Make Your Own Summer Sausage!

I've made summer sausage many times, but this time turned out to be the very best summer sausage I've eaten! I made adjustments to both the recipe and the process. I hope you'll try my recipe, make adjustments to suit your own tastes, and get into the habit of making your own meat treats! This is another delicious gift that is always appreciated. Package it up with crackers and cheese, and mmm-MMM! A purely delightful snack to give or receive!

I started out with 4 lbs. of ground venison mixed with 1 lb. of ground beef suet. This was a fine grind. You can substitute ground beef or do a mix of venison and beef, ground together.

Gather your seasonings: onion powder, garlic powder, cracked black pepper, mustard seeds, dried mustard, liquid smoke, Morton Tender Quick and water. You'll also need a fibrous sausage wrap for best results.

INGREDIENTS:

 4 lb. ground venison

1 lb. ground beef suet

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

5 tsp. cracked black pepper

2 tsp. whole mustard seed

1 tsp. dried ground mustard

4 tsp. liquid smoke

5 T. Morton Tender Quick

3 cups water

First, make a slurry of all the seasonings mixed into the water. Then pour it into the meat.

Using a wooden spoon, mix it well so that the seasonings are well incorporated into the ground meat. 

Chris used 1 lb. capacity fibrous casings with his grinder/sausage stuffer, packed the casings tight with the sausage mixture and then secured the packages with hog rings.

 

Be especially careful to pack the meat in tight. Use a pin to release any air pockets. Then allow the sausage rolls to cure overnight in the refrigerator.           

The next day, position the sausage so that the rolls are not touching each other on an oven rack over a pan or in roasting pan with a rack so that you catch the drippings. Or, lay down a sheet of foil to avoid a mess in your oven.

Set the oven temperature to 170 degrees F and just leave the door open as you gently bring the sausages up to heat. Then, after an hour, close the oven door. Maintain this temperature for about 5 hours. Check the internal temperature of a roll of sausage. You want it to reach 152 degrees. At this point, not quite there, I boosted the oven to 200 degrees for two more hours. When you get the 152 degree reading, remove the sausage rolls from the oven and spray with cold water. Bring the internal temperature of the sausage down to 120 degrees. Refrigerate or package for freezing. The summer sausage, when cooled, will be ready to eat.