Summer Sausage, Snack Stick Extravaganza - Live Weekend Thread

Hello folks.. So Here we go... I purchased close to 50lbs of beef to make Summer Sausages and Snack Sticks for family/friends and even for myself. First time doing large batches of anything with the sausage stuffer and first time making Summer Sausage.



I ordered all my supplies from www.sausagemaker.com


Day 1: Starting Summer Sausages.
Started processing one slab of meat.Trimmed the hard fat off of it.




Decided the best way to tackle this process was to cut the meat into steaks then cube it.. The meat was still pretty frozen in the middle.


Looks like pretty good ground beef


Here is the first batch of summer sausages.. I have another 10lb batch to do which will equal to the same amount here. I ran into a problem after taking this picture..... I decided to run outside with one of these logs and see if it would fit hanging from the top shelf of the MES40....... sure enough if I hang above the heating element they are too long!! So I had to cut these down into single logs and I'll hang them from the top shelf.

You can tell the two at the top were my first two.. The other two are a little more uniform.. It will be ok.. I'll just temp them as they cook to make sure I don't over cook them.


Anyways I have to finish the next batch of summer sausages. Will do 1 more regular batch of summer sausages, and the final batch I will add cheese and Jalapeno's.

Tomorrow I will smoke these summer sausages then tomorrow afternoon I will grind and stuff the snack sticks to prepare smoking for Saturday.

Stay tuned!

Day 1 complete!! Tomorrow is gonna be hectic.. Should be processing snack sticks while I'm smoking the summer sausages.. I ended up with 20 sausages... If I had experience with it before I probably could of ended up with 22 similar size sausages. The smallest chub weighs in at 1.2lbs.

After finding out I couldn't fit the whole logs in the smoker I went with individual sausages. It was easier to stuff half of the casing, tie it off twist then move up about 1/2" and make a knot for the next sausage.

5 of the sausages ended up Jalapeno and Sharp Cheddar cheese stuffed sausages. Excited to see how that turned out.. Here's my dicing skills and the final count of sausages.





Stay tuned!! I'll be back tomorrow!!

Well the day is starting off on the right step... Got the summer sausages hung by 10:30... good news is I was able to hang all of them without doing multiple smokes. I also learned I had 18 and not 20 sausages. Will be my only update until tonight with finished summer sausage pics, and snack sticks

On the left kinda by them selves are the jalapeno and cheddar sausages.

IamMadMan said:

Vanilla Coke, my favorite....

Oh wait, were talking about making sausage.... Looks like you have the process down.

Keep us posted, I'll be watching for updates.

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haha... It's not an ad for Vanilla Coke... It's and Ad for Pepsi haha! Only Vanilla Coke I'll drink is Rum & Coke only because Rum sorta makes it taste like Vanilla coke with alcohol in it. LOL Speaking of rum and coke........ Crap... No coke.....

Well it wouldn't be a live thread without some updates... at 10:30 the summer sausages went on at 130 degree's.. I went without smoke for 1 hour.. then Fired the cold smoking attachment to the smoker. I love the MES40 with the cold smoking attachment to it. Well worth the money.



After the first hour I cranked it up to 140... the MES40 seems to have a 10 degree temp swing so I was reading temps at 150 degree's normally. Been running for 3-4 hours I'm getting ready to take off the smoke.. I decided to use my thermopop to check temp of a few sausages in various parts of the smoker.. They all seem to be hovering at 110 degrees. Cranked the smoker to 160 and will Pull the sausages once they hit 161... Was debating on 152 (container says 152), or 160, 161, or 165 for pulling temp.. I still don't know LOL

well 10-11 hours the summer sausages are sitting at 130 degrees. I got busy making the snack sticks I forgot about the timer shuts off the smoker when it hits 0.. Luckily I caught it on time.. The remote needs to beep when the timer runs out.

Anyways.. Here's the snack stick pictures.. It's only 1 batch.. I have to make a 2nd batch.. I'm doing a 10lb batch of the sausage maker seasoning, and another 10lb batch with Hi-Mountain hunter's blend.

Here's the meat I am working with on the snack sticks


Just like with the summer sausages it was still frozen in the middle and the best way to tackle this cut of meat was to cut steaks and cube it.. I also removed alot more fat this time around than I did with the summer sausages.


1st grind


2nd grind after seasoning/cure mixed in


Trying to get a grove going.. I figured the best way to do this is just to make 1 large stick, and then tie a knot to separate the links.. twisting them last time did not work out very well

2nd batch of snack sticks done. Will post summer sausage pictures tomorrow. To give them time to bloom and cool. I'll slice one tomorrow! They are still in the cooker sitting at around 140 degrees.

Anyone got an estimate on how long to cook summer sausages.. I'm working on close to 13-14 hrs now. Still sitting at 141 IT.. Cooker is running 160-180.

I did check them with a thermapop a few minutes ago.. the ones closer to the right above the element is sitting at 150ish.. So the one that has the meat probe in it once it hits 150-155 I'll start pulling the ones on the right side off.. as long as they are above 160 IT

Joshw said:

Assuming you have the right cure percentages, you are safe to pull them at 155 Internal Temp. Have you checked the accuracy of your smoker temp? That seems like a little long to me, at those temps. But I usually steam to finish, so I really can't remember how long it takes.

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Well I'm sitting here researching the living crap at exact time it takes to cook summer sausages. Each direction goes to each step saying "130 for 1 hour 140 for 3 hours blah blah blah" But when it gets to 160-170 the directions are "cook until IT reaches 152" or the IT varies.

I'm counting the fact there are 20lbs of sausages in there.. is the main factor.. plus it being below 30 outside... I'm pushing through tho.. IT just raised to 146... Just has to be right.... And so far everything I've cooked even a last batch of snack sticks.. the MES40 is pretty accurate... probably a 10 degree difference give or take..

Also wanna add I only added 3 hours of smoke.. I've been cooking without smoke for a while now.. I used Insta-Cure #1 with their recommended 1tsp/5 lb....It's getting to the point where I'm going out to check the right side of the smoker because those sausages are at a higher temp... If they are between 155-160 I might just pull them

The way I see it is... It has a cure, its suppose to withstand the long low temp cooking. as long as the sausage temp keeps rising.. I bet its doing just fine.

Titch said:

Got a recipe?
I hold my cooked sausages at the internal recommended for an hour, then dump in iced water

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It's just the recipe from The Sausage Maker. This is the summer sausage
https://www.sausagemaker.com/summer-sausage-seasoning-blend-p/12-1012.htm

Directions read for 10lb batches. I did two 10lb batches.

Calls for 8oz (weight) of seasoning
2tsp of Insta-cure #1
and I mixed 1 1/2 cup of water to help distribute the seasoning evenly.

This is the snack stick seasoning.
https://www.sausagemaker.com/dried-sausage-stick-seasoning-2lbs-p/12-1023.htm

I only did 10lbs of the snack stick seasoning. I did the other 10lbs with Hi-Mountain Hunter's Blend.. So far I'm having really mixed reaction to The Sausage Maker's snack stick seasoning....

First impressions by smell.. The whole container the seasoning seems to have a minty/tarty kinda smell. Just totally different than what I'm use too. I fried a piece up before stuffing it.. I had a better impression on the actual flavor by taste..

But it still had a different flavor than what I'm use to. So I decided to do the two batches in different flavors just in case I didn't like the outcome of the sausage maker's snack stick seasoning. I'm sure the seasoning is fine, The missus liked what I fried.. So maybe it just my opinion on it.. By the way the summer sausage seasoning passed with flying colors. The missus said it would be a great hamburger seasoning... Kinda have to agree lol

Here's some signs of greatness!! Two are down.. With many different opinions on pulling temp.. I pulled the large one at 161, and the small one at 156 IT. Going to mark these down and try to remember if there was much difference between the two.. They both got an ice bath.



Stay Tuned. More to come tomorrow on the snack sticks in progress!