Venison Sausage and Food Poisoning

Last Friday I made up a new deer sausage recipe up to test.  It's kind of a hobby of mine and every year I try multiple recipes and variations looking to find THE recipe.  Friday morning I mix up 7 pounds of sausage and fry some up to taste test.  I also cooked some in the microwave as I make final adjustments in the formula.  I stuff two sticks of sausage and throw them in the frig to cure awhile. 

At midnight I throw them on the smoker until morning at a temp of 110F.  Saturday morning I finish them off in a hot water bath to 152F.  Well by noon Saturday I start to get sick and I mean really sick.  By Saturday night I have a temp of 104.5F during the badger game.  I spend half the night on the toilet and I think I've got the flu or something.  Mind you I haven't eaten any of the new sausage except the test pieces. 

All day Sunday temp of 102-103F and still that way Monday morning and still visiting the bathroom frequently.  Monday morning sick but getting better and feel good by Monday night.  Tuesday I go to work and great all day.  Tuesday night I eat one small piece of sauage and another again Wed (yesterday) morning and I get sick again.  No temp this time but sharp lower abdominal pain and return trips to the bathroom lasts until this morning.   Well I'm pretty much convinced that theres some e coli or salmonella in my sausage.  It was in the test peices and in the finished product.  For what its worth my wife ate one piece of sausage and didn't get sick at all.  I probably ate a pound all together and feal like an idiot for poisoning myself a second time in four days.  I just threw away both sticks even though they look perfect.

Theres one thing on my mind though if any of you sausage experts want to advise me.  I've probably made 50 recipes over the years and never got sick.  I know the pitfalls that are there and generally try to keep things clean and safe.  There were however two ingredients that I added to this recipe that I have never seen in a suasage recipe before.  Maybe them or something within them messed up the sausage. 

The ingredients were Lawry's season salt and Wylers beef granules.  They contain a multitude of things when you read the ingredient list. Is there something in them that is a no no when it comes to making summer sausage? 

Are you sure you didn't eat at the Taco Smell in New London?  The first, and last, time I will ever eat there I had the same reaction, without the fever.........never again.................

Thanks guys on the Lawrys and Wylers comments.  I didn't think they would be a problem either or I wouldn't have used them, I'm just paranoid now haha.  Montezumas revenge has a whole new meaning to me now.  I did really like the recipe and want to make it again but I'm being cautious.  Don't want to kill myself off before the Pack wins another Super Bowl.

Hard to tell food poisoning and where it came from.  It might have been something else I ate but the second time it seemed like it was the sausage.  I hadn't ate anything solid for 3 days except a leftover casserole and that sausage slice tuesday night and wed morning.  It could all be coincidence but like I said I'm paranoid now. My wife not getting sick on it doesn't mean much.  She ate so litlle of it one very small slice.  She did say it was very good which is the highest praise she ever gives out for anything I cook.  Also I'm sure after being so sick it wouldn't take much wrong with the sausage to make me sick again.  Maybe if I hadn't just been sick the finished sausage wouldn't have been a problem for me just like it wasn't for her.

On the water bath comment, its not boiling water.  I run the water at 160-170F to finish the sausage at 152F.  In general it takes and hour in the bath.  It can save many hours or days off the smoker time and it allows me to control the smoke, color, and rind thickness that I can't do otherwise.  I don't always use it but its always given me better results when I do.

 I don't think the Lawrys or Wylers had anything to do with getting sick.

I don't get it. 110 degrees F is not a food safe temp. +140 is. Its ok to smoke at 110 if the meat is cured salt/sugar which in effect removes the moisture that would promote bacteria growth. And a water bath technically is a boiling water bath that brings the temp to 212 degrees not 159.

The Lawrys or Wyliers should not of caused the problems you had. You said your wife ate some without getting sick, maybe you ate something other than the sausage that was the cause.

Both of you question the microwave cooking.  The peices I cook are very small, usually size of a thimble or so.  I've done it a hundred times and don't try to cook it anymore than possible to keep all the flavor in to represent how the finished sausage will taste.  It may not have been hot enough long enough and is probably not a great idea as you pointed out.

I do use pink cure or prague powder #1(same thing).  One teaspoon per 5# meat.  Thermometer was a tested dial thermometer with a followup check with my Thermapen which by the way are the greatest.  Accurate to a couple tenths of a degree in three seconds.  I've done the water bath thing dozens of times and love the results.  Two years ago I did 400# of sausage in one batch and never had a problem.  One thing is the water bath finishes sausage very quickly.  I think from now on I will run my temps up to 155F because I have done that in the past with no shrinkage or melting of the fat.  It would be safer.

I'm still wondering if the Lawrys or Wylers is safe to use in this situation.  They have things likd MSG, anti-caking agents, coloring, preservatives etc in them.  They're not "pure" so to speak.

Herky, the microwave process does not always heat to a cooked temp and could of let bacteria remain. The smoking and then hot water bath may not of gotten the sausage internal temp to the required finishing temp needed to complete the process. Did you use a probe thermometer to check the internal temps after the hot water bath? I would guess you added pork to the venison for sausage and pork needs to be fully cooked temp wise to assure the elimination of potential bacteria. Did your recipe use any type of cure?

Herky,

That really sucks to be so sick.

So, what else did you eat? It very well could have come from something else and you are tying it back to the sausage. It is logical that you would do that, but often times it isn't the last thing you ate. But, lets look at the sausage. My first guess would be the test pieces you cooked in the microwave. I'm would think the microwave would get the food hot enough to kill eveything, but they can cook food unevenly. Some bad bacteria could very easily have snuck through and got ya. Either way, it very well could have been that the end product was ok. Being so sick your good bacteria in your digestive track was probably destroyed. When you ate the sausage the second time you didn't have the capacity to digest the high fat/protien content. That said, I would have thrown the sausage out as well.

Mapper