I’ve been tweaking this recipe for years, and finally have it where I want it. More than one person has told me it’s the best they’ve ever had. One of the breakthroughs was learning about Encapsulated Citric Acid (ECA), which brings a satisfying “tang” to the party without a fussy fermenting process.
Several of the ingredients may not be available at your grocer. Try a butcher, or online at sites like SausageMaker.com, Waltonsinc.com/seasonings, or LEMproducts.com. Even Amazon.
There is a “gotcha” you need to watch out for if you use ECA. The “encapsulation” part is made from hydrogenated vegetable oil, which melts at a specific temperature. This shields the meat from the citric acid until it gets up to a certain temp. If it gets exposed too early in the process it does not work.
The coating (encapsulation) is physically delicate, so ECA is the very last thing you add to the mix – and you shouldn’t mix it for more than a minute. Then stuff and smoke without significant delay. Without ECA your sausage might benefit from a night in the fridge before stuffing. But with ECA the encapsulation could be softened overnight and might fail, creating an unpleasant texture and flavor. So you add ECA at the final mix, then stuff and smoke without significant delay. A couple of hours to let the stuffed casings dry a bit is no problem – but not much longer than that.
One last thing about ECA. I’ve read that Walton’s brand is designed to release the citric acid at 135°F, whereas some other brands are designed for 150°F – which could be a bit tight for a recipe designed to be pulled at 152°F (like this recipe). If you’re cooking to 160°F, which many summer sausage recipes do, that should be fine. I stick with Waltons for my ECA. I’ve had great experiences getting supplies from LEM, Waltons, the Sausage Maker, and some others too, so no brand loyalty here. Just a heads-up.
Regarding measurements, I’m starting to shift from imperial to metric. Sorry if that’s a hassle – but digital kitchen scales are cheap, accurate, rugged, and widely available. Every kitchen should have one. Sausage recipes benefit from accuracy and repeatability — particularly with critical ingredients like salt, cure, and ECA.
A temperature probe or two will also improve your life. Smoking without one is a pain. Knowing the precise temp inside your smoker, and the internal temp of what you are smoking makes your life much easier.
Part of the secret is the timing and temperatures. They are important but can be a hassle to attain. Babysitting a smoker all night is a fun adventure maybe once. After that it’s a pain.
Because electric smokers have a tough time producing adequate smoke at the relatively low temperatures cured sausages are processed, I use a cheap and simple DIY external smoke generator (google “Mailbox mod”). Works unattended for hours with no need to reload.
The temperature in my smoker is precisely managed by a programmable “Auber AW-WST1510H-W” PID controller that connects to wi-fi. It has a mobile app I can use to monitor and control the cook from anywhere with internet access. It costs a bit (about $220 as of this writing) but allows you to pre-set a complex temperature schedule super easy to handle. It’s a commercial-grade bit of kit that will make you happy. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but it’s not rocket surgery.
Warning – PID’s don’t work on digital devices unless modified to allow the PID to directly control the heating element. Most digitally controlled electric smokers can be brute modified to put their heating element under PID control (that’s what I did with my Masterbuilt MES 340G). It’s a simple job for anyone with much experience working with wiring, but get help if it anything about the job is not in your comfort zone.
Depending on the smoker, such a modification may disable digital functions like readouts, wifi, or blue-tooth. Unless restored to original condition they must NEVER be plugged into direct power, but always powered through a PID.
A PID can also control other analog cooking tools like most slow cookers, portable electric roaster ovens, etc. I use it to make stock in my 22 quart roaster oven. It should work fine with any cooker for which the heat is controlled by a rheostat or a simple mechanical switch. But it will not work at all with any cooker that is digitally controlled.
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lbs meat&fat
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- 227 g salt — canning/pickling or kosher. Not iodized
- 57 g powdered dextrose
- 7 g ground ginger
- 7 g dry mustard
- 6 oz Waltons 'Sure Gel' Meat Binder — There are other binders. Feel free to substitute if you do your research, but Do NOT use "Sure-Jell" fruit pectin. TOTALLY DIFFERENT!
- 7 g Granulated garlic
- 28 g ground black pepper — grind just before adding
- 7 g ground coriander — grind fresh if you can
- 85 g corn syrup solids
- 28 g Instacure #1 — Curing salt. a.k.a Prague Powder #1.
- 4 cups Cold Liquid (stock, dry red wine, or ice water) — If using a gelatinous stock (good!) stir vigorously to break up clumps before making slurry or mixing into meat.
- 1 cup whole black peppercorns (optional) — Primarily visual, but taste a bit pungent at first. They mellow after a couple of days.
- 3/4 cup whole mustard seed (optional) — Primarily visual. Brown, yellow, or a mix of both
- 3 oz ECA (Encapsulated Citric Acid) — The magic ingredient to produce tang without fermentation. Delicate, don't mix too long.
Ingredients
Ground/powdery bits
Liquid
Chunky Bits
ECA
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- Read through the directions and make a plan for your time. Most important is to avoid significant delay between the time you add the ECA, and when you load the smoker. Get all your ingredients together. And clear out enough space in your fridge and freezer - you're going to be shifting meat and grinder parts back and forth and need room to refrigerate the sausages when you're done.
- Make slurry by mixing ground/powdery bits with liquid. Take care to ensure there are no lumps. Consider doing this a day or two ahead and storing it in the fridge.
- Before grinding, stage detachable grinder parts, fat and chunked meat in freezer until meat is well firmed but not frozen hard (≈ half an hour)
- Coarse grind the fat and meat (≈ 3/8", 9mm or 10mm plate) and return to freezer along with the detachable grinder parts for another 20-30 minutes.
- Fine grind meat and fat (≈ 3/16", 4.5mm or 5mm plate).
- Optionally stage covered overnight in the fridge. Otherwise return meat to freezer another 20-30 minutes before proceeding
- Soak fibrous casings in warm water. They should soak at least half an hour before stuffing. This is really just prep for step 5 — but timing-wise you should do it now.
- NOTE: Mixing is not just to distribute the ingredients. There is also a physical change to the meat called "protein extraction" which is a key factor in the final texture of your sausage. Cured/smoked products like summer sausage take about 5-7 minutes in a powered mixer to hit the right amount of protein extraction. A little more for a hand-crank mixer (depending on the operator). For pure hand mixing you go by feel, not by time. As you mix the meat it will become increasingly more sticky. When it wants to stretch a bit rather than just separating when pulling a glob apart, it is ready. If you're not sure what I mean go to youtube and search for "sausage protein extraction" and you should find some clear examples.
- Briefly mix slurry into the meat
- Add peppercorns and mustard seed and thoroughly mix until correct protein extraction is achieved.
- Add the ECA and mix 45-60 seconds, not longer, unless by hand and you think it needs a little more. This is the final mix.
- Stuff casings
- Hang sausages at room-temp an hour or two to dry the casings. Not longer if you used ECA. This is a good time for the dog to be outside.
- Preheat smoker to 120°F, then further dry the casings by hanging sausages in the chamber, with full open damper, for 2 hours with no water.
- Add a water pan with a chamois or large sponge (helps increase humidity). Keep an eye on the water for the rest of the cook and top off with boiling water if it gets low.
- Apply smoke, close damper to about 1/3rd open, and follow this schedule for the smoker temp: — 125°F for 4 hours — 145°F for 2 hours — 165°F for 2 hours
- Stop smoke. Raise smoker to 170°F and hold there until internal sausage temp hits 152°F. BE PATIENT - it can take a while
- Remove from smoker and immediately shower or ice bath until internal temp < 120°F
- Hang to "bloom" at room temp 2 to 4 hours, then refrigerate a couple of days if you can stand to wait. Keeps a long while in the fridge, but best to freeze for long-term storage. Slice some and email a photo to Steve@KillerNoms.com.
Two things can be done in advance to make things less hectic on mixing/stuffing/smoking day: make the slurry a day or two before, and store covered in the fridge. You can also grind and stage the meat/fat block and stage in the fridge overnight.
Purchase enough casings to comfortably hold the batch. Somewhere around 2.5" diameter is traditional for summer sausage. If you plan to hang them to smoke, buy a length that will hang without leaving the bottom of the sausage too near your heat source - which might cause the bottom to overcook. Of course, you could cut them to fit before stuffing. Or you can lay them on grates rather than hanging.
Casings are widely available but my favorites are the beautiful casings from a Ukraine company called Seym. They sell through Ebay and Amazon here:
Ebay: ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ssn=fashionseim
Amazon: amazon.com/s?k=SEYM&i=kitchen
(2022 update - Though SEYM is in Ukraine. Despite the war their ebay and Amazon presence appears to still be current and active - though Ebay may have more of their products than does Amazon.)
Seym liked the picture I took of my sausages so much they made it their profile pic on their Facebook page! How cool is that? Shipping takes a few weeks so plan ahead. I actually keep them in stock and re-order when I'm ready to use what I have on hand. They last forever, so why not.