@peculiarb You can have an issue with pickled jalapenos and getting the meat to properly bind to them.
You can blanch fruits and veggies before adding them to sausage and that will help. Some people add them straight in, but blanching will help the meat bind together with the jalapenos. Not a requirement though. If the jalapenos don’t bind perfectly into the meat, when you slice the summer sausage, the jalapenos may not fully stick to the meat and just fall off the slices. It won’t hurt the sausage, but it may not be 100% perfect. I would at least dry the jalapenos thoroughly, but blanching would provide the best results.

@tom-0 you should be fine. I don’t think there will be any issue on an extended soak time for fibrous casings.

@papasop I have a response from the manufacturer…
They said that they designed the mixer in a way that it would not need to run in reverse for a long time. It should mix efficiently enough in one direction and it was designed to mix in just 1 direction. So, using the grinder in any scenario (grinding or mixing) you should limit the reverse time to approximately 5 seconds at one time.

My own opinion on the mixing is that I wouldn’t mix in just 1 direction though. I think there is still a benefit to going in reverse, even if temporarily, so I think my course of action for the future will probably be to mix 90% of the time in 1 direction, but still do the reverse in the 5 second interval. Probably something like 30 to 60 seconds forward, 5 seconds backward, then another 30 to 60 forward, etc… I think that would get enough benefit of a direction mix cycle, but still limit the reverse action as much as possible.

@jonathon Moscow Mules!! I’m sold. Will It BBQ is on the way soon for sure!

@papasop Sorry, I didn’t catch that you said by the switch initially.
I see the same thing now. Weird thing is that the Pro Series also says the same thing. If you couldn’t use any of them for more than 5 seconds in reverse, that would be odd, because then nothing would work well with the meat mixers.
I’m getting some questions sent to the manufacturer. I’ll let you know if they can clarify further.
I’ve used both the Pro and Butcher series grinders with the reverse on for more than 5 seconds, and used them to mix a lot of meat, so my initial thought is that it is fine to do on mixing, but maybe just not when the grinder head, auger, plate/knife, etc. is attached. Meat is the “lubricant” for all that when grinding, so in reverse for too long and the meat not being pushed through everything could cause problems.

@danbow The cook cycle definitely can have good or bad effects on the casings, but I would say that the slow temperature increases are not just for the casing, but just in general for what we call “case hardening”. Jumping straight into a hot temperature when cooking any type of meat can create a “crust” or dry and tough exterior.

@twigg267 protein extraction will not hurt the product, but the texture will be wrong and more like a cured sausage, not a fresh product.

Just don’t mix as long. Fresh sausage only needs mixed long enough to disperse seasoning. You might mix 2-3 minutes for fresh sausage, but 8-10 minutes for a cured sausage.

@twigg267 You should be ok either way on both the packaging and adding fat. If you add more fat, you just need to disperse well, but with the extra mixing, just don’t overdo it because you don’t want the meat to get sticky with protein extraction.

@denny66 Using an oven can contribute to this because it doesn’t have as much temperature control to start low and slowly increase temps.
@Jonathon did a good post on this a while back, for snack sticks, but the same principles will apply for summer sausage.
Check out #4 on the Top 5 Mistakes Made When Making Homemade Snack Sticks
What you are experiencing is what we call “case hardening”. The best way to prevent it is to start with low temps and slowly increase. Our typical guide is 125F for 1 hour - 140F for 1 hour - 155F for 2 hours - 175F until internal meat temp of 160F. That is difficult to achieve with an oven. An oven will still cook a fine and edible product, but not as perfectly as it could be.

Maybe one of the others out here have some extra tips and tricks to cooking summer sausage in an oven…?

I’ve never personally done it in an oven, but a couple things that could help might be propping the oven door to keep the temp a little lower than 180 during the initial cooking stages. Or, adding a pan of water somewhere inside the oven to help keep the humidity higher and prevent the summer sausage from drying out the outside as quickly before the inside is done.

@papasop I’m not seeing the same info on the manual I’m looking at. What page of the manual are you seeing those instructions?
I may not get you a complete answer right now because I will probably need to contact our rep at Weston and get clarification next week, but I’ll see what else I can find in the meantime.