Summer Sausage
Thuringer Summer Sausage
Tangy Wisconsin Style Thuringer Summer Sausage
Thuringer 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 2-2.5 inch fibrous casing, grind at 1/4". Exact amounts scale to any batch weight in the DeepWoodz Smokehouse app for iPhone and Android.
The tang is what makes it Thuringer and not just another summer sausage, so this one is built to be noticeably sour, with whole mustard seed and whole white peppercorns you can see in the slice. If you use encapsulated citric acid, fold it in by hand at the very end and go straight to the smoker. Overmixing or an overnight rest breaks the coating early and leaves a crumbly, sour log. Coriander and a little ginger sit under the tang so it does not taste flat.
- Internal temp
- 155°F (68°C)
- Smoker temp
- 130-170°F (54-77°C)
- Casing size
- 2-2.5 inches
- Casing
- Fibrous
- Bloom
- 2-3 hours
What goes in it
- Kosher Salt
- Cure #1
- Whole Yellow Mustard Seed
- Ground Coriander
- Whole White Peppercorns
- Coarse Black Pepper
- Ground Mustard
- Ground Allspice
- Ground Ginger
- 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
Bear or wild hog: take it to 165°F and hold 3 minutes. Freezing, smoking and curing do not reliably kill trichinella — only heat does.
How it's made
- Grind the meat and pork through a 1/4" plate. Keep everything below 34°F.
- Mix all the dry seasonings together, salt included. Leave the mustard seed and white peppercorns whole.
- Dissolve the cure in the ice cold water.
- Add the water and the dry seasonings to the meat. Mix until the meat is very tacky.
- Fry a small test patty and taste it. If it tastes flat it is under-salted, not under-spiced.
- If using ECA, fold it in last by hand, only until it is spread through.
- Stuff tightly into 2-2.5" fibrous casings and remove all air pockets.
- Hang at room temperature for 2-3 hours to bloom, until the casing is dry to the touch.
- Place in the smoker at 130°F for 1 hour with the damper open.
- Raise to 150°F and apply smoke for 3 hours.
- Raise to 170°F until the internal temperature reaches 155°F.
- 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.)
- Hang at room temperature for 1 hour, then refrigerate overnight before slicing. Thuringer summer sausage is usually made with beef and pork. Our recipe uses half lean wild game or beef and half pork butt.
Wood
Hickory · Maple · Oak
Safety
- Cure #1 at 0.25% is required and locked. This sausage is held for hours at low temperature in the danger zone and must be cured. Do not reduce or omit it.
- Use ECA or Fermento, never both. Doubling up on acid makes it crumbly and sour.
- Keep the meat below 34°F through grinding, mixing, and stuffing.
- Do not rush the smoking process.
- Cook to 155°F internal, verified with a probe. Do not judge by time or color alone.
- Cool them down promptly once they hit temperature.
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