How to Grind Meat for Summer Sausage?

Craig from Coldwater, MI asked:

One or two grinds for summer sausage?



Hello Craig,

Summer sausage is a twice ground product, but the real secret is to mix very, very, very well. The reason we mix the product so much after grinding twice is to extract as much protein from the product as possible. This protein extraction will help to bind the product together and keep it from crumbling apart after you remove it from the smokehouse, it should slice more like a lunch meat. Also keep in mind to add enough water. This is a big problem when making large diameter products - it takes so long to get them up to temperature. If you don't have enough water in the batch, the product will just dry out. We just released a new Advanced Sausage and Jerky Processing DVD that would be well worth the watch. It sounds like you enjoy making your own items, so it's really worth having. There are way too many little tips and tricks to share by text here. Video is the way to go!

Thanks again and good luck!

Brad Lockwood

How to Make Venison Hot Dogs

Ed M. from Connellsville, PA wrote:

I want to follow your directions for making venison hot dogs. In your video you use bacon ends for the fat. What ratio would I use? and my second question is how long do they stay in the smoker and at what temperature?

Thanks for your help.

Hello Ed,

Venison Hot Dogs are a tricky product to make, but if done correctly they are very tasty! Step one is to grind the meat fine enough, 4 times through the Weston fine grinder plate will work well. Step two is make sure you use enough non-fat dry milk or other equivalent binder along with your seasoning mix to keep the product nice and firm so the fat doesn't run out when it hits the heat in the smoker. Step three is to only smoke long enough to firm the product in the casing. No hotter than 160F and then use a CanCooker for the steam, or use a warm water bath, around 180F and place the dogs in the hot water until you reach a 156F internal temperature. If you are adding bacon ends or any type of fat content always remember the 80/20 rule. If you have 8lbs of good lean venison meat, add approximately 2lbs of fatty trim to get your 80/20 blend.

Good luck and I like mine with ketchup, mustard and onions! Enjoy.

Brad Lockwood

How to Tie Collagen Casings

Dave L from Kinston, NC asked:

How do you get collagen casing to stay twisted for links?


Hello Dave,

I have a pretty cool technique for doing exactly that! I first twist both links together, as you normally would and then feed the leg of one of the sausages up through the twisted links. This locks the twist in place and keeps the sausage from coming untwisted. I then measure off the next links and twist them together, then I feed the opposite leg up through the links keeping the sausages the same length.

The easiest way to demonstrate this is to show you in this snack stick processing video:

This same process is shown in great detail in our New Advanced Sausage & Jerky Processing DVD, this title is hot off the press and now available. The video will demonstrate the exact technique you are asking about so please watch and enjoy. If you need more information we have the Advanced Sausage and Jerky DVD for you. 

Thanks again and have a great hunting season!

Brad Lockwood

Can I Smoke Sausages in Synthetic Casing?

Steve M. from New Market, AL wrote in:

I have always used an oven at a low temp to make sausage and had just figured that with the synthetic casings I use, smoking would just be a waste of time. My thinking is that the smoke would just stick to the casing and not actually penetrate into the meat. Having not ever smoked sausage, I was hoping you could advise if smoking would be worth the extra effort, or if a natural casing is needed to enjoy that great smoke flavor. 

Thanks for the question Steve,

Yes you can smoke fibrous casings. The smoke will penetrate the casing as long as the casing remains moist. Always remember moisture is the medium that smoke uses to penetrate through the casing and into the meat. Believe it or not, fibrous casings are perforated and the smoke will penetrate into the meat. Of course natural casing will work much better, but fibrous will absorb smoke also.

Good luck Steve and have a great fall.

Brad Lockwood

Using Muslin Cloth for Sausage Casings

A photo I took while at an old sausage shop in Germany

Dave from Elkridge, MD wrote in: 

Back in the early 60's, we used to butcher the hogs to make sausage and stuff them in muslin cloth. Now, can we use non bleached muslin cloth that has been sewn into 2 inch tubes? We get our muslin cloth from a fabric store. Also, how well would venison sausage keep in the cloth? Should we freeze it or do you have a better idea?

Thanks for the question Dave! I also like the old fashioned cloth sausage casing! I haven't made sausage that way for a long time, but it really looks good in the cloth casings. Reminds me of trips to the sausage shops in Germany where they still use a lot of the cloth casings.

If you want to make your own casings, you can do that for sure or you can do a search on the computer for cloth sausage casings and there are several companies that can supply them to you.

When freezing I would still recommend using a Weston Vacuum Machine with their thick, commercial grade bags to prevent any quality loss on smoked products. Smoked products don't keep as well as fresh products in the freezer, so the vacuum machine and a good quality bag will help a lot!
Thanks again for the question Dave!

Fat Ratios When Using Pure Fat

Scott Marsden from Hartsel, CO asked:

I'm planning on making some elk summer sausage and breakfast sausage links, but have a question about fat ratios. In your DVD, you use an 80/20 mix with 50/50 pork for the breakfast sausage and an 80/20 mix of 50/50 beef and bacon ends for the summer sausage. I'm having trouble finding any 50/50 mix at any meat markets so far. Everyone is offering straight beef or pork fat. My question is: if I use straight fat instead of 50/50, would I use a different ration than the 80/20? Thanks in advance.


Hello Scott, Great question!

Yes your blend will be different. If you're going to use 100% fat, I always like to cut the amount back.

Let's start with the first step. Be sure you request back fat and specifically tell your butcher that you don't want "tallow". Back fat comes from steak trimmings on beef and pork chop trimmings on hogs. Tallow comes from the kidney fat inside the animal and under heat will render away to nothing but grease, and you don't want that inside the casing of your sausage product.

When adding pure fat, I will mix 9lbs of good lean game meat with 1lb of pure fat. Always be sure to cut the fat into very small pieces before grinding, this way you can get the fat blended well with the lean meat during grinding. If you grind the fat in large pieces, it takes a lot of mixing to get the fat blended into the lean game meat.

Always use pork if you're making a product that is primarily made of pork and beef if the product is primarily a beef product. For example, if you are making sausage, which is usually made from pork - add pork fat. If you are making hamburgers, which are a beef based product, use beef fat.

I never have trouble finding 50/50 trim. If you ask at a custom butcher shop, you should have no trouble. At a grocery store, they may not do enough actual processing and grinding to have 50/50 available. If you visit a local custom butcher shop they should be able to help you with some trim that has fat and good lean meat mixed together. These trimmings will usually come off the ribs or brisket on beef and from the shoulder and fresh side on hogs.

 Good luck with your products and let us know how it turns out!

 Brad

Custom Sausage Making

Jackie from Quitman, GA asked:
I am wanting to make a combo sausage using deer and rabbit. My question for you is: What fat trimmings should I use and how what is the lbs to lbs ratio. I'm big fan of the blog! Watch you from Youtube!

Thanks for the question Jackie!

That's a very interesting product! I'd love to try that someday.

The rule that I apply concerning what type of fat to use is based upon what product I'm trying to duplicate. For example, if I'm making a summer sausage which is traditionally a beef product I will mix beef trim or beef fat in with my game meat. If I'm making Kielbasa or Bratwurst which is typically a pork based product, I will add pork back fat or pork butt trimmings.

It sounds like you're making a basic sausage product, which would traditionally be a pork based product, so I would use pork back fat or pork butt trimmings.

A desirable fat to lean ratio is typically 80/20. If you trim your game meat lean, which you should, and dispose of all that off-flavored wild game fat, you will have a very lean product. That's why we love game meat so much, right?! It's lean and healthy!

After the fat is trimmed, you should have a 95-98% lean product, so if you want an 80/20 (80% lean and 20% fat) blend then you would need to add 1.5 lbs of pure back fat with 8.5lbs of good lean trim for a 10 lb batch.

Be careful using pure back fat. If you add a little too much it can be a lot! If you don't add enough, you'll never notice that it's even in the product. Pure fat can be a little tricky. It's generally not expensive to get, but it can be touchy when adding enough or not enough.

Now, when using pork butt trimmings, you will also have some lean pork in there, so the window of too much or not enough increases. You can use 3 lbs of pork butt trimmings and 7 lbs of game meat for each 10 lb batch. You have a much larger window of error. Next, mix your seasonings and a little water to blend the seasonings - and you're ready to grind!!

Good luck and thanks for the great question!

Brad Lockwood

Making Sausage from Frozen Ground Meat, Then Freezing Again

Nicholas from East Dover wrote: 

I harvested a moose Oct 2013. I ground a lot of burger and vac packed it and froze it. Can I thaw it out make it into sausage and refreeze it?


Nicholas,

We had a couple questions very similar to this over the last couple weeks. I will cover some additional topics in this blog and then encourage you to look at the other questions regarding this subject. 

A large part of making quality products is processing them the way you typically expect them to be. In other words, if you are making hamburger, you expect it to be ground twice so it has the texture of hamburger. If you are making sausage, you expect it to be once ground so it has the course texture you expect for sausage. With that being said, if you have hamburger in the freezer, it's already twice-ground, so trying to make it into sausage, which is only once ground, is going to be very difficult. Don't get me wrong: You can do it, but the texture you have come to expect from sausage won't be correct. 

If you are asking about freezing and then refreezing you have no issues there, as I have stated in several other blog questions: Freezing and refreezing is not an issue. Your issue here is a texture issue. As the liquid inside of the moose's muscle fiber freezes, it expands, which creates a mushy texture. 

Seasoning can also be an issue. I prefer to grind my seasonings into the meat. Since your meat is already ground, you don't want to grind it a second or third time to get seasonings into it. Instead, you'll have to use a Meat Mixer or work very hard with your hands to get the seasonings mixed into the meat as well as they need to be. 

Another topic of discussion covered in my Advanced Sausage DVD is protein extraction. When you put salts and sugars into meat and then mix like crazy to get the seasoning blended, you extract proteins from the meat that act as binders. These binders will make your product tough and chewy with a rubber-like texture, which is very undesirable in a sausage product. 

You should also check out this other post I've written on the topic:

Making Sausage & Smoked Products from Frozen Meat

Here is some advice on specific products you can make from your pre-ground moose meat:

• Summer sausage is a large diameter product placed into a larger casing. For that reason, it takes additional binding to keep it from getting soft during smoking so mixing your seasonings in, grinding it a third time and then stuffing and smoking can make a good product. 
• Moose Hot Dogs are another great sausage-type product you can make. Here's a video on how to make them: How to Make Wild Game Hot Dogs
• Another great product you can make, which is one of my favorites, is ground jerky. 

I would also recommend that you watch my Advanced Sausage DVD, check out the other blog questions on this topic, and watch our videos, listed to the right.

Congrats on the Moose! My favorite!

Brad Lockwood

Making Sausage & Smoked Products from Frozen Meat

Tom from Pekin, IL asked:

Can you make sausage and smoked meat from frozen meat?


Tom,

For sausage, so long as the meat is not already ground, then yes, you sure can! You can simply watch any of our online Sausage How-To Videos and make a great product. You'll simply drop your frozen, cubed meat into the grinder just as you would unfrozen and go from there! 

If it has already been ground, then you're limited to the products that you can make. You'll have a texture issue with sausage, so no, I do not recommend making sausage from frozen ground meat. Most ground products where the texture matters - I would not use frozen ground meat.

One smoked product that I like to make from already ground and frozen hamburger is ground jerky. You can simply add your seasonings, grind it one or two more times to get it to a nice fine texture, and get your seasonings mixed well. Then, you push it out through the Weston Jerky Gun and load it into your smoker. That's one of my favorites - Here's the post and video about how to do it: Hamburger Jerky.

As for making smoked meat from frozen meat...

The issue with freezing any meat is that it damages cells. When you freeze meat, the moisture inside turns into ice crystals, which puncture the muscle cells. When the meat thaws, all of the fluid - holding those good salts and proteins - floods out of the holes that were made. The result is more loss of moisture when you cook the meat than you would have lost starting from raw meat. That said, this isn't really a problem in sausage making because you're going to grind the meat anyway. 

It comes into play more with roasts and steaks. If you're talking about smoking a chunk of frozen meat, then no, it's not the best way to do things. It's not unsafe, and it will get the job done. However: the point of thawing is even cooking. If the meat is frozen, it will take longer for the internal temperature to rise - so the outside of your meat will be overcooked by the time the inside of it gets to where it needs to be for safe eating. The moisture will also have left so quickly that you'll be left with a tougher product. Obviously, it's frozen, so it's going to take quite a while to cook. At that point, you'll probably have been better off just taking the time to thaw it.  But my advice is this: If you're going to smoke frozen meat, use a thermometer to check the internal temperature, and go low and slow. You can do it, it's just going to bring the quality down. 

Finally, if you're talking about the age-old myth that you can't freeze and thaw meat, then make anything from it - that's just an old wives' tale. Most of the meat products we receive in the commercial processing industry have already been frozen before we ever receive them. Like I said before, there's some damage caused by freezing, but if you're not cooking a filet mignon, it won't make enough difference to truly affect quality so long as you're thawing it first. The way you prepare and cook it will be much more important. 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Brad Lockwood

Non-Fat Milk in Sausage Making

Tim from Bullhead City, AZ asked:
Is the non-fat milk the stuff you buy in stores for sausage making?

Thanks for the question Tim,

Yes, the non-fat dry milk that you buy in the grocery stores can be used as a binder when making smoked sausage products. I use this product a lot when making summer sausage. A typical mixture would be 1 lb for every 50 lbs of meat. It's a great binder with very little flavor effect on the product, and it really helps hold moisture in. 

When making smoked sausage products, you can always figure that the smoker will pull about 12-15% moisture out of your product, so I always add an additional 10-12% water, then my non-fat dry milk, and then I mix it all very well until all the water has been absorbed. 

Often times, it's a good idea to place the product back into the cooler for an hour or so to let the meat set up a little before stuffing. If you stuff right away, the product will be very wet and difficult to work with.

Good luck Tim and please let us know how the product turns out! 

Brad Lockwood

Is Aging Required for Ground Products?

Ryan from Saskatoon, Sask wrote:

Just purchased and watched your Deer and Big Game Processing Volume 1 DVD. I enjoyed the DVD and feel like it has given me confidence for field dressing.

I have a question regarding aging. Is aging required if I plan on grinding up all the meat for jerky and sausage?

Thank you


Thanks for the great question Ryan!

Aging changes the moisture content and flavor of the meat. It also affects the tenderness of the product. If you are grinding the meat for sausage and/or slicing it thin for jerky, then breaking the muscle fibers down during the aging process may not be necessary because you are not looking for a tender product.

However, the flavor of the product will vary between an aged animal and a fresh processed carcass. I'm not saying one would be more desirable than the other, this would be personal flavor preference. I'm just saying that if you make a processed meat product like jerky or sausage, you will taste a difference between a product made with aged meat and the same product made from freshly harvested meat.

You may want to age one front shoulder for 3-5 days and then process the other fresh and see which you prefer. Let me know your thoughts on the results please.

I look forward to the results and findings on your experiment!


Thanks again for the great question!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

Fat Ratios for Venison Sausage

Matt from Bancroft, IA wrote:
I have been making sausage for the last two years and in both years they have been dry. The mixture is 50/50 venison and pork. What should I do to have it be more juicy?

Thanks for the question Matt,

Try using a blend of 50/50 pork trim. This blend will consist of 50% pork fat and 50% lean pork. This will increase your fat content and give you a much juicier and more flavorful product. You can also purchase 50/50 beef trim as well for beef based products. This is the blend I use for all my game meats. I prefer this over lean beef and pork as well as straight beef or pork fat. Look into 50/50 beef and pork trim and use it at a ration of 6lbs of lean game meat to every 4lbs of 50/50 trim. Try that and I believe you will be very satisfied with the results.

Thanks for the great question and good luck this season!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

Fermento & Dextrose Substitutes in Summer Sausage Recipe

Topher from Benton, TN asked:

I have a summer sausage recipe that calls for fermento and dextrose. Do I need to buy these to make summer sausage? What are their purpose? Can I substitute something else?


Topher,

Thanks for the question and yes there are substitutions for dextrose (pure sugar) and fermento (non-fat dried milk).

My only suggestion on the dextrose is to add a little bit less sugar than dextrose - 80% of what the recipe calls for. Sugar is sweeter to the taste than dextrose.

On the fermento, you can add an equal amount of non-fat dried milk, which you can purchase at any supermarket.

One additional tip when processing summer sausage: Only add 1/4 of the non-fat dried milk into the mix before grinding. This product is a binder and will really make the meat sticky, so it can bind up your grinder when trying to complete your second grind. Add the rest of the non-fat dried milk after the second grind, and then mix very vigorously until the meat batch becomes very sticky. This will help bind the meat in the large casing together tightly, which is very important when processing large diameter products such as summer sausage.

Good luck and thanks for the question!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

Storing Sausage Casings

Eugene from Lynco, WVA asked:

I have some leftover casings – how I do I store them now that I’ve opened the bag?



I hope the sausage came out well!

When I have extra casing I will store them 3 ways. First have you rinsed all the casings?

If you have and you will be making sausage again in the next few weeks, simply repackage them in salt, vacuum seal them and place them in the refrigerator until you're ready to make the next batch.

You can also place them in a freezer container, mix up a salt water solution and freeze them in the salt water.

If you haven't rinsed all the casings and they are still dried and packed in salt, you can simply reseal the package and store them in the refrigerator until your next use.

If you will be storing them for over a year you may want to freeze them.

Hope your sausage turned out great!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

How much pork do I add when making Venison Sausage?

Mike from Centereach, NY asked:

When making venison sausage, do you mix pork in there? If so how much? I've tried it a couple of times and can't seem to get it right. Thanks!

Thanks for the great question Mike! Yes, I do mix in pork. I prefer to add 50/50 pork trim to my products rather than 100% back fat. Based on 10 lb batches, here is what I recommend:

50/50 trim: I add 6lbs of venison and 4lbs of 50/50 to make a 10lb batch of product
100% fat: I add 8lbs of venison and 2lbs of fat for a 10lb batch of product


Good luck this season Mike!


"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

How to Make Venison Hot Dogs

Peter from Oshkosh, WI wrote in:

Hey Brad,
I was wondering if you have a good recipe for making venison hot dogs. I have been looking, but can't find any seasoning mixes for hot dogs. I appreciate your help!



Peter,

As a matter of fact, I even have a video:


When I'm making my own hot dogs, I use Hi Mountain Old Fashioned Bologna seasoning. Makes for a great venison hot dog - I highly recommend it!

Thanks for your question Peter & good luck this season!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

Can I use mahogany casings in the oven?

Dave from Elk Ridge, Maryland wrote:
 
I make summer sausage and bake it in a oven, since my smoker took a turn for the worse. I mix the meat roll in logs, wrap it in tin foil, and bake. Now: Can I use edible and non-edible casings in the oven to make my sausages, or will the oven destroy the non-edible casings?



Thanks for the question,

Sorry to hear your smoker is acting up! You can use the mahogany summer sausage casings (non-edible fibrous casings) in your oven. Just keep the oven temperature at or below 200F. If you run hotter than that, you will dry your product out from the dry heat a standard oven produces.

It's very difficult to find edible casings for making traditional summer sausage (in other words you're not likely to find edible casings big enough), so I would stick with the traditional fibrous mahogany casing.

Keep the oven temperature down and you will be fine. And get that smoker going again, or get yourself a shiny new Weston Smoker or Bradley Smoker!

Good luck and thanks again for the question.

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

Making Snack Sticks: Dehydrator or Smoker?

Jack from Eureka, UT wrote:

I’m making snack sticks for the very first time. Should I make them in my smoker or in my dehydrator? Any other tips for a first timer? Thanks!


Jack,

Thanks for the question and certainly you will want to use your smoker. This would be the correct choice for several reasons.

First, the final internal temperature will be difficult to reach when you are running at the low temperatures in a dehydrator. You will be looking for a final internal temperature of 158F and this will be difficult to achieve if your dehydrator oven only goes to 155F.

Also, remember dehydrators are designed to remove moisture from the products that you place inside of them. Doing this to your snack sticks is going to make for a very dry product.

Fire up your smoker and run the temperature at 130-140F while smoking for about 2 hours, then turn the smoke off and increase the cabinet temperature up to 170F for 45min to an hour.

Check your temperature. If you have not achieved the 158F internal temperature you are looking for increase the temperature in the smoke house to 190 - 200F and watch your product temperature closely. The internal temperature will rise quickly at higher temperatures and you don't want to over do it and ruin the product.

After the temperature has been reached, remove the sticks immediately and begin cooling them down as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the question and good luck!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

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

Adding Seasoning to Your Pre-Packaged Mix

Gary from Little Valley, NY asked:

About how much cayenne pepper would you recommend to add to your 10 lb kielbasa sausage mix? I would like something mild.


Gary,

The first thing I would recommend is to start a good recipe book and keep track of every step of the process - especially when adding additional ingredients to your products. What tends to happen is you find the perfect amount for your taste buds and then forget how much you added!

I would start with one tablespoon for 10lbs of meat and work your way up or down from there. Always remember, the pre-packaged seasonings you purchase are simply a base flavor profile of the product you are trying to make. They are not designed to fit everyone's particular taste so modifying the recipe is exactly what you want to do. Just be sure to keep track of what you add so you can increase it or decrease it on the next batch.

Thanks for the question and be sure to let us know how it comes out!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood