Happy Days

[JZ]

I finished my first Summer Sausages today and I think all went fairly well considering the problems I posted in an earlier thread.

I cut one open and you can see in the pic that the meat was pink (not brown) so I take that to mean the stuff is edible - hope so, cause I ate a few pieces and so did the wife. If I don't post here for a month or so, it will be an indication that I was wrong and please send the coroner to my place. I was pleasantly surprised at the results and very happy with the taste. I might get into sausage stuff.

I had some more issues. The first was the SS was too long to fit on the racks so I made a wooden support to hang them vertically (got that idea from someone else's post here - thanks for that). Also had to leave the drip shield off and really didn't like doing that. Brought the fire extinguisher up from the basement and kept it close by.

I heated at 120 for 1 hr then bumped to 140 for 2 1/2 hrs of smoke then another 1/2 hr with no smoke. I rotated the SS once about midway. front to back. I then pulled it out of the smoker and was concerned that I had another problem since there was fat on the outside of the casings and in the water bowl. There was also some on the edge of the heating element shield. I won't do that again - got lucky this time. I don't understand why there was fat on the casings since I kept the cab temps way below 180. I even had 2 remote therm's dangling in the cabinet. Temps according to them never got above 145 before I pulled them.

Checked the water temp in the water pot and is was perfect 160*. Got the SS out of the smoker and loaded it into the pot and when I checked the water temp again it was at 170 Craaap! I turned off the heat and put some cold water into the pot to get the temps back down to 160 and held it there for the rest of the cook. Finished cooking in the pot until the SS IT was 155 then into a cold bath. There was quite a bit of fat in the water pot, on the chubs and in the cold water bath. So I figure I screwed up again.  I guess sausage making is more forgiving than I was expecting.

Thanks to everyone that helped me get through this and a special thanks to Kirby.

Heres the pic.

[mikecorn.1]

Real nice. Thanks for that pic of the fancy hanging system. :D ;). I can never see clearly how others do it. But then again I get on the
Forum 99% of the time on my phone.


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[watchdog56]

Very nice looking sausage

[bille]

JZ

Those chubs look great, my first attempt at SS was a dismal failure, I had a serious case of fat out and wound up with practically sawdust in a casing. Then I was fortunate enough to find this web site, I havent tried any SS since coming here but the stuff I have learned here has enabled me to branch out and make stuff that I would have never tried before.  :D

[JZ]

I am positive I would've had sawdust too if I did the whole cook in the smoker. I think I was getting a serious fat out happening after only a few hrs in the smoker but putting into the hot water probably saved the day. I can't imagine what the poor things would have looked like if I turned the heat up to 180 per the instructions in the kit.

I also think I would have had a grease fire. I still have 1/2 the kit left and will absolutely use it when this batch is gone. But next time I will choke up the chubs closer to the wooden rack, trim any excess casings from the bottom of the chub to give me some clearance between the bottom of the chubs and the v tray. The V tray is definitely going in. Might move the wooden cross racks closer together too, so they are more centered over the middle of the v tray. I threw this together early this morning when I discovered the chubs were too long to fit the DBS racks. Still not sure why I had a fat out when I was watching the cab temp like a hawk, with 3 therms - the SG one and 2 others.

[pikeman_95]

JZ
It is probably you have some hot areas in your smoker. The over length casing is a very common first try mistake. You soon will learn the proper length. When you saw the fat in the smoke you were already in trouble. With shorter sausages you will be able to get the v tray back in and a fan will help you average the temps out in the smoker. You have to camp on the water bath and not leave. I have pumps on mine so the water temps are very constant. When you go over 170 you are getting close to getting fat that melts. My guess is most of the damage was in the smoker.

But YOU still have some good sausage. It just doesn't look as good as you wanted. Take a black marker and black out the instructions that tells you to run the smoker to 180. That will just melt the fat on the outside surface of you sausage.
I think the cut shots look fine and as you said it taste great. Let it sit a day or so in the fridge before you put it away. It will taste even better.
Looks like you still had a good day.
Kirby

[Keymaster]

Awesome, Good job!!! You must have hand mixed really well!!!! Looks good :)

[ghost9mm]

Awesome, Good job!!! You must have hand mixed really well!!!! Looks good :)

X 2 Nice Job for the first time...

[JZ]

Kirby

I am real happy for 2 reasons; 1) it was not a throw away and 2) they taste great - the wife even said they are better than store bought. I take that to mean that I can get more sausage making equipment and I have a birthday coming up. Yeeeehaaa.

After reading all the posts here about the dreaded "FAT OUT" I was sure the SS was screwed when I seen the fat dripping off it when I opened the smoker. So glad you convinced me to use the water bath. I want dual fans for both the OBS and the DBS and have been looking for some that I can make work. I think that is the most important first mod I can make for what I am doing. No luck yet on fans, but it will come. I have already crossed out the 180 in the directions and hope I remember this when I get the next kit. Actually hoping to get the cure and casings instead so I can try some of the recipes offered by other members.

Keymaster

I spent a while mixing; first mixing the 2 meats together and then mixing the cure/spices into the meats. I had to split the mix because we do not have any bowls that are large enough to mix 15lbs of meat in. So I carefully weighed each of the meats and each of the cures/spices to make sure I had the ratios right. Then mix and mix some more. I thought my hands would be really sore the next day but I lucked out. They sure got cold though and I had to take a break. Apparently it was worth the effort.

Overall I am very happy and will certainly be doing this again. Probably sooner than I first thought because we keep hittin that sausage whenever we get near the fridge.

[Sailor]

JZ, I am not sure where you had the cabinet temp probe hanging.  This is assuming that you are using a PID.  Remember that heat rises.  If you had the temp probe down at the bottom and if you don't have a fan then your will get at least a 20 degree temp swing at the top.  So, if you are reading 140 at the bottom, chances are that you are at 160 or above at the top.  You should hang the probe close to the top to control the temp.  A fan is a great investment.  My cabinet will only vary 3 to 4 degrees from the bottom to the top.   Great job on the chubs.

[JZ]

Sailor,

Where did you get your fan? I read some others on the forum are not happy with the kit they got and I prefer to get something that is proven.

I don't have a PID yet. Got one coming for the OBS and will make many changes to the OBS (another thread). I am happy with the DBS for temp control for most of what I do, but would prefer to have a more uniform heat throughout the cab for obvious reasons. I don't think a PID would have made much difference if I had the probe in the wrong place. The fan mod would have though since the temps would be the same pretty much everywhere. You have a very good point though. I had the remote therms closer to the bottom because I was concerned about the temp near the heating element. Not thinking about the temps near the top of the cab. I noticed that the DBS temp reading was typically about 20* higher than the readings I was getting on the other 2 therms. I should have placed one therm near the bottom and one near the top. Hopefully before I do the next batch I will have a fan mod in one of the smokers, if not both.

[NePaSmoKer]

Looks good

Ditto with pikeman and sailor

[cobra6223]

sausage looks good.........but don't forget your drip tray.............may lead to an inferno !!