After smoking the summer sausage you need to hang the summer sausage for up to 3 days.
After smoking the summer sausage keep your summer sausages hanging at room temperature (65 to 80°F) at about 85 percent humidity for three days.
Yes, three days at room temperature.
This is why you need the curing salts and the starter culture.
When your summer sausage is sticking to the casing it means that your smoking temp for the summer sausage is too high.
When the smoking temps are too high for your summer sausage you're getting what in sausage making is called "fat out" when the fat renders out.
This not only results in a layer of fat forming between the casing and the meat but also makes the sausage crumbly and dry.
The high heat bakes and deforms the fibrous casings.
If your summer sausage is shrinking then it's usually because you didn't give the summer sausage an ice bath.
Your summer sausage, just as with other cuts of meat, will also shrink and contract in direct relation to the amount of heat it is subjected to and the amount of time it is exposed to that heat.
Summer Sausage does need an ice bath so that it does not wrinkle or shrink.
When making homemade summer sausage you do need to perform an ice bath for the summer sausage which is important.
To keep summer sausage from wrinkling make sure to give the summer sausage an ice bath.
Cooling the sausage in an ice bath halts the cooking process and sets the casings.
Leave the sausages in the bath for 10-15 minutes to get the temp down.
'Shrivelled and wrinkly' means that that sausage has undergone a freeze-thaw-freeze process that has made it break a bit of the emulsion (sausage being a near homogenous cooked suspension of protein: fat:water).
Summer Sausage can be fried if you want to fry the summer sausage.
Although summer sausage is fully cured and cooked and ready to eat you can certainly fry the summer sausage or even heat it up if you want too.
You can also add summer sausage to pizza or salads etc.
Opened summer sausage can sit out at room temperature for up to 2 to 3 hours.
Sealed Summer Sausage can remain and sit out at room temperature for several months and even years before it goes bad although it's at best quality up to 10 months.
Opened summer sausage can sit out for around 2 to 3 hours before it should be refrigerated.
Sealed packages of summer sausages can remain at room temperature for several months and even years but the summer sausage is at best quality up to 10 months although it remains safe to eat after that time.
Beef Summer Sausage once opened lasts for around 3 weeks in the refrigerator.
If the beef summer sausage remains sealed it can last for a year or even longer before it goes bad.
Properly stored, unopened dry summer sausage will maintain best quality for about 10 months, but will remain safe beyond that time.
It takes around 12 hours to digest summer sausage once you've eaten it.
However some people digest the summer sausage much faster than others but the average time to digest summer sausage and other meats is 12 hours although it may take 24 to 48 hours to digest meats and summer sausage.
The wrapping on summer sausage is most often made of cellulose although it can also be made of plastic, paper, or other artificial ingredients to make a wrapper.
Either way the wrapper on the summer sausage is not edible and should be removed and thrown out.
You cannot and should not eat the wrapper on summer sausage.
The wrapper on summer sausage is not edible and is made of either cellulose, plastic or other artificial non edible materials.
You should always remove the wrapper from the summer sausage before eating the summer sausage.
Summer Sausage is called summer sausage because of the fact that the summer sausage requires no refrigeration and can be kept without refrigeration even during the hot summer months.
Summer sausage got its name from the fact that when made the sausage needed little or no refrigeration, thus the sausages could be kept for eating in the usually warmer summer months.
Summer Sausage was made in Europe for hundreds of years (or longer) and immigrants brought their recipes to the new world.
2 slices of summer sausage is a serving of summer sausage.
One serving of summer sausage is considered 2 slices of summer sausage.
However of course you can serve more than 2 slices of summer sausage for person if you want too but 2 slices of summer sausage are considered one serving of summer sausage.
Summer Sausage does have a lot of sodium.
A summer sausage contains around 550 mg of sodium which is quite a lot of sodium so if you need to watch your sodium intake then you should eat summer sausage sparingly.
Summer Sausage does not contain or have any milk in it.
Although some processed meats have milk but summer sausage does not have milk.
Summer Sausage is most often dried sausage that goes through a fermenting and curing process using curing salt.
Although some types of summer sausage are also smoked summer sausage as well as cured sausage.
Summer sausage is fermented, and can be dried or smoked, and while curing ingredients vary significantly, curing salt is almost always used.
Seasonings may include mustard seeds, black pepper, garlic salt, or sugar.
Summer Sausage bought in the store does not need to be cooked.
The summer sausage bought in the store is already cooked and ready to eat.
You can eat summer sausage cold.
Summer Sausage is cooked and not raw.
You can slice up summer sausage and eat it without heating it up and eat it cold if you want too.
Normally summer sausage is served cold right out of the package.
Although some people may want to warm the summer sausage up there's no need to heat the summer sausage up.
I eat summer sausage right out of the package sometimes myself and don't heat it up first.
I've eaten a whole summer sausage myself although I always say that I'm saving some for later but it's so delicious that I keep a knife at my desk and will eat through the summer sausage within 10 to 20 minutes.
Summer sausage is meant to be eaten right from the package and it's not raw.
Just remember to remove the paper wrapper from around the summer sausage before you eat it.
If you've bought summer sausage from the store or your local butcher's shop, there's no need to cook or prepare it in any way.
Summer sausage can be served straight from the package and is an excellent pairing for any charcuterie board you want to serve at the next dinner party.