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Made some venison summer sausage using this recipe... http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-recipes/summer.htm ... Except I used 10 lbs pork butt, 10 lbs venison, and 2 lbs cheddar and jack cheese. This recipe calls for a culture for tang, color, and prolonged shelf life. So they were carefully stuffed and incubated in high humidity for 24 hours.
So time to smoke! I wanted a 6 hour smoke at 100 to 120 degrees before I brought them up to 140, so I used a propane burner in the bottom of my smoker warming cabinet like I've done 100 times before. Had hickory chunks in a cast iron pan.
It was cold out so I turned up the gas a bit more than I usually do. (mistake #1)
I put a few extra chunks in for a good long smoke. (mistake #2)
I put one of the grates between the sausage and the chunks to put a smoke/ heat diffuser on it. (mistake #3)
Everything was humming along fine with some nice smoke until about an hour in. I went to check on them, and I noticed no smoke coming out, and the temps were way high. When I opened the door I saw my beautiful summer sausages laying on the grate after everything had lit on fire enough to burn the string off that held them dropping them down in a flame that was prolonged by grease on the grate and grease being melted out of the sausages.
By the time I got there the fire was out but the damage was done. These were to be Christmas gifts for some of my hunting buddies. I was devastated to say the least. After all that work.
Well I reset everything best I could and finished them laying on grates with an 8 hour smoke.
Too ugly to gift, but the flavor was excellent. A very good recipe for sure. Nice savory taste of course black pepper and whole mustard and celery seeds.
Probably would have been a good idea to cover the wood chunks with foil. The pile of chunks got too hot and caught on fire, and the rest is history.
As I was looking for some comforting words from my wife, she disgustingly said...." Rookie Mistake ".
Heres the screw view...
So time to smoke! I wanted a 6 hour smoke at 100 to 120 degrees before I brought them up to 140, so I used a propane burner in the bottom of my smoker warming cabinet like I've done 100 times before. Had hickory chunks in a cast iron pan.
It was cold out so I turned up the gas a bit more than I usually do. (mistake #1)
I put a few extra chunks in for a good long smoke. (mistake #2)
I put one of the grates between the sausage and the chunks to put a smoke/ heat diffuser on it. (mistake #3)
Everything was humming along fine with some nice smoke until about an hour in. I went to check on them, and I noticed no smoke coming out, and the temps were way high. When I opened the door I saw my beautiful summer sausages laying on the grate after everything had lit on fire enough to burn the string off that held them dropping them down in a flame that was prolonged by grease on the grate and grease being melted out of the sausages.
By the time I got there the fire was out but the damage was done. These were to be Christmas gifts for some of my hunting buddies. I was devastated to say the least. After all that work.
Well I reset everything best I could and finished them laying on grates with an 8 hour smoke.
Too ugly to gift, but the flavor was excellent. A very good recipe for sure. Nice savory taste of course black pepper and whole mustard and celery seeds.
Probably would have been a good idea to cover the wood chunks with foil. The pile of chunks got too hot and caught on fire, and the rest is history.
As I was looking for some comforting words from my wife, she disgustingly said...." Rookie Mistake ".
Heres the screw view...
I will say that's a chicken sh*t way of keeping it all for yourself.
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