Summer sausage anyone?

I did BBQ and sausage this weekend so i figured I would shre with all of you the results. I will say the use of a mechanical grinder makes all the difference as does the mechanical mixer when making sausage. First I weighed out all my deer meat 23 lbs and my pork 9 lbs and found I would need two packets of the seasoning and two packets of the cure, This would use the entire kit and not leave me with stuff hanging around opened up to the world. I cut the pork and prepared the grinder with the big 3/8 plate for a coarse first grind of the deer and the pork. It is important when using a smaller grinder that you remove all of the tendons and shine from your meat before grinding. Shank mean and the neck are loaded with this type of fibrous membrane and need to be cut fine and ground last unless you want to spend a lot of time cleaning the plate. After grinding I mix the spices and cure with the required amt of water and run it through the mixer for about 4 to 5 minutes. It is important to keep this cold so I add ice cubes to it while I am mixing it with the spices, A wetter cold mixture will fill the casing better and allow the fat and meat to mix together. I use my verticle stuffer to fill the casing and tie off the end before I set them aside. When I get them all stuffed I like to wipe em down and let them air dry before I hang them in the cooler overnight. This allows the cure time to work and the flavors to marry with the meat. In the morning I will hang them in my smoker. Keep in mind before hanging any  sausage in the smoker it should be at the ambient temp. Never hang frozen meat or real cold meat in the smoker. Observe the smoking instructions that come with your kit and you will have a safe sausage.