Homemade Sausage Making

el Ducko wrote:..."Sunrise Summer Sausage" recipe ...one of those LEM 3" mahogany casings that I had left over from last year...70°...for two days, then...smoking, then hang it back in the kitchen for three days before sticking it into my meat locker (a.k.a. drink-o-rator) at 38° to store...

Well, that was back in January. It's now February 8, weight is down to 55% of original, and it's well past the date when it is okay to try, so I just did.

The hole in the middle is from the temperature probe, used during smoking. Sorry for the shadow lurking over the sausage- - that's me, hovering, getting ready to snatch it. My apologies for the fuzzy picture. That's fuzzy me, hovering... (You get the idea.)

Yeow! This stuff is GOOD! I'll definitely be doing this one again. Thanks, CW. This one gets the Duck Stomp of Approval.

The hole in the middle is from the temperature probe, used during smoking.

I am REALLY worried about you!

Here is a picture of my third batch of Kabanosy and some other random sausage I made.




The sausage is about 6 days old in the picture....it's about three weeks old now and couldn't be better!!!

Same recipe...different day.

Carpster that no name semi-dry sausage does look appetizing! Nice texture, colour and right amount of fat. The sausage sticks are probably a bit too dry, but I'm sure still fun to gnaw. Mine are always gone before they get to that point. What's next on your sausage agenda?

Nice lookin' project Carpster! Well done. How is the taste and texture of your Kabanosy? How about slicing one in half and sending a close-up photo? They look tasty.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Thank you Redzed and Chuckwagon, there my be one or two pieces in my office fridge...they will be dry, but I think I can get a picture. It is the best tasting ever!!!

Greetings all,

I haven't posted much in the past several weeks, but I've been keeping up with my reading, and enjoying the banter between Duk and Chuckwagon! Jean and I have been very busy since early December, processing frozen venison trim into sausages and other products. Of course, the extra pork we purchase for mixing with the venison leads to additional products; pork shoulder bacon, breakfast sausage, bulk Italian sausage. Just since January 1st, we have processed over 185 lbs. of venison and pork products. We keep 100% of the pork products for us and the family, and 25% of the venison product for ourselves, the rest is for the other three hunters in our party!

I've been reading, and re-reading the Krakowska recipe on page 16 of this thread. Is it really okay to mix, stuff, and cook all in the same day? I feel a little uncomfortable with that process, and I'm surprised no one else has brought it up. Redzed has pointed out that the 2" cubes won't work very well in a hobbyists kitchen, and needs to be modified. I imagine that even 1" cubes will be difficult to push through my 5 lb. stuffer.

I started a 1 Kilo batch of this sausage late last week. I purchased a 5# picnic roast (hock removed at store), and cut out the cubed meat and trim. I no longer remember the source, possibly Rytek,( as he was my sole source of information until this website started talking in English), that Cure moves through whole muscle at about 1/4" per 24 hours; I'm not even sure I remember it accurately. With that in mind, I mixed the cubes with 90% of the salt and cure required, and into the refrigerator it went for a three day rest. I put the small bag of trim into freezer. On Monday I ground the trim, added the remaining 10% salt and cure, plus the remaining ingredients, and then emulsified it. It was then added to the cubed meat, and mixed for several minutes.

I didn't want to mess with the stuffer for just a couple of pounds of meat, so we stuffed a 3" fibrous casing using a canning jar funnel and a spoon. This was not an ideal process, at all. I found it very difficult to keep air pockets minimized. I found and pierced several, and missed several more.

Up here at the south end of the Arctic Circle, smokers just can't hold a good cooking temperature. After three hours of drying, smoking, and baking it, I moved it to our convection oven in the house. I had preheated the oven, with a cake pan of hot water to provide humidity, and it was finished in another two hours.



This sausage tastes fantastic, and looks very elegant. The seasonings are simple, as was the process to make it. It didn't seem to suffer by my not exactly following the directions. I did forget to mix the cubed meat prior to mixing with the meat paste, and there is a tendency for the slices to pull apart slightly. But, all considered, it turned out great. We both enjoyed it, and will be making a much larger quantity in the future.

Jim

Hi Chuckwagon, I posted this pic before...so here it is again
No really I don't mind.



Kabanosy at my best!!!

Here is a pic. Last piece, Rite before I ate it....after about three weeks!!! Texture dry and delicious!!!! All Gone!!!
D

Nice job Carpster! I have never seen kabanosy that dry, cuz whether I make a 5 or 10 lb. batch, it won't last for more than a week around here. I could hide it, but then I'd just scarf up all my stash.

Well....recently I did make a batch that had too much fat in it. I knew I was putting a lot of fat in while I was making it, but thought what the heck, give this a try. That was less popular, and I had to eat most of it myself. Drying it of course did not reduce the fat, though the flavor still improved. It was still less fatty than those slim jims you find at gas stations (the kind that shoot a stream of mystery fat down your throat upon first bite). Won't try that again, though.

Jim, that Krakowska looks really good, especially with having been stuffed in the manner you described. It will be even better after it dries out for a few days. Do you not have a large funnel on your stuffer?

Thanks Chris. I have never done a show-meat sausage like this before, and was surprised at how simple it was. It was also the first time I used the food processor to emulsify meat for sausages.

The stuffing process will definitely need to improve. I have a large SS horn, maybe 1 1/8" ID. It would have worked well, I think. I just was lazy and didn't want to wash the thing for just two pounds of meat. But I can see how the sausage would benefit from a firm stuffing.

I'm not sure I understand the drying process after smoke cooking. Could you explain it to me? There really isn't enough sausage remaining from the first one to try now, but I can apply it to the next batch.

Jim

Jim, drying Krakowska is strictly optional. I like to hang mine for 3 to five days in a temp of around 6o°F with a bit of humidity. The traditional recipe for Dry Krakowska calls for poaching the sausage and then drying at that temp for a couple of weeks until a weight loss of 33%. It is then given a few hours of warm smoke and stored.

And you certainly did the right thing with curing the chunks before stuffing. Nitrite needs time to penetrate whole muscle and release gases. Most of the time I salt and cure meat for a couple of days for all types of sausage. The meat is firmer, absorbs all the good exudate, grinds better and seems to have better colour (based on my own empirical evidence).

Can I jump in? I`m stealing myself to make a first batch of Kabonosy. I`m using a 5lb LEM stuffer and have 22mm collagen casings. Should I be buying a stainless steel long snack tube for this. Or just use one of the supplied plastic tubes?