Sorry if I missed it. But, I didn’t see the requirement of Sure Gel in the list. On the H Summer Sausage seasoning it tells me I should use it. Any issue with its usage coupled with my also using ECA?

tjrice15 Depending on what you are using for a smoker, you can obtain good results with either smoking schedule.

Some smokers have better temperature and air controls than others do and getting good results can be more about learning how to use your smoker to get the result you want rather than just following a particular smoke schedule.

IMO the biggest smoking hurdle the hobby-processor is up against is trying to smoke sausage on a smoker designed for cooking whole cuts like butts and briskets, which are a hot-smoked, cooking processes.

Sausages need to be smoked at lower temperatures and smokers and grills intended for cooking burgers, briskets, ribs, and pork butts usually don’t have the temperature controls to do the best job on sausage and sticks.

The basic goals for good smoked sausages are:

Dry and warm the cool exterior of the sausage so it will take the smoke and achieve an even color. Gradually raise the internal temperature of the sausage while continuing to absorb smoke for good flavor and remove some moisture from the sausage interior, Reach an internal temperature in the sausage that will kill any pathogens making it safe to eat.

It is possible to reach these goals and get excellent end results using slightly different smoke-schedules, ie varying the time and smoker temperatures to achieve the desired end result.

It is worth mentioning that some of the goals can be achieved after smoking.
A couple of examples:
More and more guys are completing the final upper end of the thermal process in a hot water bath, ie sous vis.
When more drying is needed, it can be done after the thermal processing is finished by holding the sausages in a refrigerated space with good air flow and allowing them to air dry.

Jonathon Turkey Works. I don’t know about that Vegetable stuff, but good ol brown sugar is lovely!

As Kurt said, a little different technique, but the end result is pretty much the same.

Nicely done.

Wild Game Banner Goose Sausage Recipe Frozen Goose Cutting Goose Adding Fat to Grind Grinding Stuffing Goose Meat Block

10 lb Goose
2.5 lb Pork Fat (or 10 lb untrimmed pork butts)

Ingredients:
1 bag Cajun Sausage Seasoning - 11 oz for 12.5 lb batch
Sure Cure - 1/2 oz for 12.5 lb batch
3/4 quart of water

Optional Ingredients:
Sure Gel Meat Binder - 3 oz per 12.5 lb
High-Temp Cheese - 1 lb
Either Encapsulated Citric Acid - 2 oz per 12.5 lb
OR
Sodium Erythorbate - 3 GRAMS for 12.5 lb batch

Equipment

Meat Grinder
Meat Mixer
Sausage Stuffer
Walton’s Sausage Linker (Optional)

Casing Preparation

We will be using 30mm Clear Collagen Casings, and they don’t require any preparation, simply remove them from the package and load them onto a stuffing tube. We chose the clear because we are going to hang these in our smokehouse; you can use smoked collagen if you want the mahogany appearance or even fresh collagen if you are going to coil the sausage on a rack in your smoker. If you try to hang fresh collagen in a smokehouse, you are going to open your smoker and see all your product on the floor. It might not happen the first time you try it or the second, but it will eventually happen, so don’t hang fresh collagen.

Process Clean your goose and soak it for 24 hours in salt water in a cooler. This will bleed the meat and give you a better taste and consistency. Pack your goose meat into an 8-inch wide vac bag roll (or use multiple 8" diameter bags if you don’t have a roll) and freeze it almost solid. Cut the goose meat into chunks small enough to fit down the throat of your grinder. Grind the goose meat through a 3/8" plate. Grind the goose and pork fat through a 1/8" plate (Yes, yes, I know I said 1/16th" plate again, no such plate exists outside the crazy place that is my mind). Try to mix the pork fat sporadically throughout the second grind to help disperse it evenly. Pork Fat

With goose being as dark as it is and having a lighter consistency, we really think it helped to go with straight pork fat instead of a 50/50 mix of Goose to untrimmed Pork Butts. You want to go for either 20% or 25% fat content with these.

Pork Butts

If you cannot find any pork fat, you can use a 50/50 mix of goose and untrimmed pork butts.

Meat Mixing

Mix seasoning, cure, sure gel, and a cure accelerator (unless it is encapsulated citric acid) with the meat. You want to mix this until you have very good protein extraction; you will know you have reached this when your meat starts getting very sticky and tacky, and it pulls when you try to stretch it instead of breaking into smaller clumps. With a meat mixer, you usually want to mix for around 8 minutes, being careful to change the directions of the paddles every minute or so. If you used encapsulated citric acid, you should add it, along with the cheese, during the last 60 seconds of mixing. This will prevent the encapsulation from splitting or the cheese from smearing.

Sausage Stuffing

Choose the largest tube that your casing will fit over. We did both the 30mm clear collagen. With the collagen casings, you want to stuff until you can faintly see a swirling line down the casing. Then cut them to the longest length that you can hang in your smoker.

Note

The Walton’s Sausage Linker can be a big-time saver here. With just a little practice, you can tie off your casings in a fraction of the time it takes to hand-tie them.

Thermal Processing & Smoking:

120° for 30 Minutes (With No Smoke Or Humidity and Vents Wide Open)
140° For 60 Minutes (Add Smoke & Humidity and close vents 3/4)
160° For 60 Minutes (Continue Smoke & Humidity)
185° Until Internal Temperature is 165°. Remove smoke & continue adding humidity, also close vents

Cooling

Run a 5-minute shower cycle with fans on
OR
Place in an ice bath for 10 minutes to stop the cooking process & help set the casing for the collagen (this also helps separate it from the cellulose).

Wrap up

With Goose, I think using pork fat made a big difference vs. a 50/50 mix with untrimmed pork butts; this allowed the goose color, flavor, and consistency to stand out. The cellulose casings worked wonderfully here; the skinless product’s appearance and consistency were a big hit!

Other Notes A 24-hour soak in salt water will help bleed the meat Remember to freeze your meat almost solid Without a cure accelerator of some kind, you need to hold this for 12 hours after stuffing before going to the smoker. Why Goose Sausage?

Goose Sausage is simply sausage that is made from a combination of Goose meat and pork fat. If you cannot get just pork fat, you can use a 50/50 mix of goose to untrimmed pork butts, but you will be happier with the finished product if you use 80% goose and 20% pork fat.

Watch WaltonsTV: Wild Game: Cajun Goose Sausage Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Seasonings Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives

Wild Game Banner Goose Pepperoni Sticks Frozen Goose Second Grind With Fat Manual Linker Butchers Link Finished Goose Pepperoni Meat Block

10 lb Goose
2.5 lb Pork Fat (or 10 lb untrimmed pork butts)

Ingredients:
1 bag Pepperoni Unit - 11.2 oz for 12.5 lb batch
Sure Cure - 1/2 oz for 12.5 lb batch
3/4 Gallon of water

Optional Ingredients:
Sure Gel Meat Binder - 3 oz per 12.5 lb
High-Temp Cheese - 1 lb
Either Encapsulated Citric Acid - 2 oz per 12.5 lb
OR
Sodium Erythorbate - 3 GRAMS for 12.5 lb batch

Equipment

Meat Grinder
Meat Mixer
Sausage Stuffer
Walton’s Sausage Linker (Optional)

Casing Preparation

We will be making some in 19mm Smoked Collagen Casings and some in 26mm Cellulose Casings. Neither of these casings requires any preparation, but the cellulose casing is NOT edible, so you must peel it before eating.

Process Clean your goose and soak it for 24 hours in salt water in a cooler. This will bleed the meat and give you a better taste and consistency. Pack your goose meat into an 8-inch wide vac bag roll (or use multiple 8" diameter bags and freeze it almost solid. Cut the goose meat into chunks small enough to fit down the throat of your grinder. Grind the goose meat through a 3/8" plate. Grind the goose and pork fat through a 1/8" plate. Try to mix the pork fat sporadically throughout the second grind to help disperse it evenly. Pork Fat -

With goose being as dark as it is and having a lighter consistency, we really think it helped to go with straight pork fat instead of a 50/50 mix of Goose to untrimmed Pork Butts. You want to go for either 20% or 25% fat content with these.

Pork Butts -

If you cannot find any pork fat, you can use a 50/50 mix of goose and untrimmed pork butts.

Meat Mixing

Mix seasoning, cure, sure gel, and a cure accelerator(unless it is encapsulated citric acid) with the meat. You want to mix this until you have very good protein extraction; you will know you have reached this when your meat starts getting very sticky and tacky, and it pulls when you try to stretch it instead of breaking into smaller clumps. With a meat mixer, you usually want to mix for around 8 minutes, being careful to change the directions of the paddles every minute or so. If you used encapsulated citric acid, you should add it, along with the cheese, during the last 60 seconds of mixing. This will prevent the encapsulation from splitting or the cheese from smearing.

Sausage Stuffing

Choose the largest tube that your casing will fit over. We did both the 19mm smoke collagen and the 26mm cellulose casing, so we did have to switch tubes. With the collagen casings, you want to stuff until you can faintly see a swirling line down the casing. Then cut them to the longest length that you can hang in your smoker.

For the cellulose casings, just stuff until they are full and smooth. These are very strong casings, and you shouldn’t have to worry about blowouts too much. Once they have been stuffed, you can twist them into links, but then you have to tie them off between every link. Or, you can go with a butcher twist that will give you bundles of 3 sausages.

Note

The Walton’s Sausage Linker can be a big-time saver here. With just a little practice, you can tie off your casings in a fraction of the time it takes to hand-tie them.

Thermal Processing & Smoking:

120° for 30 Minutes (With No Smoke Or Humidity and Vents Wide Open)
130° For 60 Minutes (Add Smoke & Humidity and close vents 3/4)
140° For 30 Minutes (Continue Smoke & Humidity)
160° For 60 Minutes, Continue Smoke & Humidity
180° Until Internal Temperature is 165°. Add Smoke & Humidity and Close Vents

Cooling

Run a 10-minute shower cycle with fans on
OR
Place in an ice bath for 10 minutes to stop the cooking process & help set the casing for the collagen (this also helps separate it from the cellulose).

Wrap up

With Goose, I think using pork fat made a big difference vs. a 50/50 mix with untrimmed pork butts; this allowed the goose color, flavor, and consistency to stand out. The cellulose casings worked wonderfully here; the skinless product’s appearance and consistency were a big hit.

Other Notes A 24-hour soak in salt water will help bleed the meat Remember to freeze your meat almost solid Without a cure accelerator of some kind, you need to hold this for 12 hours after stuffing before going to the smoker. What is Pepperoni?

Pepperoni is a cured style of Salami that is traditionally made from Pork and Beef, but it can be made from 100% of either one or other meats like Turkey or Wild Game. If you are going to slow cure it, then using 100% pork is recommended. In America, you can basically break down Pepperoni into Pizza Pepperoni and Sandwich Pepperoni, the Pizza Pepperoni is usually smaller in diameter, and Sandwich Pepperoni is larger in diameter. Both can either be smoked in a similar fashion as a Summer Sausage or cold cured.

Watch WaltonsTV: Wild Game - Goose Pepperoni Sticks Shop waltonsinc.com for Pepperoni Seasoning Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives