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Hi,
My family has been making old time, dry cured summer sausage for 4 or 5 generations, longer than my 46 years and once in a while some sausages and/or whole batches get "hollow" and tastes really bad.

We have not had a bad batch in over 10 years, but last year one 50 pound batch out of 15 batches went bad.
Artificial calogen casings were used and it hung right next to 8 other batches that turned out OK. It was the only batch hanging in that basement that was in artificial casings.
They did dry too fast at the end... was a hot March last year.... and the real cased sasuages started to get all wrinkly and not round... which happens when drying too fast.

We have used beef and artificial casings over the years and that does not seem to matter much.
I will say that over the last 10 years we have used about 75% real beef casings though.
We make 500-1500 pounds per year over the last 10.

Does anyone have a scientific or experirenced reason as to why this happens?

Sometimes the old timers think that is dries too fast and is not moist enough and it will "hollow".
Sometimes I think that there was not enough cure/salt?
Making it under the right sign of the moon helps to make good sausage though


thoughts?

thanks Kevin

I'll start by saying you came to the right place. Also that there are many others on here with much more experience that will likely chime in.

If I've learned anything the voids can be caused by air pockets in the meat mix when stuffing or if a case isn't stuffed tight enough and air pockets aren't worked out. Do you prick your sausages well prior to hanging?

However based on your response it sounds like it may be a product of case hardening - the outside drying out too quickly and the moisture getting trapped inside. Did the sausage have a darker ring around the outside? Was the middle still mushy to some degree?

What doesn't quite fit though is that only one batch experienced that. I will say in my opinion the collagen casings seem to be more prone to case hardening at higher tems but that's just my opinion.

Any other info you can provide to the questions will also help others assist.

ericrice wrote:
If I've learned anything the voids can be caused by air pockets in the meat mix when stuffing or if a case isn't stuffed tight enough and air pockets aren't worked out. Do you prick your sausages well prior to hanging?

However based on your response it sounds like it may be a product of case hardening - the outside drying out too quickly and the moisture getting trapped inside. Did the sausage have a darker ring around the outside? Was the middle still mushy to some degree?

I stuff as tight as I can, with artificals I stuff super tight, I have blown out a few artificial casings in my day even
I do not prick the casings, neither variety.
I do not add water to the mix and stuff it as is out of the grinder.

This was my buddies sausage, but from what I rememeber and have seen in the past, they seem to have the correct consistency and the outer is no harder then the middle.
When this "hollow" issue occurs, the meat is not its usual dark red/cured color,it is usually like a medium brown color from what I remember.

I can also tell you that this batch was made with 16 oz of salt and 2 oz of #1 cure (not #2 cure as I have recently found out here is what is needed).
But so was all the 1300 other pounds made that day....made with #1 type cure (except mine where I used a tiny bit of Morton Tender Quick... a different story.... but's lot of knowledge learned about Cures lately, started on this board...thanks...)

When we do see that there is an outer hard ring starting to form on our sausages, we usually soak them in water overnight a few times and then let them continue age.
That helps to keep the meat at the same consistency... but the outer is always a bit harder than the middle.

thanks for your help thus far.
Kevin

haeffnkr wrote:This was my buddies sausage, but from what I rememeber and have seen in the past, they seem to have the correct consistency and the outer is no harder then the middle.
When this "hollow" issue occurs, the meat is not its usual dark red/cured color,it is usually like a medium brown color from what I remember.

The usual cause of the hollow voids are due to air pockets that are usually/normally caused by improper loading of the stuffer and trapping air within the meat

BriCan wrote:
The usual cause of the hollow voids are due to air pockets that are usually/normally caused by improper loading of the stuffer and trapping air within the meat

I could see that causing issues.
These sausages though I personally stuffed, TIGHT in artificial casings, along with several hundred pounds of beef cases sausages that had no issues, so I am baffled.

Also -
The brown meat, bad tasting part, does that mean the sausage spoiled? and the curing process failed or ??

thanks again
Kevin

I can tell you from experience that if you have air pockets in the meat mix in the stuffer you can stuff until you can stuff no more - they will feel tightly packed but that doesn't mean there are no air pockets present.

haeffnkr wrote:

BriCan wrote:
The usual cause of the hollow voids are due to air pockets that are usually/normally caused by improper loading of the stuffer and trapping air within the meat

I could see that causing issues.
These sausages though I personally stuffed, TIGHT in artificial casings, along with several hundred pounds of beef cases sausages that had no issues, so I am baffled.

Please understand that I am not trying to put you down on your stuffing abilities -- its just a fact of life within the trade which is why the came up with vacuum stuffer's (second hand ones start at $20,000)to combat this problem. If you take a handful of meat and make it into the shape of a ball and then throw it against the side of you mixing container a couple of times before finally throwing it into the stuffer with some force and then punching down to seat it within the stuffer you 'might' eliminate any trapped air that is in your mix -- there are no guarantees -- I might add I have had this happen to me.

Also -
The brown meat, bad tasting part, does that mean the sausage spoiled? and the curing process failed or ??

How bad dose it taste??

Not necessary -- mine was dry and no mold -- we ate them and as you see we are still here

No the curing process did not fail it was the stuffing part that failed

HTH

Point well taken... I will ensure we pack the stuffer best we can to eliminate any pockets.

It tastes bad enough I dont want to eat it but yes I have had some of it and did not get sick ever.

A side point you bring up... a sausage mixer....
We got one last year... I did not want to use it, I dont see the point.

We usually cut up our deer and pork in 1" -ish chunks lay out the meat on a big table or top of the mixer tray (2 x 4 feet) with the deer and pork chunks all mixed up one layer thick... and then mix our spices up really well in bowl then sprinkle it on the meat, mix the meat good by hand, sprinkle some more, mix , sprinkle, mix then grind 2 times, sometimes 3.

So what value does a mixer provide in the process I describe in a 50 pound batch?
We made pretty good sausage with out one for years
I only see that it mushes the meat more.

thanks Kevin

haeffnkr wrote:A side point you bring up... a sausage mixer....
We got one last year... I did not want to use it,

Don't then

I dont see the point.

Can be used by 'old farts' like me -- not that I do

We usually cut up our deer and pork in 1" -ish chunks lay out the meat on a big table or top of the mixer tray (2 x 4 feet) with the deer and pork chunks all mixed up one layer thick... and then mix our spices up really well in bowl then sprinkle it on the meat, mix the meat good by hand, sprinkle some more, mix , sprinkle, mix then grind 2 times, sometimes 3.

Watch the 3 grind if you are using a fine plate as you can get the meat smearing I tend to use the med/course plate when doing more than 2 grinds

So what value does a mixer provide in the process I describe in a 50 pound batch?
We made pretty good sausage with out one for years
I only see that it mushes the meat more.

A mixer 'used right' will make short work of mixing/blending the product well, the biggest problem is that 'most' people tend to over mix thus ruining (as far as I am concerned) there end product. There will be people out there jumping all over this as they will say that it helps pull the myosin (plain language -- protein) which helps bind the meat problem is as I said, people just over work it with a mixer and end up changing the flavor profile

Any mechanical device produces heat which is transferred into the meat, yes there are ways to keep the heat down and the product cool/cold but believe me one cannot stop 100% of it. When I had my shop we would make 1500 lbs of burgers every week during the summer with an ice cream scoop and a pattie press the two lads working for me bitch about the length of time to do the product so we invested in a 50kg mixer and a automatic pattie maker -- in the corse of less than a month our burger sales was down to 200 lbs a week -- thats how much the flavor profile had been changed

Go into any deli and look at there processed meats and look at it side on (45 degrees) and you will see crescent shapes on the surface of the products which is a sure sine of over processing/mixing.

As said; if a mixer is used right then there should be no problem, at my tender young age I still do 50kg mixes by hand -- there will come a day when I will not be able to do that.

BriCan wrote:
Go into any deli and look at there processed meats and look at it side on (45 degrees) and you will see crescent shapes on the surface of the products which is a sure sine of over processing/mixing.

Hey Robert could you elaborate on this. Not sure I follow what I'd be looking for, but I'd be interested in knowing

FWIW, my guess would be that it's been caused by case hardening. I'm further guessing that the collagen casings allowed the sausage to dry more quickly than the natural ones and that's why the ones in natural casings weren't affected.

Phil

So to prevent case hardening, we need to ensure the humidity and hanging temps are at the right levels?

Thanks for all the great responses!
Kevin

...or do them all in natural casings?

I wouldn't change much; after all it's been working OK for years.

Phil

wheels wrote:...or do them all in natural casings?

I wouldn't change much; after all it's been working OK for years.

Phil

It works well when the weather is good.... too hot and things dry too fast.
We hang out side the majority of the drying period.

thanks Kevin