hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with summer sausage that's right it
takes months to make a proper summer sausage but as i'm just about to show
you we can make an improper one in just a few days and despite taking some
massive shortcuts the results really are impressive and above and beyond the
wonderful taste and texture it's always kind of nice eating a sausage where we
know exactly what is in it I mean I like a little mystery in my life but not that
kind so with that let's go ahead and get started
by smashing up some diced celery with a little bit of salt in this mortar and by
the way if you want you can just mince this really fine with a knife but by
smashing it I think we're gonna end up with something a little juicier and in
case you're wondering we're not just doing this for the flavor but also
because celery contains nitrates which is actually gonna help cure our sausage
but anyway if we're using this method we'll go ahead and work that over until
it looks a little something like this at which point we will add that to two
pounds of freshly ground beef which does not have to be freshly ground by us but
you should actually go to the butcher counter and have them grind this for you
or at least make sure they freshly ground the one in the case what we want
to try to avoid is buying the stuff that's already packaged and then to this
we will also add some garlic powder which is not garlic salt
it's just dehydrated garlic that's been ground we will also add in a whole bunch
of smoked paprika as well as a generous amount of whole mustard seeds followed
by copious amounts of freshly ground black pepper and kosher salt
not to mention exactly three shakes of cayenne and then we will finish up with
two technically optional ingredients a little bit of pink curing salt which I
will discuss in detail in the blog I know it is not the same thing as pink
Himalayan salt and then last but not least I'm gonna add in a little bit of
sugar and that's it once we have everything together we're gonna go ahead
and give this a very thorough mixing preferably with our clean bare hands and
this is one of those rare times where our fear of under mixing should actually
be greater than our fear of over mixing okay so we're gonna want to get in there
and get in there deep and continue mixing until we are absolutely certain
that everything is perfectly distributed and then what we'll do once we think
everything's been thoughtfully combined is transfer that onto some parchment
paper where we will attempt to shape it into some kind of uniform log and as
usual we'll want to DAP in our fingers so the meat doesn't stick to our hands
and as we're doing this we want to try to prevent any large pockets of air from
being trapped inside so be sure to really press and push this firmly and
what we're shooting for here is something about three or four inches
wide and then what we'll do once that's been accomplished is go ahead and roll
this up and as we're doing this not only are we trying to get this nice and
uniform but we're also trying to get it as compact and compressed as possible
and then once that's rolled we'll go ahead and twist the ends as tight as we
can to create what is basically a giant beef spleef and then once that SAB we'll
go ahead and transfer that onto a paper towel line sheet pan because before we
wrap this in foil and cook it we need to pop it in the fridge just like this for
24 hours so that is exactly what I did and then the next day we'll go ahead and
pull that out and get it ready for the oven
which means we will first cut off any excess parchment paper from either end
and then we'll go ahead and unroll it and proceed to smoke it and when I said
smoke it I did the air quotes because we're not really gonna smoke it but
we're just gonna simulate that by using some liquid smoke then I'm gonna dilute
in a little bit of cold fresh water and while you could of course just add some
of this liquid smoke to the meat mix I much prefer this method because if we
add it along with the other ingredients it's very easy to overdo it plus when we
actually smoke something the flavor of course comes from the outside in so I
feel like this method gives us something much closer to the real deal and what
we'll do once we have that mixed up is go ahead and generously brush that all
over as well as we can also brush them on the paper and then once our liquid
smoke mixture has been applied we'll go ahead and roll this back up at which
point it's ready to transfer onto a large piece of heavy duty foil or
several sheets of regular foil and just like when we rolled this in the paper
we really want to make sure we're compressing and compacting this as much
as possible and again that's to avoid any large bubbles or crevasses in the
middle once it's baked okay so we're gonna roll that up nice and tight and
when we're done what we'll do is take both ends and twist them in opposite
directions which will help compress things even for
and then once that said we can transfer that on top of a baking rack that we
placed in a sheet pan and once we figured out where the bottoms gonna be
we will sort of roll that over and we will poke about five or six holes
through the foil which will allow some of the excess moisture to drip out and
that's it our sausage is now ready to transfer into the center of a 275 degree
oven for about an hour and a half or until we've reached an internal temp of
exactly 150 and by the way do not under any circumstances go past 150 otherwise
too much of the fat will render out and the texture will not be as good which is
why I like to use one of these probe thermometers which will ring an alarm
when you reach your target temperature and then what we'll do as soon as this
comes out is absolutely nothing all right just simply let it sit there until
it reaches room temp at which point we'll get both ends another twist to
sort of compress it even further and then refrigerate this at least overnight
okay a couple nights is probably even better in which point we can finally
pull it out and unwrap it really quickly and I'll be the first to admit this
might not be the best looking meat log you've ever seen but we'll get to the
appearance in a minute for now I'm gonna slice in to see how we did on the
interior and if everything goes according to plan we should get a
beautiful smooth solid cut with no giant crevices or air pockets I mean you're
always gonna get a few smaller bubbles here and there but as far as a homemade
summer sausage goes that's about as good as we can expect although I did have a
brief moment of panic here because I was like what the heck is that red thing I
don't remember putting any red ingredients in but then I remembered the
smoked paprika so that must have been caused by a tiny chunk of that stuff
that didn't break up and what are the odds that my knife hit that exact tiny
spot when slicing this well apparently roughly a hundred percent but despite
that tiny flaw I was absolutely thrilled with how this came out and I celebrated
by eating a little slice off the end which really was magnificent and if we
wanted we could just slice this up and serve it as is but I do like to do one
extra optional step and that would be the dusty outside with some freshly
ground black pepper to soar to help improve that outside appearance which
once sliced by the way is gonna be fine but I do think this looks a little
better if we dust on something so what I like to do here is
that with black pepper and then transfer down to some crinkled up foil and then
let it air-dry in the fridge uncovered for one additional day which I think not
only gives you outside a more finished appearance but it's also going to allow
our sausage to dry out just a little bit and allow those flavors to concentrate
and develop even further so you go ahead and decide if you want to do this or not
I mean you are after all the MVP of your homemade charcuterie but if you can wait
one more day I do recommend it and that's it the next day we can pull it
out and go ahead and slice it up and go in for the official taste for something
where we shaved off a couple months of production time and didn't actually let
it ferment and cure properly or even be smoked properly the results are still
very very impressive I mean this stuff has pretty much the exact taste and
texture of that certain summer sausage you're used to from the gift baskets and
as far as serving goes you could simply do this off the cutting board or take it
up to the next level and include it in your very own custom-made charcuterie
platter garnished with some of the usual suspects and if you've never had this
stuff before it's basically like a garlicky slightly smoky salami which is
why of course it's so good with a little mustard on a cracker paired with some
cheese and once again I'm sorry I threw away the package I'm not sure what that
is although it appears to be a wash Rhine goat cheese and by the way
speaking of salami do not think of this video as a recipe this was all about the
technique and by switching up the meats and the spices and the flavorings and
the size you make it you can produce other similar type sausages like maybe a
pepperoni or a sopressata or even those little spicy meat snack sticks what are
those called thin Jameses something like that but
anyway whether you follow this exact formula or come up with your own very
special variations either way I really do hope you give this a try soon so head
over to food whooshes calm for all the ingredient amounts of more info as usual
and as always enjoy
you