four pounds of ground elk. Looked quite lean.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Ven_SS_meatss.jpg)
To this lean meat, I added 1.5 pounds of fresh-ground pork fat:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Ven_SS_fatadded.jpg)
Next came the dry ingredients. I mixed the NFDM & Fermento with water and poured this into the meat mix:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Ven_SS_liquidadded.jpg)
After a good, thorough mixing, this was stuffed into four 2.5" mahogany casings.
The leftover from the stuffer I fired up (chef's sample!). It tasted really good! The apple-wood smoke will only improve what I thought was an excellent tasting sausage! This was my first taste of venison in over 15 or 20 years. ;)
Into the smoker. These will get about 3-4 hours of applewood pellet smoke.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Ven_SS_hung.jpg)
After the smoke, a quick poach and we're about finished...
Oops.....not quite!
Sometime during the 3-hour smoke, I must have had a huge temperature spike because when I opened the door to the smoker I saw this...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/GuitarPix/Stuffer%20Stuff/Ven_SS_ruined.jpg)
Four shriveled chubs hanging above pool of rendered fat! :-[ :o
I attribute the temp spike to my pellets catching fire and raising the internal temp of the smoker to well-past the 'fat out' stage.
I blame myself for not keeping a diligent eye on the smoke (trying to do 10 other things) and so the results were less than satisfying.
Shriveled, grease-filled chubs.....Our great dane got an unexpected treat.
Good news I've plenty more venison to use. So I'll give this another shot in the near future.
Kevin
Looks good Kevin.
Sux when ya have a slight set back. Just lemme know if you need me to take any of the game meat off yer hands ;D
Man that socks!! I bet the dog was happy about the mishap. ;)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sorry for your loss,but on a brighter note,we all learn by your mistakes lol Thanks for sharing.
Yes indeed, the new mantra is: "Watch Those Temps!" ;)
I'm gonna try this recipe again soon as I really enjoyed the pre-smoke flavor (a good sign!).
Kevin
Kevin
Sorry about your loss. I think this is where I think I will invest in one of the remote temperature alarms. I will will keep track of those temps just incase something catches fire. Even with my big smoker there is always the chance of a grease fire. I have never had one but there is a chance never the less. Is there a way to cover your pellets to make sure that they only smolder and can not catch fire. I have a separate smoke generator that provides my smoke and I use a charcoal starter to make the chips I use smoke. It has a cover that eliminates the oxygen so it can not catch fire even though the element on the starter is red hot inside the chips. I am going to work out some kind of control that cycles the element off and on to extend the chip burn time. I did find some timers that has 15 minute time intervals. If I use it with a time delay relay I can run the element as long as I want. This should let me extend my smoke producing time. With the relay it will run from seconds to hours. They are vary rangeble.
Kirby
Quote from: pikeman_95 on May 29, 2012, 11:23:27 AM
Kevin
Sorry about your loss. I think this is where I think I will invest in one of the remote temperature alarms.
Kibry, normally I use my maverick probes to keep track of temps of BOTH the meat & the smoker, but this time I was in a pinch for time (prepping to leave town), so I opted not to use it—I mean,
what could possibly go wrong? :o
Kevin
Kevin,
What was temp were you looking to stay out for the 3 hours?
Sam
Quote from: Sam3 on June 06, 2012, 06:01:11 AM
Kevin,
What was temp were you looking to stay out for the 3 hours?
Sam
Sam
I usually will try to keep the temps in the 135-145° range during the smoke. Lower is ok, too.
I'll start at around 120° & gradually increase the temp over the 3 hours.
Obviously, spiking to around 180° for an extended period is not ideal and has dire consequences. :o :-[
Kevin
Quote from: Kevin A on June 06, 2012, 09:29:22 AM
Quote from: Sam3 on June 06, 2012, 06:01:11 AM
Kevin,
What was temp were you looking to stay out for the 3 hours?
Sam
Sam
I usually will try to keep the temps in the 135-145° range during the smoke. Lower is ok, too.
I'll start at around 120° & gradually increase the temp over the 3 hours.
Obviously, spiking to around 180° for an extended period is not ideal and has dire consequences. :o :-[
Kevin
Thanks Kevin, I do the same. Start at 130 and rise gradually per hour. Just didn't know exactly what you did and/or how that happened.
It's funny, but I pulled out the same recipe last night and I'm defrosting my Venison in the refrig now. Then today I saw your post. :D
I use the Auber with my Bradley and that helps with the temps greatly.
Happy smoking my friend!