Making salami/summer sausage in natural hog casings

[Tenpoint5]

Very Well done Kirby. May have to start looking for a tank

[Sailor]

The tank the Kirby built is something that I would like to have but I don't have the tools or know how to build one.  So I started to do some research on immersible heaters thinking I could use a 5 gal plastic bucket and get a immersible electric heater to heat the water to 160 and hold.  I found a product that is built for heating a 5 gallon bucket and it wraps around a 5 gallon bucket.  The price is in the $250 area but requires no tools to build.  http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hvac/heaters/powerblanket/powerblanket-5-gallon-insulated-drum-heater-160f?utm_source=pricegr&utm_medium=shp&utm_campaign=Powerblanket-pricegr&infoParam.campaignId=WU

Hummmmmmmmmm do I see 10.5 contacting these people to do a review?  I would buy one if it can heat the water to 160 and hold it.  I think a man could do lots of sausage in a 5 gall bucket.

[pikeman_95]

I put two digital thermometers into two of the thickest sausages that I can find. While you are heating the sausage to 155 IT I have the bath at 160 degrees but when the sausage reaches 155  I add some cold water until the bath is 155 and just let the sausage sit there for 10 minutes to make sure that the sausage is safe. All of my sausage has cure #1 in it. Then I pull the sausages out flush them with cold water.  With my smoke generator cranking out a very heavy smoke I can put a good smoke in the sausage in 1 to 1.5 hours. Then about 20 minutes in the sausage tank and then 10 minutes in the flushing container and then on the counter to bloom. In this picture look at the level of smoke coming out of my smoker.

Kirby

[Tenpoint5]

The tank the Kirby built is something that I would like to have but I don't have the tools or know how to build one.  So I started to do some research on immersible heaters thinking I could use a 5 gal plastic bucket and get a immersible electric heater to heat the water to 160 and hold.  I found a product that is built for heating a 5 gallon bucket and it wraps around a 5 gallon bucket.  The price is in the $250 area but requires no tools to build.  http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hvac/heaters/powerblanket/powerblanket-5-gallon-insulated-drum-heater-160f?utm_source=pricegr&utm_medium=shp&utm_campaign=Powerblanket-pricegr&infoParam.campaignId=WU

Hummmmmmmmmm do I see 10.5 contacting these people to do a review?  I would buy one if it can heat the water to 160 and hold it.  I think a man could do lots of sausage in a 5 gall bucket.

I'm thinking he might give it the old college try anyhow

[pikeman_95]

Think turkey fryer. You have the burner and a aluminum container that is around 5 gal. Check this site out. http://shop.eBay.com/wildwestbargain/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=They sell returned sporting good and they have a passed a lot off turkey frier's through the their site. The store is in Missoula Montana where I live but they will ship any where in the US. I am in there almost every week . I have picked up several turkey firer's for my self. They might have a dent or ding but your sausage won't care.

Kirby

[Fair-chase]

 Pikeman, I like your thinking. Have you found the hot water bath to have any adverse affects on the "bite" or texture of the natural casings?

[pikeman_95]

The only affect I have found are positive. Your sausage will not be shrunk and tuff. It is moist and tender. Besides it takes a fraction of the time. It also doesn't seem to affect the smoke level as the smoke should have penetrated the meat. Give it a try just hold that temperature 155 * and not let the bath get too hot.

[RAF128]

My neighbor at the lake used to be a butcher and made lots of different kinds of sausage.   Told me the hot water bath is the best way to make sausage.    It doesn't dry out as much as finishing in the smoker.    I tried it once and found out it doesn't work with collegen casings :-\.   I was always concerned that the water would wash away the smoke but I guess it doesn't.

[pikeman_95]

I use a high output smoke generator and if you look at some of my other post I show you haw to build one and in another post you can see the level of smoke that I am able to get in 1-1.5 hours. This kind of smoke does not wash off but penetrates the meat. I have not made any sausage in collegin casings but I would it might be a problem. This is why I prefer natural casings

Kirby

[Sailor]

I agree with Kirby.  Since I have use the Bradley to smoke sausage I have had many failures due to fat out.  The things that I have learned is that using the Bradley to finish the sausage takes a long time from the the end of the smoking time to the IT of 155 and if you ramp the temp up too much to get the sausage to the IT you run the risk of fat out.  I have since started to dry the sausage at 130 for 1  hour and then apply the smoke for 2 to 3 hrs and then take it out and put it in a pot of water that is running at 160 and let it finish to IT of 155.  I take them out and bloom and I have no fat out and the sausage is juicy and in perfect shape.  For me in my learning process .....I like the hot bath to finish as it makes a better sausage and it takes a lot less time to finish a batch.

edit....I have used the collegin casings using the hot bath.  I tie each link and then the blooming will allow the ends to harden.  Yes the hog casings are better but you can use the collegin but I leave them tied while in the bath.  Once you take them out and let them dry a bit you can cut the links and you will be just fine.

[CentPaSmokin]

 Pikeman does the waterbath affect the smoke flavor at all.

[pikeman_95]

If you give your sausage a good health smoke, it will penetrate the meat and the water bath has no affect to that. It might wash some off of some of the smoke on the surface but I can tell you when I heat my German Frankfurters in the microwave at work. The smoke smell permeates the office. Then a unique thing starts to happen, a migration of other office personal toward the break room. They know they can snag a sample as they go by my lunch.
When we made the frankfurters at our church one of the wives said that they smell like they had been in a forest fire. So I would say that they retained their smoke.

Kirby
                                                       

[Fair-chase]

 Pikeman,
 
                A BIG THANK YOU !  I tried your process on some venison summer sausage this weekend. Hands down the best I've ever turned out. 1 1/2 Hrs at 120 to dry the casings , 2 hrs. smoke at 150 , then 160 hot water bath until it of 152. This turned out like sausage not jerky.

Now the wheels are turning again , and I'm trying to think of something that I can make to smoke 30# at a time at 150 deg in.
Got any suggestions?

[pikeman_95]

If you like a good moist German Frankfurter give this a try by going to this site http://www.hicountry.com/  and order one of their German Frankfurter kits. The spice, casing and cure kit is made for a 30# batch. I use a higher the recommended of pork butt ratio [15# venison/15# Costco pork butt] The nice thing about using this ratio of pork is your franks will be more tender and you can stretch your venison out a little further.
To this add the following

2 cups mustard seed
2 cups brown sugar
1/4 -1/2 cup cracked black pepper [mild to zippy]
1/3 cup minced garlic.

Here is what they look like in the smoker.



The casings in the kit are not that great so I usually get some fresh casings form my local wild meat processor. You might contact one of our members [SMOKER-LAR]  He has found a good source of casings. We made a little trade and I will be giving the casings a try when I get some of my venison cut up. Use the same processing steps and enjoy. If you are interested in a summer sausage recipe I can give you ours.

[Mr Walleye]

Kirby

I tried the hot water bath method yesterday on a 40 lb batch of venison kielbasa I was making for my brother-in-law. I typically do batches of 80 to 100 lbs but we were trying a couple of different meat blends and I thought this would be a good opportunity to give the hot water bath a shot.

I used a turkey fryer burner with a 64 qt stock pot. The stock pot easily handled 10 gallons of water and 20 lbs of sausage in 16 inch lengths. The stock pot is 18 inches wide and 16 inches deep. I had no problem what-so-ever in maintaining 160 degrees. My process was: sausage in smoker for 1.5 hours @ 120 degrees to dry casings, temp boosted to 160 for 3 hours of smoke, into the 160 degree bath to an IT of 155, hang at room temp for 2 hours to bloom.

The shocking part was how fast this is! I checked the IT of the sausage going into the water bath and they were between 130 and 134. Within 15 minutes in the water bath and they were at 155! I was so surprised at how fast the temp came up that I grabbed my Thermapen and checked each sausage in 3 locations each! Holy crap! This will save me up to 5 hours per load.

The finished product had great smoke penetration, excellent mahogany coloration, and fantastic casing snap. Definitely will be a permanent application in my process!

Thanks again for sharing your methods Kirby!

Mike