Venison sausage with Jalapeno and Cheddar

[Caribou]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 
This is my first post ever.  But I've been reading and learning from this forum for almost a year...does that make me a lurker or something like that?
I've had my BS for almost a year now and have mostly made jerky, smoked roast, turkey breast and trout but I now want to try making sausage.
My husband and I have our deer processed at the local meat guy who does our beef every year, too and we have in the past have had some of the deer made into a wonderful smoked jalapeno sausage that is made in a casing probably between 30 and 40mm.  I want to make something like this.  My dear hubby has tried to get clues from the gals that work at the meat processor but they ain't talking!  I understand, they make a lot more money when someone wants sausage made, then smoked.
To me it seems like it is seasoned like a summer sausage and I have looked online and came up with this recipe from:
http://www.grouprecipes.com/73242/venison-cheddar-jalapeno-smoked-sausage.html

Ingredients 
1 cup cold water
3 tablespoons curing mixture (e.g., Morton® Tender Quick®)
2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
2 teaspoons liquid smoke flavoring
3 pounds lean ground venison
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced

Directions 
Stir the water, curing mixture, mustard seed, garlic powder, black pepper, and liquid smoke in a large bowl until the curing mixture has dissolved. Mix in the ground venison, Cheddar cheese, and jalapeno peppers; mix until evenly blended and somewhat sticky, about 3 minutes. Divide the mixture in half, and roll each half into 2 inch thick logs. Wrap each log tightly with aluminum foil (we use casings,) and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Preheat an oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, then remove the foil from the sausage logs (we don't remove the casings,) and place them onto the baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees F (75 degrees C), 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Cool the sausages on a rack until they have cooled to room temperature. Dab occasionally with a paper towel to absorb excess grease. Slice thinly to serve.

Here are my questions for you all:
Is this a good starting point to experiment from? 
There are no provisions for adding fat in this recipe, I have 15% suet already added to the ground venison I get from the processor, will that provide enough fat?
Could any one convert this for me to BS smoking time and temps?
Any suggestions of which type of pucks to use?
And would it be a good idea to nix the liquid smoke since it will  be smoked as opposed to baked in the oven?

Thank you for any ideas!
Carolyn

[Mr Walleye]

Hi Carolyn and welcome to the forum

I'm no expert but I do make a fair bit of my own sausage so I'll throw my thoughts out there for you.

Is this a good starting point to experiment from? 
I don't see why this would not be a good starting point. I see you have Morton TQ as the cure which is fine but when using it you want to make sure your not adding additional salt because of the high salt content of the Morton TQ. I usually use Cure #1 (measured by weight) that way I can control the amount of salt I add. I have never put cheese in any of the sausage I have made before. I know a number of people have used high temp cheese to solve any melting issues but you won't know if you can get away with regular cheese unless you try it.

There are no provisions for adding fat in this recipe, I have 15% suet already added to the ground venison I get from the processor, will that provide enough fat?
I would try a batch this way and see how it turns out but you probably don't want any less. You could also use a binder such as powdered milk if the sausage seems a little crumbly or dry.

Could any one convert this for me to BS smoking time and temps?
The temps in the recipe seem too high to me. I would think you would render the fat and cheese out of the sausage at these temps. When I do sausage I will stuff it the night before and let it rest in the fridge over night, then into the smoker in the morning at about 130 degrees with no smoke for an hour or two to allow the casing to dry. Then I turn the temp up to 165 to 170 and start the smoke rolling. I usually apply 2 to 4 hours of smoke and take the sausage to an IT of 152 degrees, then pull them and give them a bath in cold water to lower the temp and stop them from shrinking.

Any suggestions of which type of pucks to use?
This is kinda a personal taste thing. For me I would say my favorite is hickory on sausage.

And would it be a good idea to nix the liquid smoke since it will  be smoked as opposed to baked in the oven?
Again, this is kinda a personal preference but if it was me I would because you are hitting them with real smoke.

Hope that helps and keep us posted on how they turn out.

Mike

[Caribou]

Thanks Mike!
Now you have given me enough information to get smokin'!
I just need to get my casings, are there any you would recommend?
Again..thanks!
Carolyn

[Mr Walleye]

My preference is 35-40 salted hog casings but some people do use collagen casings. I have never been happy with collagen casings but it may be my supplier.

Mike

[pensrock]

Looks like Mike has you steered in the right direction.
Since the cheese is inside a casing along with the sausage, I would not think melting would be a big problem. I however would dice the cheese into small pieces vs shreaded. I think when you bite into the sausage a chunk of cheese would be more preferable to just knowing there is shreaded cheese in it somewhere.
I keep my smoker even cooler than Mike does, but I also cook all my sausages before eating. I think if the IT is taken to 150-160 then it is fully cooked and can be eaten as is. With this kind of sausage I think it would be a good idea to have it fully cooked. Good for snacking on with a cold beer!  ;D

[Caribou]

Thanks! 
Good advice, the chunks of cheese would definately be more attractive , too.
:D

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Caribou;
Welcome to the forum.

Mike is being humble. He smokes a lot of sausage. Both Mike and Pens have provided some great information.

I like to smoke/cook at slightly different temperatures.

1.   Prior to applying smoke, you need to air dry the sausage. You can do this either by air drying uncovered in the refrigerator overnight, or placing them on a kitchen counter in front of a fan until the casings are dry, or placing them in a preheated 110-120 degree F smoker with the vent wide open for about an hour until the sausage is dry to the touch.

• You can either arrange the sausage on the racks, or hang from dowels that have been cut to fit the smoke.

2.   After sausage has dried, close the vent to 1/4 open, and increase the heat to 130-140 degrees F, and apply 2-3 hours of smoke.

• If you had dried your sausage in the smoker, rotate the racks for top to bottom, and front to back; before applying smoke. If they are hanging by dowels rotate from front to back. I prefer to lay them on racks, for easier rotating. I used pecan for the smoke flavor, but maple, apple or hickory can be used.

3.   After smoke has been applied, rotate sausage again. Raise the cabinet temperature to 170-180 degrees F, and continue to smoke until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees F.

• At these higher finishing temperatures you need to monitor the internal temperature closely.

4.   Remove sausage from smoker, and immediately shock in an ice water bath until the sausage has cooled, and to stop the cooking process.

5.   Remove sausage from bath; air dry, or pat dry with paper towels. Refrigerate or freeze for longer storage.


The amount of TQ in this recipe is correct; but if you have pink salt (Cure #1 or InstaCure #1; or Prague Powder #1), you can reduce the amount of salt in the recipe.

For each pound of meat:
1/4 tsp. of pink salt
1/2 Tbsp. kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon or pickling salt)
Sugar - equal to 50% of the total amount of salt that you added.

[Caribou]

Thanks so much , I'm grateful for all of the good, useful information!
I will do an experimental batch next weekend hopefully.
And if the sausages are photogenic...I will definately post some pics!
Carolyn

[DTJ]

Caribu, Butcher Packer sells a high temp cheese that may be easier to use.  I have not tried it, but it is on that list of things to do /try

Daryl

[Caribou]

Thanks Daryl, I will check them out!
I'm going to try smoking a small experimental batch this weekend with regular cheese because this is my first time smoking sausage ever. 
But on my upcoming and hopefully more confident batches I definately want the hi temp cheese, I just love the look of the chucks of cheese and green jalapeno in every slice. 
My neighbors just got their deer back from the processor that we use and had the entire deer made into Jalapeno Cheddar sausage and it cost them $250  :o to do a deer that I'm guessing was about 100-110 hanging weight.
I'm planning on stuffing on Sat and smoking on Sunday.....I can wait!
Carolyn

[Buck36]

I use Butcher & Packers high temp cheese in the snack sticks. I love the stuff. It is easy to work with and tastes good. There are some people that have tried it and like it over the regular snack sticks. The venison can get on the dry side and they prefered it because the cheese help balance the texture.

[Caribou]

Does the high temp cheese freeze well?
I want to buy the 10lb amount, if it holds up well in the freezer.

[Smoking Duck]

I'm not big on any cheese in the freezer but I'm not that versed on the hi-temp cheese to say either way.  I would imagine since it's being put into sausage it might be okay, but someone more versed than I could give you the skinny on that.  I would like to know the answer myself.

SD

[Caribou]

Hi SD,
I just emailed Butcher & Packers with the cheese freeze question.  I will post what their answer is.
With the price of shipping and their price being lower per pound when you buy it in the 10lb package it seems like a good idea to buy the bigger lot and freeze it....if it freezes well. :-\
Carolyn

[Smoking Duck]

Absolutely, Carolyn.  Gotta stretch a buck whenever you can!

SD