Posted: 3/6/2026 2:48:02 PM EDT
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I'm getting ready for my annual deer sausage/spicy stick mixing/stuffing/smoking next weekend. It looks like this year a few friends and I will be doing about 150 #'s of various flavors of summer sausage and 25 #'s of spicy sticks. Concerning the spicy sticks, I was wondering what hints the HF&G folks might have for stuffing. Over the years, I've made a couple hundred pounds of spicy sticks. They're always a pain in the ass, but the finished product is great. Normally, I can mix and stuff close to 75 #'s of summer sausage in the 2" or 2.5" casings in the same time it takes to stuff 25 #'s of spicy sticks. Last year we attempted to use 17 mm for some spicy sticks and that went horribly. The 19 mm went considerably better/easier, but still pretty slow. Over the years I have used 5 # and 10 # LEM vertical stainless steel stuffers. At one point we even found a way to use a commercial caulk gun that was previously used for installing windshields with urethane. Regardless of the various ways I've done it, it's doable, it's just slow as hell. My current plan is to mix up the 25 # batch per the instructions and use the 5 # vertical stuffer again. Probably try to make it the first batch mixed up, that way 2 people can just move off to the side to work on the slow process of deer sticks while the rest of the crew works on stuffing the 150 #'s of summer sausage. Anyhow, just curious if anyone has found a silver bullet for making the process easier and/or faster. I expect not... There's a reason that butcher shops charge two or three times more for spicy sticks that summer sausage... |
"When you need it and ain't got it, you're singin' a different tune..."
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Use extra water! It will evaporate out in the end anyway but they will stuff much faster. We made 100 pounds again this year and 225 pounds of summer sausage. I will also warn you that it is getting awful late to make the sausage. General rule in our area is not after Presidents day. This is due to spring temps warming things up. ETA... I think we add 1 oz per pound for sausage and 5-6 quarts for the 100 pounds of hotsticks. |
A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
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Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: Use extra water! It will evaporate out in the end anyway but they will stuff much faster. We made 100 pounds again this year and 225 pounds of summer sausage. I will also warn you that it is getting awful late to make the sausage. General rule in our area is not after Presidents day. This is due to spring temps warming things up. ETA... I think we add 1 oz per pound for sausage and 5-6 quarts for the 100 pounds of hotsticks. Extra water is the only thing that has sped things up in the past for me as well. Thanks for the reply. |
"When you need it and ain't got it, you're singin' a different tune..."