Venison sweet lebanon bologna

[woolybear]

 Looking for a venison recipe that would be similar to sweet lebanon bologna (it's a Lancaster Pa. bologna)

[tenbusybees]

Oh my! I adore Lebanon bologna. That's all we ate at my grandparents. Such great memories. I sure do wish I could find it here and introduce my kids to it.

Sorry, that's no help to you. I hope you find a recipe that works for you. I used to have one using beef. I never tried it though because I can't find undyed saltpeter.

I'll see if I can find it and post it for you.

[paquebot]

Beef or venison, all the same. Should be able to find a recipe on the web but it's also on Page 346 Great Sausage Recipes. Proper prepping is important. The following applies to 10#.

Grind meat through ½" plate and mixed with 5 ounces of salt. It's aged for 5 or 6 days at 38º to 40º allowing the juice to run off. It is then ground with 3/16" plate and mixed with the following.
¾ ounce salt
2 tsp Prague Powder No 2
4 ounces corn syrup solids
1 ounce powdered dextrose
6 ounces Fermento
1 Tbs ground white pepper
1 Tbs ground nutmeg
1 Tbs paprika
1 tsp onion powder


Mix and stuff in 5" x 24" casing and smoked according to following:
16 hours at 90º and 90% humidity
28 hours at 105º and 85% humidity
6 hours at 110º and 85% humidity


That's the official recipe if you want it as you'd find commercially. The ingredients and process steps are there. How much you'd want to stray from the original is up to you.

Martin

[feather]

Dec 1, 2017 22:00:47 GMT paquebot said:

Beef or venison, all the same. Should be able to find a recipe on the web but it's also on Page 346 Great Sausage Recipes. Proper prepping is important. The following applies to 10#.

Grind meat through ½" plate and mixed with 5 ounces of salt. It's aged for 5 or 6 days at 38º to 40º allowing the juice to run off. It is then ground with 3/16" plate and mixed with the following.
¾ ounce salt
2 tsp Prague Powder No 2
4 ounces corn syrup solids
1 ounce powdered dextrose
6 ounces Fermento
1 Tbs ground white pepper
1 Tbs ground nutmeg
1 Tbs paprika
1 tsp onion powder


Mix and stuff in 5" x 24" casing and smoked according to following:
16 hours at 90º and 90% humidity
28 hours at 105º and 85% humidity
6 hours at 110º and 85% humidity


That's the official recipe if you want it as you'd find commercially. The ingredients and process steps are there. How much you'd want to stray from the original is up to you.

Martin

If I get to have enough venison for that. What would you use for the corn syrup solids. I have all the other ingredients and methods available to me. Any idea? Thank you.

[paquebot]

Every sausage making ingredient was always available from Sausage Maker and I had some of just about everything. Checked my chest of ingredients and none of that left. Sausage Maker currently has 5# for $12.99. It's mainly for dry-cured sausages. If there's a local butcher shop or deer processor that makes their own sausage, you might contact them to see if they'd be willing to sell a pound. WalMart has maltose corn syrup solids in 1# bags but I'm not certain if they are exactly the same.

Martin

[woolybear]

Martin thanks for the recipe. Can't wait to try it out, if I ever get done cutting up these deer.

[paquebot]

I never tried that particular sausage since I didn't have a smoker. I made just about every type that Sausage Maker had mixes for but used the oven on the smoked type. Liquid smoke was usually an option in the recipe if a smoker wasn't available.

Martin

[woolybear]

I have a smoker, just have to learn how to use it. Now I'm getting excited to try out smoked sausage.

[feather]

For those who know this particular sausage...have eaten it. Can you describe the texture and color and taste, since we've never had this to my knowledge. Is this a sausage you keep in the refrigerator or is it so dry (it doesn't sound dry from the recipe) that it can be kept at room temperature or in a cheese cave type environment (55 degrees F).

I guess I'm wondering why it is called 'bologna', since bologna is a fine ground fatty meat, sliced meat for sandwiches, and there is essentially no fat in this recipe. Or is this what I'm missing, from the recipe, should there be 1/3 fat from a pork shoulder possibly added to the lean venison?ET

EDITED to Add:I did a bunch of looking around for recipes for this sausage. There is a traditional and a sweet recipe. Some use only beef no pork, some venison, some venison and pork. Mostly it looks like salami without any hot spices, with specks of fat, so I'd assume 1/4 to 1/3 fat. And this sausage is not finely ground, or ground and then ground again with a fine grinder.

Sometimes they call it lean and still it has white specks of fat in it, maybe only 1/5 fat. Fat adds and enhances flavor, so I'm adding a pork shoulder with lots of fat, as venison, once cleaned has none.

I'm going to aim for 9 or 10 lbs worth of pork and venison. To make it.

I researched the corn syrup solids. Corn syrup has 19% moisture, corn syrup solids have 3% moisture, so I want to lose 16 % moisture. I'll use corn syrup and increase the amount by 16%. I didn't notice any water added to the spices and ingredients, to dissolve them, so the corn syrup may act as the liquid in the recipe. The fermenting process will eat up the dextrose and the corn syrup solids helping to preserve and flavor the meat. Most sausage recipes have liquid added to them at the stage where they add the powdered ingredients.

The venison seems very dry, no blood running off yet. The salt should dehydrate it further and maybe there will be liquid running off of it in the next few days while it ages in the refrigerator.
It's gonna be fun.

[paquebot]

Haven't had it but it's supposed to be a dry sausage. Thus there would be no fat added. The cure also means that it does not need refrigeration. It's one of those that you'd find hanging from the rafters after smoking and curing.

Martin

[feather]

Dec 7, 2017 0:44:53 GMT paquebot said:

Haven't had it but it's supposed to be a dry sausage. Thus there would be no fat added. The cure also means that it does not need refrigeration. It's one of those that you'd find hanging from the rafters after smoking and curing.

Martin

Well, to me, I think of this sausage as a fermented sausage. Look at the humidity levels, it's not dry.

16 hours at 90º and 90% humidity
28 hours at 105º and 85% humidity
6 hours at 110º and 85% humidity

The high humidity's help the fermentation process. At best they are dried at the end, after fermentation.

But even if we call this a dry sausage, many dry sausages have 1/5-1/3 fat in them. Dry salami, pepperoni, these are dry sausages with a good portion of fat.

After reading many many recipes for this sausage, full recipes, detailing the amount of lean meat to fat, they usually include fat and I didn't find one without fat.

[Use Less]

My Dad was from Lebanon, PA, so we had the REAL THING He remembered as a boy in the 1930's that he and his school friends would go past the commercial maker/packer and holler,  and the workers would toss them the tied ends left over from slicing the meat for packaging.

[tenbusybees]

When I described LB to people I tell them it's similar in texture to hard salami and the flavor is sort of like salami but with a sweetish vinegary hint, a pleasant fermented taste.

The coloring is darker than hard salami, a sort of purple maroon color.

I can not find the recipe I had saved but I did find a recipe on allrecipes called "deer bologna" that sounds good and looked similar. I'm sorry i'd link it but I can't figure out how to c&p the address on my phone.

[paquebot]

The recipe from the sausage book calls for 100% lean beef, no fat. Actuallu says "100% beef chuck or lean beef trimmings". Look at the second paragraph of instructions. Even the juice is allowed to run off. No fat and little juice equal a dry product.

Martin

[woolybear]

Found 2 recipes for the Lebanon Bologna. Not sure which one I may try. All of the deer is in the freezer until I can deal with it after the holidays.

Home Made Lebanon Bologna

25 lbs of Beef chuck
1 - 18.5 oz bag Leggs #116 snack stick seasoning
3oz Encapsulated Citric Acid (ECA)
8oz Soy Protein Concentrate (SPC)
6 to 8 tbs Liquid smoke
6 to 8 Tbs of Dark Brown sugar
(**For Sweet Bologna, add 10 to 16 Tbs, or sweeten to taste)
Cure#1 (use proper amount) 25lbs = 28.3grams Cure#1

Cut and grind beef mix Legg's with water and Cure#1 as per instructions then add liquid smoke and brown sugar. After final grind and right before stuffing, mix the 3oz of citric acid into meat. Do Not Grind Citric Acid Into Meat! Stuff into large casing and heavy smoke with hickory with low heat slowly bringing up to finishing heat (about 150-160 degs internal) Smoke for about 12 to 16 hours. The longer the smoke the better. **Alternative: after 6-8 hours of heavy smoke (smoker temp range 135-160°F), finish the chubs in a hot water (165°) bath. This will take about 2 hours for the chubs to reach 154°F. Plunge in cold water & hang to bloom.
Let sit in fridge overnight to firm up before slicing. Vacupack, freeze eat and enjoy at leisure.

Lebanon Bologna (Traditional)

This well known American sausage has its roots in the town of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where it was made by German settlers. Lebanon Bologna is a semi-dry, fermented, heavily smoked, all-beef sausage which is not cooked. The traditional process (no starter cultures) calls for curing beef at 4-6º C (40-43º F) for 10 days.
Meats Metric US
beef 1000 g 2.20 lb.
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
salt 28 g 5 tsp.
Cure #1 2.5 g ½ tsp.
sugar, 3% 30 g 6 tsp.
dextrose (glucose), 0.3% 3.0 g ½ tsp.
pepper 3.0 g 1½ tsp.
allspice 2.0 g 1 tsp.
cinnamon 2.0 g 1 tsp.
cloves, ground 1.0 g ½ tsp.
ginger 0.5 g ⅓ tsp.
Instructions
1. Curing. Grind beef with a large plate (3/4”, 20 mm), mix with salt, Cure #1 and sugar and keep for 10 days at 4-6º C (40-43º F).
2. Grind cured beef through 1/8 - 3/16” (3-5 mm) plate.
3. Mix ground meat with all ingredients.
4. Stuff sausage mix into 40-120 mm casings. Natural beef middles, collagen or fibrous casings. The larger casings are tied and stockinetted or laced with butcher twine for support as this is a large and heavy sausage.
5. Cold smoke for 4-8 days at < 22º C, 72º F, 85% humidity.
6. For a drier sausage: dry at 16-12º C (60-54º F), 85-80% humidity.
7. Store sausages at 10-15º C (50-59º F), < 75% humidity.
Notes
Final pH: around 4.2-4.4, water activity 0.93-0.96, it is a moist sausage but extremely stable due to its low final pH. The sausage is often left for 3 days at 4-6º C (40-43º F) for additional ripening. The sausage was traditionally cold smoked for 7 days in winter months and 4 days in the summer.

[Use Less]

Just as a bit of info, Lebanon bologna and sweet bologna are two different sausages.

[feather]

Well from what I've learned much due to the help here, I'm making a recipe between the regular and sweet lebanon sausage. Not quite as sweet as sweet and not unsweet as regular.

Ground chuck is 20% fat and I'm dealing with venison with fatty pork, so about 20% fat. The second grinding, looks just about perfect, texture and color wise.

I'm making it in 2 and 1/2 inch fibrous casings. The kitchen aid sausage stuffer is better used for little sausages and 2 people, one to push the sausage in it, the other to hold the casing being filled. So, I ended up filling them by hand and they took 10 minutes each, 4 of them, all near 2.5 lbs each. My arms are a little tired.

I just started the fermenting, which would be smoking but I put in liquid smoke instead. I put them in plastic in my dehydrator to keep up the humidity which allows me to choose the temperature. They are at 90 degrees F and 90 % RH for 18 hours, then I turn up the heat a little.

I'm going to follow the temperature and relative humidity directions for the approximately 50 hours and then change my cheese cave to 50 degrees instead of 55, and leave them another 4 days, which is what many of the recipes recommend, to let them completely finish fermenting. Then we'll give them a taste and keep them in the refrigerator or freezer.

The spice mix, was very mild, smelled pleasant. I added a little water to make it into more of a slurry and to measure it correctly, 1 cup of slurry to 5 lbs of meat, out of 10 lbs.

All and all, it seems like it will turn out well! I'm happy.

[woolybear]

feather, let me know how it is when it's finished. I'm waiting until after the holidays to work on mine.

[feather]

Dec 10, 2017 4:31:05 GMT woolybear said:

feather , let me know how it is when it's finished. I'm waiting until after the holidays to work on mine.

woolybear, I will. My family loves sausage and this one has no heat (hot spices) so it ought to be well liked, I hope. I showed DH the sausages in the dehydrator and he was mightily impressed with how they looked.

The second stage of 28 hours at 105º and 85% humidity has begun.

I'm a little nervous about it, like I am with cheeses I make, what if, what if, what if! Mostly, the part that makes me nervous, is when it is done. Does it look right? Does it taste right? I'm the first taster, which means if anything went wrong, I'm the one that gets sick. I haven't ever had it happen but I still worry. I'm the first taster of canned goods, the first taster of cheese too.

woolybear, when you get to making it, let me know. It will remind me to try a different sausage. If everything goes well this time, then I'll be wanting to make some pepperoni (spicy), enough for the year. My DS and I are big fans of pepperoni and there is no reason, not to try making it. Most pepperoni recipes are similar except they use smaller casings and hot spices, and it is dryer. Slim Jim type sausages are similar to the pepperoni with even smaller casings, and I have those on hand.

[feather]

I'm drying the sausage now in the cheese cave which is now between 45 and 50 degrees F temporarily until the sausage is done. Usually it is at 55 degrees F but that is too warm for sausage, and in the mean time, the cheese will age a little slower at this lower temperature. Once I'm done with the sausage I'll reset the cheese cave back to 55 degrees F.

So I hear/read that summer sausage needs to continue to ferment but slower now, and it needs to dry, and I like a dryer sausage, harder, with more texture, so this stuff is drying out. It feels a little soft and malleable right now. There were a few air pockets under the fibrous casing and so I'm supposed to squeeze it daily, to get those air pockets to the outside of the sausage. I can see the fibrous casings starting to get wrinkles now--so it is shrinking/drying. I wanted the sausage to get really solid and consistent, so I cleaned up the top of the washing machine with vinegar (like I do with cheese washing), and then rolled the sausage with my hands, across the hard surface with all my might, to force any air pockets to the surface and create a round roll for the sake of safety and looks.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a little white mold start forming on the surface of the casings (like you see with pepperoni and other types) and I think I am seeing a little now though not much. As soon as it seems like a solid sausage, hard texture, it is done. I'm sure even now it is safe to eat but I want to give it a week or so to dry out a little.

[paquebot]

Thought that I might have had an extra sausage pricker but only one in the sausage making chest. They make minute holes to clear out any bubbles in large casings. Seemed very common with summer sausage.

Martin

[feather]

Dec 15, 2017 1:44:41 GMT paquebot said:

Thought that I might have had an extra sausage pricker but only one in the sausage making chest. They make minute holes to clear out any bubbles in large casings. Seemed very common with summer sausage.

Martin

Thanks for caring. I have read that pricking holes in the casings might help. Since these are non-edible fibrous casings, they'll be removed as we cut the sausage. They seem to wrinkle a little and not hold any gas or air pockets, so they aren't interfering with the sausage shrinking at all. When I press the outside of the sausage casing to the sausage, there is no resistance, the casing adjusts easily. If I needed to prick the casings, I'd probably use some thin metal skewers to poke holes in the casings but they don't seem to need it. Until I taste these sausages, I'm not sure I'll make a habit of making it. I guess we'll see what it brings.

[paquebot]

Use a pin to prick out the air bubbles. That's how thin and sharp a sausage pricker is. Comes with a sheath to keep them sharp and away from fingers.

Martin

[feather]

Okay so, the sausage dried and continued a slower ferment at less than 50 degrees F for 10 days in the 'cheese cave'. I just took it out. It has the fibrous casing wrinkled from the drying and squeezing/rolling. It seems dry at last.

I reset the cheese cave to its best cheese aging temperatures, 52 to 55 degrees F.

Now for safety, I'm going to get the sausages up to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F, baking it in the oven at 170 degrees F for however long it takes, then I'll measure the internal temperature. (I'm guessing 1-3 hours.) While this isn't necessary, since it wasn't brought up to temperature by smoking (per recipes), I'll bring it up to temperature by baking.

When it is done, I'll take pictures of the wrinkled casings on the rolls, cut some off to eat, take pictures of that, and decide whether this has been done right. It does smell good, nothing funky or off about it so far.

One large roll will go in the refrigerator to eat over the holidays, 2 long and 1 short roll will go in the freezer for future use. Pictures to follow (though I'm way behind on pictures in general).

[feather]

it's good!

[woolybear]

oooo that does look good feather. Happy eating.

[paquebot]

My 5# sticks of summer sausaga also always came out of the oven looking like there's no way that anything in those wrinkled things would be good. Nobody cared what it looked like after tasting it.

Martin