Thread: Uncle Don's coffeehouse 2018

Well,

It was a busy day. Spent the day making 25lbs of Venison Summer Sausage.

Steve stopped over for. Chit chat prior to picking up the Boss.

First off, the Jerky “ to be honest, isn’t very good “. That was Steve’s comments, WHEN compared to the stuff he tried last year, which is the concoction I posted online earlier.

However, it is good enough to not stop eating, and as Steve found, it’s a great Jerky to be followed by a beer.

It has a Maple Whisky blends of sweet flavor at first, and after a bit, its of Pepper, where your taste buds say “ Bring on the beer “.

It’s only the 2nd time I have made this blend, but am working on it. It’s a darn good start.

I also gave him some of my home brew “ Apple Shine “. I get the main ingredient while out of state, as I can’t get it in Michigan.

That stuff is good also, waiting on a follow up from Kevin to see if he likes it as well.

Sent Steve home with some Jerky, said he didn’t need any, but to be truthful, I have made 32Lbs of Jerky since Thanksgiving, and it was nice to see some one other than my kids devour it.

I like the idea of the name part Jerry, but it would have to be the Fall Camp.

That would determine who get the name I would think. As the spring camp, is already 1/2 through the year, and the thread starts at the new year.

Kind of immortalize the winner for a year, like when Steve & I were MASTERS of the Crappie talk for a year......

Anyway, the Sausage was mixed, divided and cheese added all in my Engel Cooler.

Made Steve proud of me........

Here are some photos.

1/2 Pepper Jack & 1/2 Cheddar.
I added Cheese. One of my pet peeves about cheese added to sausage, is that often you need to still get a slice of cheese.

That’s not an issue, I added about 2 lbs of cheese to each side.



OE


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What spice blend do you use for your summer sausage OE? Commercial or homemade?


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This was a commercial blend to try.

I tried a number of years ago, and it was horrible results. So I focused on Jerky for the kids and have the honed down to what they call perfection.

I called Jerry after he said he made some, and got some tips.

So I hit up Kent Butcher Supply.

Got casings, and some Old Plantation Seasoning.

Followed the instructions, and it will go into the smoker tomorrow



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All 25 Lbs fit in my smoker and they are not touching each other for air circulation.

Was kind of surprised....

No ideas when it will be done, but I am trying the Pepper Jack first.

OE




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I picked up Judy from the airport yesterday afternoon like Erin said, went to dinner then to Meijer (Grand Ledge) to pick up things for our delayed Christmas which will be tomorrow.

Jeff (Vbottom) that store is needing some more help or something.....my gawd every aisle in the food section had pallets in the way and along where the meat and milk is was worse. Then they were out of cocktail sauce and didn't have any in the back..... Luckily a lady employee found a bottle in the meat section....so Christmas dinner with shrimp will go on!

I never realized until Judy being gone, how much she makes this holiday so special. Without her, this was the most cold, hollow and empty feeling I ever had.

On my way to pick her up in GR, I stopped by Al n Bob's and found a couple disgruntled ice fishermen.....I guess lack of ice has made them grumpy.......I guess I better steer clear of Sparty for a while, he's probably gonna get these same symptoms.

As Erin said I stopped by for a visit, when I said this batch of jerkey wasn't very good, his two daughters (who luckily don't take after him) were very quick to Thank me for telling him so, apparently they don't much care for it either. BUT, I'll be trying it with a couple beers which should squash that overwhelming pepper taste and I bet it will be great! Thanks OE for the Jerkey and shine, I'll be taking both up to our Christmas party tomorrow!

I do like some of the names that's been suggested for next years "open topic never ending hogwash thread"

OE if that is a MES, you might want rotate top to bottom, a few times.
With heat rising the top ones always finish first on mine.
If you have any tips, I’d love to hear them.
I have contemplated hanging mine in the smoker to see if it would finish more evenly.


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Aaron,

I used to make a ton of sausage. The funny part was that I don't eat that much of it. I gave most of it away. Over the last few years, I simply stopped making it. This year I decided that I needed to give some more away. I have never been much of a fan of the summer sausage. Something about the taste and the seasoning that I just don't care for. I purchase a ton of my seasoning from LEM. One of my favorites is the Salami! Just a mild flavor and typical of what you think of when eating it. They also have a pepper stick that is pretty good. I have also tried the Jalapeno summer sausage. It is NOT hot. Just has the flavor of Jalapeno. It was better (in my opinion) than simple summer sausage but still not my favorite.

I used to hange all of my sausage. I would put the top rack in my smoker and then I took some D hooks and hung my sausage from that. If memory serves me, I could get 16 chubs. Another thing that I do is purchase the 1lb casings instead of the bigger ones. They are only 1 1/2 inches by 12 inches. As I said, when I want some, I really don't want a whole lot of it. Less waste this way and much easier to smoke or finish. For me, I would smoke with two pans at 120 for about 2 hours. After that, the smoke is no good. I would then close the door on my smoker and bring the temp up to 140 for an hour and then 150 and finally 160 or 170 to get the internal temp where I wanted it. The issue I found with the smokers is that, at times, your bottoms get done before the tops so you get an inconsistant cook to it.

This year I changed things up. Instead of using the smoker, I did all of my sausage (about 25lbs) in my oven. I have a convection oven. I layed all of them on the racks and put a drop pan in the bottom. I ran it on convection at 165 and it took right at 2.5 hours to complete. It gave a much better product! You could smoke them for an hour to get the flavor and the internal temp up and then finish them in the oven if you want but, the oven method for me was much quicker, better, and a better product.

If you have a convection oven, run it and you will not need to move your sausages around as it is even heat throughout the batch.

Remember, when you pull them out, make sure to give them an ice bath quick. You don't have to soak them long. Just long enough to STOP the meat from cooking. IF you have stuck a probe in your chubs, makes sure you drain any water out of the case before packaging. The ice bath will also stop the casing from wrinkling and cracking.

Also, when stuffing, you want the meat as compacted as possible. Non compacted and it will crumble and crack when you remove the casing. I have a 15 lb verticle stuffer that I use but you can do it with a grinder and stuffing attachment. Although they say you only need to run it one grind on course, because it is venison, I don't like it course. For me, I have a pretty industrial grinder so I grind mine once but on a very fine plate. You can also stuff your casings with a Mason Jar funnel used for canning.

I used to make it and sell it when cutting meat. I used 2/3 venison to 1/3 pork. I always purchased pork picnic shoulders and never prefered to add suit or straight fat to it. I have seen people use zip ties for the tops but I was always concerned with it so I never tried it. In the beginning, I used butchers twine and it worked ok but was slow to process. I later switched to hog rings. 3/8 is the right size.

Just some tips and tricks that I have found over the years that might help you out.

Steve, I cannot stand the taste of store purchased cocktail sauce. Just something about it. I usually make my own and I use it for fish as well. Just squirt some ketchup in a cup and mix in horse radish to taste. You can find horse radish in the meat and deli section at Meijer. I prefer the Yoders brand. Afterwards, add a little fresh squized lemon juice if you would like.

If you would like a white sauce (called Tiger Sauce) that is common to prime rib (we also use it for other red meat and fish) here is that recipe:
Equal parts Mayo and sour creame, horse radish to taste, and a couple dashes of Worcestershire Sauce.