Making Summer Sausage

Michael from Reno, NV wrote in:

Brad,

I have watched two of your online videos and have read the directions for the Hi Mountain Jalapeno Summer Sausage seasoning mix. It is asking for pork to be added. What cut would your suggest? I will be using beef roast to mix with the pork.

Also is the non fat dry milk just for the wild game?

I also will be following your directions for the smoking instead of the one that came with the sausage kit.

Thanks,
Michael


Michael,

If you will be using a beef roast, will it be chuck or round?

If you are using chuck, I would suggest using pork butt for the pork section of your meat block. If you are using a section from the round, which has much less fat content than a chuck, I would use a pork product that contains a little more fat.

The mix you are looking for is about an 80/20 blend of lean to fat for the overall mix. Chuck will be in the correct area to start with, as will pork butt, so that's why I suggested mixing those two together.

If you use round, you may need to use some fresh side pork to mix with your round to get the fat content correct. On the overall mix, you are looking at 2lbs of pork for every 8lbs of beef. This will give you a good blend for Summer Sausage.

I would add the additional non-fat dry milk at the rate of one cup for every 10lbs of meat. This will help keep the product firm during cooking.

When you get into the final stages of smoking, be sure to close the damper on your smoker and even add a pan of water in the smoker to help keep the humidity level high. This will keep your product from drying out. Cook to an internal temperature of 156F.

Good luck and have fun!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood