wrinkled summer sausage

[Roostershooter]

I have been trying to get a nice plump summer sausage with no wrinkles with no success.  The sausage tastes great but could look much better.  I stuff very tight, i do not think that understuffing is the problem.  I smoke at 170 degrees and it takes about 12 hours or more to bring it to 152-154.  Sometimes the sausage has come out of the smoker wrinkled and sometimes not.  I use a jerky dryer.  I always put the sausage in an ice bath which is supposed to take out wrinkles.  Once i put it in the bath i can see it wrinkling before my eyes.  Any ideas?  Should i quit the jerky dryer and add a water pan in the smoker? 

 

[barelfly]

I’ve only made sausage once, so..... but from my reading, if I remeber, doesn’t the wrinkle come from the cases not being completely dry prior to smoking? And then doing the ice cold shock immediately after the smoke to set the casing.

That’s what I remeber from when I made sausage a few weeks ago. Not sure if that helps or not though. I’ll see if I can find some other literature on it and get back.

 

[Pork Belly]

Mix it, stuff it then immediately smoke it at 200 to an It of 150. Pull them from the smoker and plunge them into a large cooler full of ice water. Leave it in the ice water until the IT comes way down. You are stopping the cooking process.

Smoking at the higher temp cooks the sausage without any extra drying.

I would not use a water pan or jerky dryer.

 

[Muttley]

So there are some details I didn't see.  The first concern is you're losing all your moisture.  Try a binding agency like carrot powder to help retain moisture, and reduce the wrinkling.  Second, how long are you mixing for?  By hand, should be somewhere around 18-20 minutes, you want it very sticky.  Protein extraction is what you are looking for, and that will most certainly help with moisture retention.

You said you are coolking 170 degrees @ 12 hours is incredibly too long, and I think this could be your main challenge. I can cook 10lbs in my #2 in under 7 hours. You are cooking off all your moisture. 

I didn't see what you said your meat block was 80/20, 70/30?  The fattier, and the hotter you cook, the more fat rendering you are going to have.  I start my 70/30 at this:

25F for 1 hour
140F for 1 hour
155F for 2 hours
175F until internal meat temp of 160F

Here is probably one of the best sausage making resources I am aware of. 

https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/208/how-to-make-homemade-summer-sausage-recipe

 

[NDKoze]

I think Muttley nailed it.

Between the lack of using a meat binder, too long of a smoke, and possible lack of protein extraction from too short of a mixing time would be the main culprits.

 

[NDKoze]

I have the following suggestions that started off as a couple and spurred other ideas:

1. I am still thinking that this could be a protein extraction issue. It is really hard to get good protein extraction by hand. But, if that is the only option, I think I would push your mixing time to a solid 20 minutes. It should be REALLY sticky.

Another thought is that I am not sure that you have enough fat. The more I think about it, this may be more of a primary factor. I typically use a combination of venison and 80/20 beef along with my pork butts and run my mixture 50/50 to do my best to get 20% fat ratio. With less than 1/3 of pork and the lean 90/10 burger, I am not sure that you have the recommended 20% fat in your meat block. Without enough fat, protein extraction will be even harder to achieve.

When I do my SS, I will occasionally get "some" wrinkles, but the casings are tight to the meat, whereas your's look like they are kind of loose, which again points to lack of protein extraction.

2. I think I would ditch the jerky dryer. I don't think that you need to add any extra moisture in the way of a water pan or anything. But, I am not sure that the jerky dryer is necessary.

3. Make sure that you have these chubs up as high as you can in the smoker as this is where the temps are most stable, hopefully to the point where there is only an inch or two to the top of your smoker. I am not sure about your #2, but I have to rotate mine about halfway through because the rear of my #3 is quite a bit hotter than the front. So, I rotate them to maintain even temperature.

4. After your ice bath, I would hang the chubs in room temperature for a good 1-2 hours before putting them in the fridge or out in the cold again. This will help set your casings before you start cooling them off further.

5. If 1-4 don't resolve the issue, I think I would try to smoke a little hotter which should result in a shorter smoke time. I have a feeling that up to 12 hours is way too long and you are cooking your fat out of the chubs. This may or may not be the case though, since I think you are a little low on fat ratio to begin with.

I think I would use something similar to the following schedule:

150F for 1 hour
175F for 2 hours
200F until internal meat temp of 154-160F

 

[NDKoze]

Thanks Greg, I will try your suggestions.  Mixing by hand is the only route i can go at the present.  I do have a question on the smoking temperature.  I was trying to keep the temps down below 180 as i heard smoking above that temp will cause fat out.  I am sure willing to try it if it works for others.

Increasing the temp is what I would do if the other options don't work and you are still experiencing extraordinary smoke times. There has to be a balance between smoking too high and smoking too long of which both can cause the fat to cook out. It is possible that the amount of meat you are smoking versus the smaller volume available in the SI #2 versus say the 3, 4, or larger smokers could cause your smoke times to be higher. This is what I experience when I try to smoke 25lbs of snack sticks in my #3. It is really pushing the limits for the amount of sticks that can be smoked at the same time and that is why I need to smoke them hotter (200 degrees) or they would take 12-18 hours to get done.

So, like I said, I would only use this option if you are still seeing 12+ hour long smoke times.

Hopefully this helps clarify.

 

[Pork Belly]

smoke it at 200 to an It of 150. Pull them from the smoker and plunge them into a large cooler full of ice water. Leave it in the ice water until the IT comes way down. You are stopping the cooking process.

It works, it really does, give it a try.

 

[Pork Belly]

It totals a shorter overall cook time. You cn melt pork fat and most beef fat by holding it in your bare hand. Prolonged time at pretty hot temps are to me worse than a shorter time at a higher temp.

The ice bath is critical as it firms up any fat that is melting or melted. It totally stops the carryover cooking.

Another situation you have is your fat content. Am I understanding you correctly, you used 80/20 burger mixed with ground pork? If you bought commercially ground pork or ground a butt it is going to be 80/20. So at best you have 80/20 overall. For best results calculate lean meat to fat, or fatty trim. I like 70/20 minimum for sausage smoked sausage. My breakfast sausage was 50/50 lean venison to ground butts this year and it was far to lean overall.

Mix it fatty, use lots of smoke, get it up to temp quickly and cooled quickly you will have better results. What you made is still very edible, it just can be better.

You need to keep accurate notes, not just in your posts. Maintain a small notebook that you record the details so you can repeat success and avoid mistakes.

 

[Pork Belly]

The ground beef is a commercial 80/20 and the pork is pork butt ground by me.

When you grind a whole pork but it is basically 80/20.

Perhaps not qn exact quote but it was words to this affect.
'A pork butt has the perfect mix of fat and lean meat for sausage making, you don't need to add anything but your seasoning" - Alton Brown

 

[NDKoze]

I know that I am late to this party, but I am totally with Brian (Pork Belly) on this one.

I think that the extended time at 175 is going to cause way more fat out than a shorter time at 200. The smoker temp is just too close to the desired internal meat temp to keep the internal temp rising at an adequate pace. I always tell people to embrace the stall when smoking pork butts and brisket, but an extended stall with sausage is not a good thing.

And the Ice batch to quickly reduce the temp is very important too. That will really help with the wrinkling as well as the casings being lose.

The Sous Vide bath is another option, but I would try the 200 degree smoke first.

 

[Pork Belly]

I will continue to experiment.  This last sausage smoke dripped so much fat ....

You sweated all the fat out of it with the long slow cook time. Turn the heat up to 200

When i pulled the temp probe liquid fat shot out about 4 inches

Smoke shorter times in a hotter smoker. Don't pull the temp probe until sausage is in the ice bath and below 100. How can you monitor internal temp in the ice bath if you pull the probe.

Soon I will find the right method that works for me

Perhaps try what we say, just once. Do it exactly as recommended and see what happens.

 

[Bowfineater]

:-\