stuffing ?

[watchdog56]

I can usually make 15# of summer sausage and only about 8# of sticks. I usually make them with cheese in them. I usually mix meat with cheese and put in bag and in frig overnight then stuff in the morning. What I have found is that stuffing in the morning with my 5lb LEM stuffer it takes more pressure to stuff vs mixing and stuffing right away. I like to let it sit overnight just to make sure the cure has time to work its way though the mixture. What I want to know is it better for the cure to mix and put in bag overnight or is it ok to mix stuff into casings then let sit overnight? Would the casings be looser?

[byacey]

I can't speak for others, but I mix my spices, cure and water immediately into the meat after grinding. I mix it using a dough hook in a big commercial mixer, mixing for 5 minutes or so. After mixing is complete, I immediately stuff the casings. Because the cure dissolves in the water, it disperses easily into the ground meat.

This is for making smoked garlic sausage. I think if there was a dispersal problem, the finished sausage would look splotchy in color.

[Habanero Smoker]

Salt is a binder, and if you let the sausage sit too long it will get "stiff". As byacery stated; mix the cure in the water that you are adding to the sausage mixture, and mix well. I mix until I get that primary bind; when the mixture becomes a sticky mass. You can continue to mix at that point, but I find it is not needed.  There shouldn't be a problem with dispersal of the cure. Since the cure is mixed into the meat, the cure starts to work immediately, so you can immediately stuff, and take the sausage to the smoker. In addition if you are smoking it, the low heat during the drying and smoking times, accelerates the curing action.

When I smoke sausage, I will always stuff right away. Then because most of the daylight time is gone, I will refrigerate overnight and smoke them the next day. I rarely have a problem with the meat separating from the casing. Those times that it has separated was due to improper stuffing.

[watchdog56]

I do mix the cure with water so sounds like I should start mixing and stuffing then in frig overnight. Thanks