summer sausage

[mez]

I wondering how long i need to hang the sausage at room temp after the water bath? and do i vacum seal it right away or wait awhile?

[Mr Walleye]

Mez

For me, I like to allow it to hang at least 2 hours to bloom before packaging. I've found if I package it too soon the casings don't have the snap in the bite and sometimes the nice mahogany color will be effected if it hasn't bloomed long enough.

Mike

[mez]

Thanks this is my first attempt.Thanks to this forum I figured it out to this point .Then I realized I had no idea when or how to package it.

[Mr Walleye]

I always vac pack mine. I use 8 x 12 bags, 4 sticks per bag each 8 inches long. I think it's around 1.5 or a little more per bag. Here's some of my last batch.




Mike

[Mr Walleye]

Opps... I just realized your doing summer sausage.

Everything is the same only I package it differently. I use 6 x 12 bags and put 1 stick per bag. Here's a Picture.




Mike

[mez]

is there a reason you take the casing off or is it preference ?Thats a hell of a lot of sausage!!!

[Mr Walleye]

When I use fibrous casings I just like to remove the casings before packaging. I find it nice that I can pull it from the packaging at a later date and just slice it. Lots of people leave it on and just remove it when they are going to eat it.

No real right or wrong way... just your way!  ;)  ;D

Mike