Summer sausage (in the winter)

[drano]

Time for some summer sausage during the SD winter.
9.5 lb batch, 5 lb 85% beef (it was on sale, so used it instead of 80%) and 4.5 lb of my own ground pork butt. 
The spice and meat lineup.

Stuffed into two 3 lb (but long one is 3.5 lb) and two 2 lb casings (with 1.75 and 1.5 lb filled).


Into the fridge until Monday, when the temps will be ~25F.  Plan to smoke, then finish off with hot water bath in my new 22 qt roaster. 
This is the first time I've mixed ground meat--I normally cut my own roasts/butts, then mix in spices/cure and let the grinder do the mixing.  I can say I might not mix ground meat again--wow, what a thick, sticky goo.  Maybe a meat mixer is in my future. 

[pikeman_95]

That pile of spices looks familiar. Waiting for the finished shots.
KC

[SiFumar]

Looking good!

[beefmann]

0looks good

[drano]

That pile of spices looks familiar. Waiting for the finished shots.
KC

Yep, its a junior version of your big batches. ;)

[pikeman_95]

Big or small batch, they should all taste the same. I just had some earlier this afternoon and mmmm good.

[drano]

It sure smelled good when I put it in the stuffer.
I just pulled off the grill a patty of it from the bottom of the stuffer. 
Should make a tasty treat this evening once it cools down. 

[pikeman_95]

Did I ever send you the auto excel version of that recipe?

[drano]

Yep!
Thanks!

[drano]

Smoke's rolling with 9 hickory pucks!
I hung the 2 smaller diameter casings in the back, so the pic doesn't work real well.
And the hot water bath roaster is cooking away so I can have it stabilized when smoking is done (my first roaster water bath, so I'm giving myself plenty of time to dial in the magical 160 deg temp setting).
The newly added rack rails need some smoke!

[OU812]

Cant wait to see and here about the finished product

[cobra6223]

so far so good... now the money shots.

[mikecorn.1]

Nice looking chubs.


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[drano]

Ran 3 hours of smoke, and left them in another 1/2 hour.  Big ones were 135 deg at that point.
Hot water bath went well.
55 minutes for the small ones and 1:50 for the big ones, which is longer than I thought it would take from reading others posts saying "keep an eye on them, it goes pretty fast". 
Then cold bath for cool down. 
Tastes great! :)  They seem a little too moist, so I'll remove the casing and let them sit in the fridge overnite. 
I waited too long to make more SS.  My smoking log says Christmas '08 was my last batch.  :-[ 
Thanks again to pikeman for the recipe. 

OK, here's the pics----

Close up money shot.  1976 vintage harvest gold countertop looks good too!

[pikeman_95]

drano
They look good. You could hold the water at 165 with out any issues. This will cut the bath time a little. The pork fat starts to melt in the 170's. A couple of days in the fridge the and the moisture content will drop.
KC