Homemade Sausage Making

Hi Guys, I'm allowed to be at the computer a few minutes at a time now. I get the body cast off in another month or so. In the mean time, I'm going to make kabanosy with you folks!
Hey, some of you need a good resource for temp conversion. There is a great chart at:
http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/temperature
Hope everyone is in good health and makin' lots of sausage!
Best wishes, Chuckwagon

Well I started my first Kabanosy today. 1/2 pork trim and 1/2 whitetail venison. 5 1/2 lbs (2-1/2 Kilo) total. It is now in the fridge for the next few days.

Question though. It will be 6 to 7 days before I can grind, stuff and smoke. I assume the extra 3 or 4 days of curing will be OK. Any opinions?

I also made 7 1/2 lbs of Italian sausage this morning. It is in the fridge overnight to let the flavors blend. I will vacuum pack and freeze tomorrow night.

Any other projects out there?

Dave

Hi Dave, It sounds like you bagged your deer this year! Good for you. Hey, as we speak, I've got ten pounds of kabanosy curing also. Wow, that stuff is habit-forming isn't it?
Dave, the cubed "curing" step usually involves fermenting of only about 72 hours. The extra days you are talking about should be alright IF you have included the proper amount of salt and low temperatures storage. At this stage, pathogenic and spoilage bacteria still have the upper hand and your mixture is protected only by the salt and low temperature you provide. Until the sausage's water activity (Aw) drops below 0.86 (to eliminate staphylococcus aureus) it remains unprotected unless of course, it is cooked. Actually, other bacteria are destroyed with a drop below 0.91 Aw.

Stan Marianski recommends leaving the sausage in a "rope" coils. He uses 22mm sheep casing and hangs them at 35-40 degrees F. (2 degrees C.) for 12 hours. He then brings it to room temperature to dry an hour (drying any condensation) before he smokes it. Stan smokes the stuff in two stages - hot smoke 104-122F. (40-50C.) for an hour. Then it is cooked 20 minutes at 140-190F. (60-90C.) until the "internal meat temperature" reaches 154F. (68C.). The casing at this point is dark brown and the cooking time is shorter than other sausages because the diameter is less. Shower them with cold water and keep them cool for a week (if you can wait that long) before you eat them. Stan Marianski says this is the finest meat stick in the world - and he's right!

Hey Dave, did you make "fresh" Italian or "cured-cooked" Italian? Are you using casing and links or patties?

Best wishes my friend in beaufiful N.Y.,
Chuckwagon

I had actually cleaned out the freezer in preparation for this falls harvest and found a pack of last years deer. Bow season opens here in two weeks.

The cured meat is in the fridge at the proper temperature. The proper amount of salt? Proper for the extended stay? or proper as per the recipe? I did follow the recipe provided by Trosky...seems to be the Same as by Stan.

The italian sausage is fresh stuffed in hog casing. I'll test it tomorrow for supper probably.

2 grams of salt per 100 grams of meat. Work every time.
Best wishes, Chuckwagon

It must be that time of year, as I've been cleaning out my freezer too. I made 15 Lb"s of summer sausage last week and have 10 Lb's thawing for some garlic ring balogna. tomorrow.
With all this talk of kabanosy I think I know what the following weeks sausage will be.
Dan

The Kabanosy is looking fine. Smoked and hung to dry yesterday. It has already lost almost 15% of its weight in one day. Of course the missus and I had to sneak a little sampling taste. Delicious.

That's My Boy!

Great thread! Hoping to see some pictures of the Kabanosy. I'm going to try my hand at it this winter.

Question:

Where do you hang it to dry after you smoke it? If I remember correctly from the recipe, the temperature requirements during drying are about 55-65F. How strict is that?

Mine was hung in my "wine cellar". It's a room in my basement where I make wine, store wine and canned goods. It's about 60 degrees F and 60% humidity. My experience says "not too strict"

Hi atcNick,
Maybe I can help. Kabanosy is typically stored 5 to 7 days at 54-59 degrees F. (12-15 degrees C.) in relative humidity of 75% to 80%. When the weight has reduced a little more than 40%, just keep them cool somewhere. No need to refrigerate them at this point. Most folks "age" them a week before eating them. If you happen to make a ton of them and don't want them to dry further before you eat them, then you can actually freeze the rest although they will not quite taste as good as they are when freshly dehydrated. Hope this helps.
Best wishes, Chuckwagon

Thanks chuckwagon! By the way, where in ut are you?

Hi Nick,
Originally from a ranch in the eastern part along the Green River. Our friend DaveZak spent some time in this area but went home to New York. I'm now retired and living over the hill, west from Park City at Lone Peak - 10,000 feet in the air. Lots of oaks and plenty of snow. Overlooks the SL valley. What a view! We get July, August and... Winter!
And you? What part of Texas? Texas makes the best c'boy hats in the world! Fine saddlery too. Someday I'm going to see Dealy Plaza in Dallas.
Best wishes, Chuckwagon

Originally from Houston, live in Longview now, about 2 hours east of Dallas. Brother in law and his family live in Riverton, UT, we were up there to visit earlier this year. Its really nice up there, definetly different. Too many mormons for me! lol

Just finished making 30 lbs. each of jalapeno slim jums and summer sausage last night, but didn't take any pictures so I thought I would post some I had done previously. The following pics are of some slim jims, Jalapeno and cheese summer sausage and some smoked Polish sausage I made earlier this year.

Grinding up the Pork Butts:


Mixing up the summer sausage:



Stuffing the Slim Jims:



Stuffing the Polish sausage:



Into the Smoker:


Links and slim jims done..a little longer for summer sausage:


Slim jims and summer sausage cut up and ready to vac pak:


slim jums cut and vac packed:


Dave