Deer Sausage 101??

[Mr Walleye]

Renoman

In theory your right. There was a link to a chart floating around the forum some time ago. The lower the temperature reached the longer the meat had to be held there. I'll see if I can come up with it.

Mike

[renoman]

I found this chart for salmonella. I had a better one but just can't find it now



GUIDELINES FOR COOKED MEAT PRODUCTS

1. Cooked beef, pork, lamb and other meat products can be prepared using one of the following time and temperature combinations to meet either a 6.5-log10 or 7-log10 reduction of Salmonella. The stated temperature is the minimum that must be achieved and maintained in all parts of each piece of meat for a least the stated time:

         
    Minimum Internal         Minimum processing time in
            Temperature             minutes or seconds after
                                  minimum temperature is reached
           
        Degrees        Degrees       6.5-log10         7-log10
        Fahrenheit     Centigrade    Lethality        Lethality

         130            54.4         112 min.         121 min.
         131            55.0          89 min.          97 min.
         132            55.6          71 min.          77 min.   
         133            56.1          56 min.          62 min.
         134            56.7          45 min.          47 min.
         135            57.2          36 min.          37 min.
         136            57.8          28 min.          32 min.
         137            58.4          23 min.          24 min.
         138            58.9          18 min.          19 min.
         139            59.5          15 min.          15 min.
         140            60.0          12 min.          12 min.
         141            60.6           9 min.          10 min.
         142            61.1           8 min.           8 min.
         143            61.7           6 min.           6 min.
         144            62.2           5 min.           5 min.
         145            62.8           4 min.*              4   min.*
            146       63.3                  169 sec.                       182 sec.
        147           63.9                   134 sec.                      144 sec.
        148           64.4                  107 sec.                     115 sec.
        149           65.0                85 sec.                 91 sec.
         150            65.6             67 sec.           72 sec.
        151             66.1               54 sec.         58 sec.
          152            66.7                 43 sec.               46 sec.
         153            67.2                34 sec.                 37 sec.
         154           67.8                27 sec.                 29 sec.
        155            68.3               22 sec.                 23 sec.
         156            68.9                17 sec.                 19 sec.
         157            69.4                14 sec.                 15 sec.
         158            70.0                   0 sec.**               0 sec.**
         159            70.6                  0 sec.**               0 sec.**
         160             71.1                  0 sec **               0 sec.**

[smokindw]

ok thanks guys for all the info so far:} keep it coming.. so whats up with the brown paper bag in the frig overnight?? and also im going to add high temp cheese that i have already bought, how do you add the cheese? do you mix it in with the already gound up meat or do you grind it with meat?
thanks

[Habanero Smoker]

So Habs I have a question for you. You know how cooking Sous Vide lets you bring the minimum temp of your finished meat down because it is held for a long period of time. For example poultry should be cooked to 165-170 but you can cook chicken breasts to 140 Sous Vide if you hold them there for 1-1/2 hrs. Would the same not hold true for finishing your sausage. Just put them in the Sous Vide and hold them at say 140 (or whatever the temp would be) for say 3 or more hrs before cooling. It would sure make it easy to not screw things up as far as over cooking them or standing guard over them.

I've never sous vide sausage, and always used my Stoker when I poach batches of sausage, but as Mr Walleye  pointed out, you should be safe. Below is an article that states you can sous vide beef sausage at 131°F.
Sous Vide Sausage

[Mr Walleye]

Renoman

I know when I was looking at it before you always have to be careful to ensure you are looking at recommended temperatures and times for ground meat. There are a lot of charts around for whole muscle meat and to my understanding they are not the same. I haven't had a chance to try and find the information I had read on it yet but when and if I can find it again I'll post it here.

Smokindw

The paper bag in the fridge trick is used to continue to dry out the sausage and is usually only done with snack sticks. I have built a dry cure chamber and I will sometimes hang my sausage and especially snack sticks in there for about a week just to give them the texture and casing snap I'm looking for.

Mike

[watchdog56]

As far as adding the cheese, first mix in all your ingredients then loosely mix in the cheese. Try not to over mix because then it will get mushy.

[smokindw]

ok guys i think I've got enough info to start my 1st batch of sausage but want to go over the process 1st to make sure im going to have a good turn out!
so im gona use eastmans outdoor sausage kit and it says to add 3tsp of seasonings per pound of meat so im making a 8lb batch for the 1st time which will be 4lbs of venison and 4lbs of pork mix. now how about the cure for Italian sausage it doesn't call for any cure but summer sausage it calls for 1tsp per pound? not really sure which one i need with or without cure? now once i figure out that how much water should i use for a 8lb batch? i did try and do some research on it but wasnt able to find a direct ratio. and once i got all that fig out im goin hand mix all the ingredients then fun them through the grinder again to make sure all is mixed good, them i was goin to put the mix into the frig overnight before adding the 3/4 lb of high temp cheese then stuffing? it sounds about right from what ive read but then again ive never did this before. is there some other ingredients like powered milk or others that will make this sausage better?

[smokindw]

ok i figured out since im smoking them i will be adding the 1tsp of cure per pound so i think im ready to mix unless anyone want to chime in with an error in my ways?

[renoman]

For your venison sausage use about 1 tablespoon of water per pound
For your Italian sausage you don't need cure because you are making fresh sausage so eat it in a few days or freeze it
For the amount of cure to use it should be 1 teaspoon per 5 pounds if you are using cure #1.

[smokindw]

Thanks im alil worried now since the directions that came with the sausage mix said to use 1tsp per pound of meat so thats what i did i used 8tsp of cure for the 8lb batch! Is that going to hurt eatin the sausage now since ive added so much more cure as per the directions?

[Habanero Smoker]

The cure mixture came with your mix is probably not cure #1; which is used at a rate of 1 tsp. per 5lbs. You are using Eastman's cure mixture, which has a lower ratio of sodium nitrite, so use their instructions. If you are smoking the Italian sausage you need to add the cure mixture; using their instructions of 1 tsp. per pound.