Summer sausage --- cure or no cure ?

[Huntindad]

Gonna make some summer sausage along with breakfast sausage and bacon burger in a couple weeks.

I will put the tubes in the smoker for a few hours to get smoked and then they'll go int the oven to cook before hitting the ice chest.

Do I need to put cure in the meat?

[bpa556]

If you plan on cooking to safe temp, you don’t need cure.


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[Yak blue]

Never seen summer sausage that wasn’t pink from cure.. Probably be a little different texture too if you didn’t use it.
But as long as you didn’t let it linger in the temp “danger zone” when smoking it, you’re probably fine
If you don’t cure it, post pics and taste report of the final product. You kinda have me curious.

[Walker]

Cure shouldn't change the taste at all. Will keep the color "more" red. Use it just to be safe.

[eradicator]

I always cure and do the whole process in the smoker. No reason to finish in the oven IMO

[Austin]

Add cure stuff hold in fridge overnight cook low and slow I start at 150-160 for two hours then kick it up to 180 for about two hours then up to 190 till it hits 160 internal then ice bath

[waterdog]

^^^^^

[Rubi513]

Cure shouldn't change the taste at all.

I can definitely taste the difference…

I use it to just be safe.

[Huntindad]

hmm, being it is pork & venison... what should the final internal temp be, before I pull it out and put it in an ice bath.

[eradicator]

hmm, being it is pork & venison... what should the final internal temp be, before I pull it out and put it in an ice bath.

if not wild pork, 152 is enough. I usually go to 155-160

[Huntindad]

It would be pork shoulder pork.

[ShoootLow]

I have done both ways. Seems the texture is better with cure. I use 1/2 “dose” and let sit for 24 hours before I case, 5g/10#. Shelf life in fridge is better, too. I tried adding more salt to mixes without cure and it just wasn’t the same.

[Smart]

Summer sausage --- cure or no cure ?

We use cure in SS and buckstix but not regular link. We cold smoke for 5-6 hours in the smokehouse until the desired color is reached and finish in the oven to get to temp . Used to be 165 but now we do 155.

[KenWood]

I use tenderquick for summer sausage cure. If you don’t use cure you need to cook it faster and not cold smoke it for very long. I think without cure youll be very disappointed. I drank too much one year and forgot the tenderquick and they shriveled up to about a third the stuffed size and were still bleeding when I pulled them. Trashed the whole batch.

[Leemo]

Never used cure in anything......
My family has been making sausage, etc.... for over 100 years, no Bohemians yet