couple of summer sausage questions:

[firerescueman]

Ok....  It's been a while since I've posted.....  but I'm back now and have a couple of questions.

I am making venison summer sausage using Lem's Backwoods Summer Sausage Seasoning....

a small amount of the meat was still partially frozen when I was mixing everything together and didn't change color like the rest.  I mixed thoroughly for over 10 minutes on a 15 pound batch.  each little piece was no bigger than a dime.....  after stuffing, I let it sit for a half hour before putting it in the fridge overnight.  The cure should still penetrate these little bits, shouldn't it?   I would have mixed longer but the meat was getting hard to work with.  I haven't messed up, have I?


My next question pertains to the cure / seasoning itself.   I used 3 pouches of seasoning / cure, and one of the pouches of seasoning was a distinctly darker color.  It's the same stuff.......  Just curious if any of you have run into this.  These will go into the smoker tomorrow morning....  (I think)  :)


Hope you all have been well.  I'm sure glad to be back!

Jeff

[classicrockgriller]

I did 10 lbs of the same stuff the other day and if you messed up, I messed up and mine came out great.

[firerescueman]

Thanks!

I feel like they will be fine,  but it's been a while since I made any summer sausage.....  And I am always overly paranoid about my food.  :)

They're in the smoker,  so we shall see.......

[pikeman_95]

yours is not the first time that the sausage does not come out well mixed. I have seen several post where you can see pink spots through the sausage casings before they go into the smoker. Most of these pictures are after the sausage has had a chance to hang for a while. When well mixed all of the sausage should turn kind of a light brown color.  Search the term bucket mixer under the search function and you can see one of my post the shows you how to build a mixer that really works. We use mine all the time and it can mix a bucket in less then a minute. It sure takes a lot of the work out of it. The only warning is to put it in the mixer immediately after adding the cure. The meat starts to stiffer real fast and is harder on the drill.

Kirby

[classicrockgriller]

Here is a link to pikeman's bucket mixer.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=18029.0

[Sailor]

yours is not the first time that the sausage does not come out well mixed. I have seen several post where you can see pink spots through the sausage casings before they go into the smoker. Most of these pictures are after the sausage has had a chance to hang for a while. When well mixed all of the sausage should turn kind of a light brown color.  Search the term bucket mixer under the search function and you can see one of my post the shows you how to build a mixer that really works. We use mine all the time and it can mix a bucket in less then a minute. It sure takes a lot of the work out of it. The only warning is to put it in the mixer immediately after adding the cure. The meat starts to stiffer real fast and is harder on the drill.

Kirby

I have noticed that when I mix (all mixed well) that the color throughout it a light brown.  However I let mine rest in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours and when I hang them in the smoker I notice that the cure has started to work and change the color.  Hence I have some red (pink) patches before I start the smoke process.  After the smoke the color us all uniform.  Kirby's bucket mixer is something that I will build if I start to do large batches.  For the 5 pound batches my meat hooks seem to do a pretty good job, but darn my fingers get cold.  ;D

[classicrockgriller]

yours is not the first time that the sausage does not come out well mixed. I have seen several post where you can see pink spots through the sausage casings before they go into the smoker. Most of these pictures are after the sausage has had a chance to hang for a while. When well mixed all of the sausage should turn kind of a light brown color.  Search the term bucket mixer under the search function and you can see one of my post the shows you how to build a mixer that really works. We use mine all the time and it can mix a bucket in less then a minute. It sure takes a lot of the work out of it. The only warning is to put it in the mixer immediately after adding the cure. The meat starts to stiffer real fast and is harder on the drill.

Kirby

I have noticed that when I mix (all mixed well) that the color throughout it a light brown.  However I let mine rest in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours and when I hang them in the smoker I notice that the cure has started to work and change the color.  Hence I have some red (pink) patches before I start the smoke process.  After the smoke the color us all uniform.  Kirby's bucket mixer is something that I will build if I start to do large batches.  For the 5 pound batches my meat hooks seem to do a pretty good job, but darn my fingers get cold.  ;D

One of the things I got when I started getting the stuff to do Sausage was a mixer. 17lber.

I bought it in the off season and only paid $79.

My hands hurt after mixing those batches of sausage.

Might have to break that out next time.

[firerescueman]

I do want a mixer,  but don't have one YET!!   :'(   

Mine came out of the smoker and seem just FINE!  (already sampled..   ::) )  When mixing,  the only parts that didn't change color were some very small pieces that were still slightly frozen.  It wasn't from a lack of mixing everything together, it was just that some of the meat was still a little frozen.  Next time I will thaw the meat a little better before trying to mix it.  I do believe that resting the meat in the fridge overnight was enough to allow the cure to do its thing.  I cut open and sliced the last roll I stuffed (which had the most pink spots).  Everything looked good and the color was perfectly uniform throughout.  Oh, and it tasted great, too!  LOL  Thanks for the replies!

Jeff

[classicrockgriller]

NO pics?

Boo Hoo ! ;D

[pikeman_95]

you are right CCGriller the pictures are half the fun. It makes every one jealous so we get off our duff and get busy and make something.

[Tenpoint5]

Basically what the boys are saying is: