Mike's Summer Sausage...

[Mr Walleye]

I mentioned in MTFiddlers thread that I was going to do a small test batch of a semi-dried summer sausage so the time has come. As I've indicated before my summer sausage has had too much moisture in it for my liking, especially after freezing and thawing which is the purpose of this test.

I also used a product called Salami Conditioner. It contains Corn Syrup Solids, Dextrose, and GDL (Glucono Delta Lactose). What this product does is lower the PH to give the "tang" flavor. You basically hold the sausage at 100 degrees for between 8 and 24 hours to develop the tang flavor you want before increasing the smoker temps to finish the sausage. I chose to hold the temp at 100 degrees for 10 hours.

The black pepper I used is Tellicherry and I grind my own because I like very coarse, pretty much cracked. I do the same with the red pepper flakes. I like to be able to see it in the sausage and get the bursts of flavor from the various spices while biting into it.

The spices were mixed in dry. The only water that was used was about 4 ounces for mixing the cure in.

Here's the recipe I started with. I changed it up a bit to try and add a little heat to it so once it's complete I'll let you know how it tastes.


Mike's Semi-Dry Summer Sausage

5 lbs 80/20 Beef
5 lbs 80/20 Pork

2 tsp Cure #1
5 Tbs Salt
3 Tbs Course Black Pepper
1 Tbs Cayenne
2 Tbs Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tbs Paprika
1 Tbs Nutmeg
1 Tbs Allspice
1 Tbs Onion Powder
1 Tbs Garlic Powder
65 Grams Salami Conditioner


Process

After stuffing into fibrous casings (just under 2.5 lbs each) they were hung in the smoker at 100 degrees. After 2 hours I applied 3 hours 20 minutes of hickory. The total time they were held at 100 degrees was 10 hours. After this period the temp was ramped up to 165 degrees for 5 hours. Then the temp was ramped to 170 degrees to finish for 2 hours and they were at 152 degrees "IT".

I simply shut the smoker off and opened the door to allow them to cool and bloom for a few hours. I normally finish my sausage using the water bath method but because this was such a small test batch I decided to just let it finish in the smoker. The four chubs looked kinda lonely in the big smoker.  ::)

My idea here is to allow the sausage to continue to hang in the smoker for several days to continue to dry. My smoker is located in my garage which is heated (a must here in Saskatchewan... It's -20 today). I keep my garage at 63 degrees so the interior of the smoker will be an ideal temp for this. The issue will be maintaining the humidity at 65 or 70 %. I have a plan for that too.  ;) I will simply hang a wet towel in the smoker to keep the humidity up. I also have a remote thermometer that also shows the humidity level that I can read from the house.

Here are the weights of my control chub...
- Green weight - 1069 Grams (this was right after being stuffed)(Nov 18 at 4 pm)
- After smoking process and bloom period - 893 Grams (Approx. 16.4639% weight loss (176 grams) from green weight)(Nov 19 at 10:30 am)(61 temp & 60% humidity)

I forgot to take any pictures when I started but here is a couple as they are hanging to cool down and bloom. The casings were clear so as you can see the sausage took on some awesome color.








I'll keep you guys posted how it progresses...

Mike

[Sailor]

Watching this for sure

[300saum]

Lookin Good!!!

[Tater]

OH!  I think that is going to be fantastic.  Your recipe looks awesome.  I like your use of black pepper, cayenne and red pepper flakes.

[Mr Walleye]

Everything is going good. The temp is holding right at 60 degrees and the humidity is at 67%.

I'll weigh my control chub again tomorrow.

Mike

[ghost9mm]

Mike that last picture sure looks good, we will be watchin...

[Mr Walleye]

Ok... It's update time.

Here are the weights of my control chub...
- Green weight - 1069 Grams (this was right after being stuffed)(Nov 18 at 4 pm)
- After smoking process and bloom period - 893 Grams (Approx. 16.4639% weight loss (176 grams) from green weight)(Nov 19 at 10:30 am)(61 temp & 60% humidity)
- Nov 20, 7am - 877 Grams (Approx. 17.9607% weight loss (192 Grams) from Green weight)(58.5 Temp & 68% humidity)

17.9607 % water weight loss... not bad after just 39 hours. I can feel the firmness in the sausage so this is coming along nicely. It's a tough job though, sitting here looking at it and not being able to taste it.  ::)

Mike

[pensrock]

Great looking SS Mike.

[seemore]

that looks very good
seemore

[cobra6223]

What's salami conditioner? thanks Tim

[Mr Walleye]

What's salami conditioner? thanks Tim

Tim

Salami Conditioner is a product sold by a local sausage supply company here in Saskatchewan. It contains Corn Syrup Solids, Dextrose, and GDL (Glucono Delta Lactose). What this product does is lower the PH to give the "tang" flavor. You basically hold the sausage at 100 degrees for between 8 and 24 hours to develop the tang flavor you want before increasing the smoker temps to finish the sausage. I chose to hold the temp at 100 degrees for 10 hours. I've used the product before on snack sticks and it worked very well.

Mike

[Mr Walleye]

Ok... It's update time again.

Here are the weights of my control chub...
- Green weight - 1069 Grams (this was right after being stuffed)(Nov 18 at 4 pm)
- After smoking process and bloom period - 893 Grams (Approx. 16.4639% weight loss (176 grams) from green weight)(Nov 19 at 10:30 am)(61 temp & 60% humidity)
- Nov 20, 7am - 877 Grams (Approx. 17.9607% weight loss (192 Grams) from Green weight)(58.5 Temp & 68% humidity)
- Nov 21, 5 pm - 865 Grams (Approx. 19.0832% weight loss (204 Grams) from Green weight)(59 Temp & 73% humidity)

Wow... 204 grams is 7.1958 ozs.

That's starting to push a half a pound!  :o

Now I really can't wait to sink my teeth in!   :P

Mike

[devo]

Very interesting Mike, hope they don't dry out to much and you end up with hockey pucks when you cut into them.  :o
Don

[Mr Walleye]

Very interesting Mike, hope they don't dry out to much and you end up with hockey pucks when you cut into them.  :o
Don

:D

That would down right suck.  :D

I think we are going to be good though. I'm just blown away by the weight reduction... although I have never tracked it before either.

Mike

[devo]

So I'm assuming the casings are getting pretty wrinkled or did you take them off?