summer sausage

A few weeks ago when there was a bit of a fresh meat shortage, I noticed Kroger had  pre-packaged ground beef in a brand they don't usually carry.  I thought it looked pretty fatty so I didn't try it out.

Later I saw that ground beef discounted since it was getting close to expiration so I bought a couple of 3 pound packages, with a plan in mind to use it in making Summer Sausage. 

I couldn't find my old recipe for Summer Sausage.  I used to make it every year at Christmas time but for some reason I'd stopped making it and my recipe had disappeared.

But I easily found recipes and instructions online...a bit different than I remember though.

The important ingredient is Morton Tender Quick curing salt which sort of dries the meat and the fat.

I still have a bag of it from years ago.

Besides the curing salt, you add spices and Liquid Smoke to the ground beef and refrigerate for 3 days...kneading it like bread dough once every day.

On the last day it gets formed into logs and baked.

When the Sasquatch found out I was making this batch of the sausages, he brought over a 3 pound package of regular Kroger ground beef that he had bought and asked if I'd make some for him also - so I just combined it with mine for one huge batch.

This is before baking. The meat is rather unappealing at this point.

My old recipe instructed to bake the sausages at a very low temperature over night. The recipes online said to bake shorter times and higher temperatures.

After baking...

I compromised and baked about 3 hours at 210 degrees. 

 I don't know...maybe they still aren't so delicious looking.  When my sons were young teenagers there were lots of jokes and snickering about the appearance of the sausages...and I referred to it as "beef sticks" back then...resulting in much hilarity for the boys!

They are tasty. Better eaten cold.  The yellow dots you see are mustard seeds. I also used garlic powder, black pepper and red pepper flakes.

I started with 9 pounds total of ground beef and ended  up with over 7 pounds of finished sausages.

I wrapped them in freezer paper. They stay good in the fridge for days but I put them in the freezer for longer storage.  Good for lunch or for a snack.