Summer Sausage

By Addie

"A very tasty sausage that is nice to give away in gift baskets. Add or omit spices to suit your taste." — TGFROST

Ingredients

• 5 pounds ground beef
• 5 teaspoons sugar-based curing mixture (such as Morton Tender Quick)
• 1/4 cup mustard seed
• 3 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon hickory-flavored liquid smoke

Details

Servings 40
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 10mins
Adapted from allrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

In a large bowl, mix beef, curing mixture, mustard seed, garlic powder, cayenne, red pepper flakes, salt, and liquid smoke. Cover with plastic, and refrigerate for three days, mixing well once a day.

On the fourth day, preheat oven to 200 degrees F (100 degrees C).

Shape the mixture into five logs, and place on a wire rack over a large drip pan. Bake for eight hours, then remove to cool on paper towels. Let cool, then wrap logs individually in plastic wrap. Chill completely before slicing. They also freeze well.
...................

REVIEWS:

This is almost exactly like the summer sausage that has been handed down to me by my grandparents. It is the best sausage I have ever eaten! Our recipe uses garlic salt instead of garlic powder and has 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorns per pound of meat. It is really good when made with ground turkey too. That is the way I usually make it these days.

This is a wonderful recipe. The whole family love it. I changed nothing about it. It smells so good I almost hated waiting the 3 days, but do it because it is definetly worth it. Thanks so Much.

Oh my goodness. I can't believe how easy this is to make and how wonderful it tastes. Thank you for this recipe. I took 3 logs to Christmas Eve and Christmas Dinner and there was none left. My brother was asking me to make some with some deer meat he had. I will be making a lot of this and putting it in my freezer for a quick snack for unexpected guests. I bought 10 pounds of hamburger to make some so I would have it for New Year's Eve. I think I will add jalepenos to one batch. Thanks again for this easy recipe.

I followed this recipe exactly. I used a very good quality of beef, 100% home raised angus. The sausage turned out great! Next time I will experiment with more spices, possibly adding a little more red pepper for an additional kick. I think I will also try adding some venison for a gamier flavor. All in all...good recipe.

This is a great recipe. I double it and make five logs as the recipe states and add extra cayenne and pepper flakes to the other five logs batch. Love it!!

EXCELLENT!!! I doubled the garlic powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and I used Mesquite liquid smoke. I also used Tony's more spice for the salt. Kids and husband LOVED it! Making some now for late Christmas presents. YUM!

THANK YOU for this recipe! Everyone loved it. I will be making this often. I used deer this time but will try beef for the next batch. I doubled the liquid smoke and added about 3 teaspoons of peppercorns. I omitted the cayenne pepper just because I couldn't find it at the store. For the curing salt I used Mortons tender quick. I cooked them in my roasting pan. That worked perfect.

This recipe is awesome! My family loved it!

This recipe was disappointing. It wasn't BAD, as such, just not good. It seems to be missing something, some flavor or spice that I can't put my finger on. My husband and I both were expecting something somewhat sweeter, for some reason. I'm not going to throw this away...it's not that bad. I'll serve it for company and whomever likes it will get to take it home :~D I won't be making this one again, because I'm sure there's something better out there. Oh, FYI, I did use all beef (90% lean) and followed the directions and amounts as presented, making no changes.

Made to the recipe. Had never made summer sausage before so I pretty much had to. My husband raved! He will be making sure I make this again. Would make great hostess or small gifts around the holidays. You can be sure no one else will be giving homemade summer sausage, but take the recipe because you'll be asked!

This is great stuff, but I have questions for TGFROST. Looking at other recipies on internet, some say to wrap in foil and poke holes in bottom, will this keep the out side from getting to hard and chewy? And I found a recipie just like this except smaller portion and they added water, what is the difference? I am going to try with venison and turkey next. Thanks Lisa

Very tasty! Everyone I gave the finished product to loved the taste. It's a "keeper"

Fabulous!!! I followed the recipe exactly, Think I may crank up the spice next time, But otherwise it was Wonderful!!!!

First had this 10 years ago at an office party. Loved it and was so glad to find the recipe. Exactly like I remembered it. Really tasty, perfectly seasoned. My picky husband and son loved it so that is saying something! My husband wants me to try it again using half venison.

I have made this at least 10 times and it is easy and very tasty. Thanks for recipe

This is the exact recipe that my mom used years ago. I am so happy I found it. Memories for me and my family

I mix up about 12 lbs of venision to 3 lbs ground pork. The first batch I cooked was good but very dry. I cut the cooking time back to about 6-1/2 hours for my next batch and it was much better. I mix for 15 lbs of meat.

This turned out a bit more bland than we expected, and was pretty dry, going to try adding a bit more spice and add in some pork, and perhaps reduce cooking time or make the rolls a little thicker and shorter. not giving up on the recipe though.