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Help! Summer Sausage

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 06:58
by STICKSTRING
Hello all,
First off, thank you to everyone whom has helped me in the past understanding and creating dry cured sausages! I truly appreciate all of the help.

On to my problem! I have been making my own sausage for a few years now and love it! I have never made a Summer Sausage though. Well, my wife signed me up for a "Summer Sausage" competition with our deer club. There will be 15 different entries and I'm the only one that has never made Summer Sausage.

So, I would like to make a venison Jalapeno and cheese summer sausage. Does anybody have a grade a recipe they would be willing to share with me? I know I am asking a lot and would not feel offended if I didn't even get a response to this. I'm just hoping to have a good head start and chance at this competition because to be honest, these guys are very old school and tend to "look down" at the young guys meat products.
Anyways,
Thanks to all again,

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 12:09
by Bob K
Stickstring-
I have made the Marianskis recipe several times substituting venison for the beef called for.
IT has gotten rave reviews
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage ... er-sausage
You can use 10% cheese (see recipe footnote) and just add some jalapeno or use jalopeno cheese.

Works with the FL-C or TSPX cultures.

You can also reduce the "tang" by cutting back on the sugar and sucrose amounts by 50%
At the recommended amount it is quite tangy :razz:

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 19:20
by STICKSTRING
Bob, thank you for your help. I read the recipe and it says to ferment at 80 for 24hrs. If I do not have the means of doing so, can I ferment at 70 for 3 days with t-spx like I do my Salametti's?

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 21:29
by redzed
STICKSTRING wrote:Bob, thank you for your help. I read the recipe and it says to ferment at 80 for 24hrs. If I do not have the means of doing so, can I ferment at 70 for 3 days with t-spx like I do my Salametti's?
T-SPX is primarily for products with that mild Southern European flavour, without the sourness that the Northern Europeans like. It's also meant for raw dry cured sausage, rather than cooked (by that I mean smoked to an IT of at least 140), and then dried. And American summer sausage evolved from the cervelat, which is meant to have a bit of Tang. T-SPX will also ferment faster and give you some tang if you increase the fermentation temp and add around 6g of sugar. At 70, you might have a problem taking the pH below 5, and that is when the tang starts coming through. Having said that, there is no reason why you can't make good tasting summer sausage using T-SPX. What you also might want to do is cube the meat, add the salt and nitrite to it, mix it in, cover well and place it into the fridge for 72 hours before grinding and stuffing. This will give some time to the lactic acids in the meat to start working.

Let us know how you make out in the competition.

Chris

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 21:34
by Bob K
yes you can with no ill effects however a bit of tang is desired in SS. The higher fermenting temperature gives you the Ph drop.
A cooler or an oven with a light bulb or hot water filled bottles will work. Its only for 24 hrs.

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 04:52
by STICKSTRING
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help. Another question, why do I see so many recipes, if not most recipes on the web for summer sausage using nothing but cure? No starter culture? There is also no fermentation time, just simply a overnight rest in the fridge for the meat to properly cure?

My understandings is this will not make a shelf stable meat product, and most likely a product you would have to keep in the refrigerator or freeze?

Are there different types of Summer Sausage, one using simply cure #1 and the others cure and starter culture?

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 12:11
by Bob K
For Summer Sausage culture is used to produce lactic acid which enhances the flavor (produces the "tang"). It is a fast fermented and cooked sausage.

Many recipes use fermento, citric acid ,etc, in an attempt to duplicate the flavor of a fermented product. Having made summer sausage using both methods the fast fermented sausage is far and away better tasting .

The cooking (smoking) of summer sausage makes it safe to eat but not shelf stable.

To make a shelf stable sausage not requiring refrigeration further drying is required.

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 07:15
by STICKSTRING
Ok guys, thank you for all the help this far... This is what my plan is.

Use the recipe above, only use 50% of the sugar and dextrose per Bob k's advise.

Will be using T-spx, ferment at 80-86f for 24hrs. Smoke at 110-120f for 4 hours. Hot water bath (165f) until internal temp of summer sausage reaches 145f.

What do you guys think?

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 07:37
by redzed
Semi dry sausages are usually finished in the smoker rather than by poaching. Smoking produces a drier sausage and gives it a stronger flavour. The sausages are also air, and not water cooled after smoking.

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 14:41
by Lance Link
As others have said, using FL-c will give that tang, but it's easy to overdo it too. Make sure you use some pork with a good amount of fat so as not to have too dry a sausage. I have made beef and pork summer sausage and some all beef using either bactoferm or Fermento. Results are similar in taste with the fermented variety more sour. Also, keep your smoking temp below 170 so as not to render out any of the fat. Good luck.