Summer Sausage

Olive Ridge Summer Sausage

Green Olive Style Summer Sausage

Olive Ridge Summer Sausage is a summer sausage built on a 50% lean meat / 50% pork blend, using lean wild game or lean beef. Smoke at 130-170°F (54-77°C) and finish at an internal 155°F (68°C), stuff into 2.5-3 inch fibrous casing, grind at 1/8". Exact amounts scale to any batch weight in the DeepWoodz Smokehouse app for iPhone and Android.

The olives go in last, by hand, after the test patty. Run them through the mixer and they chop up, bleed green through the whole loaf, and you lose the sliced faces on the cut end that are the entire point. This one also carries far more olive than most versions, which use so few you have to hunt for them, and the brine they bring is why the salt and the water both come down slightly from a plain summer sausage.

• Smoky
• Savory
• Tangy
• Mustard

Internal temp

155°F (68°C)

Smoker temp

130-170°F (54-77°C)

Casing size

2.5-3 inches

Casing

Fibrous

Bloom

2-3 hours

What goes in it

• Kosher Salt
• Cure #1
• Sliced or Whole Green Olives (drained)
• Coarse Black Pepper
• Mustard Seed
• Garlic Powder
• Allspice
• Ground Mustard
• Onion Powder
• Coriander
• White Pepper
• Ground Nutmeg
• Dextrose
• Ice Cold Water

Amounts are calculated for your batch weight in the app — including the cure, which is held at a fixed, food-safe rate.

The meat

Lean Wild Game · Lean Beef · Pork Butt · Pork Shoulder

How it's made

1. Grind the meat through a 1/8" plate.
2. Drain the olives properly and pat them dry. Sliced, whole, or a mix of both all work — a mix gives you the best look on the cut face. Set them aside. They do not go near the mixer until the very end.
3. Add the dry seasonings to the ground meat and mix to distribute evenly. Dextrose is used instead of sugar here - it aids tangy flavor development, especially alongside ECA or Fermento.
4. Dissolve the cure in the ice cold water, then add it to the meat. Mix thoroughly until the meat is very tacky and you have good protein extraction. Water is 8% here rather than Old Timber's 10% because the olives bring their own moisture with them.
5. Fry a small test patty and taste it before you stuff anything. Olives carry brine, and how hard you drained them moves the salt more than any decimal in this recipe does. This is the last moment you can fix it.
6. NOW fold the olives in, by hand, until they are just distributed. Do not run them through the mixer and do not overwork them. Olives that get chopped up bleed green through the whole loaf and you lose the sliced look entirely.
7. Stuff tightly into 2.5" fibrous casings and remove all air pockets. Pack it firm - a wet inclusion leaves voids in a loose stuff, and olives will settle on you.
8. Refrigerate overnight to let the cure distribute evenly. If using ECA, do NOT refrigerate overnight - ECA must be stuffed and smoked the same day, or the capsules release their acid early and turn the sausage crumbly and sour. Fermento or plain versions rest overnight just fine.
9. Next day, hang at room temperature for 2-3 hours to bloom until the casing feels dry to the touch, then smoke. If using ECA, skip both the overnight rest and the bloom and go straight from stuffing into the smoker the same day.
10. Place in the smoker at 130°F for 1 hour with the damper open.
11. Raise to 150°F and apply smoke for 3 hours.
12. Raise to 170°F until the internal temperature reaches 155°F.
13. Cool them down promptly. (Optional - an ice bath is not required. It is personal preference; many just let them cool at room temp, or outside in cold weather. Just cool them down promptly.)
14. Hang at room temp for 1 hour, then refrigerate. On the olives: 10.5% is about two 21 oz drained jars in a 25 lb batch, and it is deliberately heavier than most recipes, which use so few you can barely find them. Salt sits at 2.65% rather than Old Timber's 2.75% because the olives bring their own. Everything else here is Old Timber unchanged.

Wood

Hickory · Oak · Cherry

Before you start

• How much Cure #1 per pound
• Summer sausage internal temp
• Venison to pork fat ratio