Smoking & Grilling

For snack sticks and smaller sausages the water bath method of cutting the cooking time down is dramatic. I use a large steam table pan on a double propane cooker and in a very short time I have the water to 165 degrees and in minutes the internal temp of the product is at 165 degrees and you are sure the whole batch is at the same temp.

I just roll mine out of the garage and go for it

@smokin-greg A few posts with good information https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1207/buckboard-bacon https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/2042/buckboard-bacon @scott-farm I know makes some too. Do you have a recommendation on best cure/smoke schedule? I’d recommend just Blue Ribbon Maple Bacon Cure though.

I know I’m late to this thread; but a lot of great information in this one. Thanks.

@winter Awesome looking bird, glad it turned out well!

@Tex_77 Ive had more luck posting from my phone recently, seems like android is resizing them automatically maybe?

@Michael-Devenney So I take them out of the sous vide. Let them cook for only about a half hour at room temp. I dry them off with a paper towel. Then into the smoker. I am not looking for a real strong smoke. But more of a mild taste. Once done. Sear them in hot griddle. Hope this helps. There really is no right or wrong. Whatever gives you the best results. I use a pk100 which imparts a lot of smoke flavor in a short amount of time.

@jbkitzy1 Nope, shouldn’t matter, I did this since @parksider always did it without a bag I did a few and had no issue with pre-stuck casings

I’d imagine the second time you had a failure to get a good bind. Was the mixing different or did you use a binder in the 1st and not the second? If you are talking about the sausage falling away from the casing that could also have something to do with casing preparation but I am reading this more as you the sausage was falling apart and not binding to itself.

I’ve helped with cooking whole (juvenile) goats and pigs, but not a sheep or lamb. We’ve done them on a rotating spit, spatchcocked on a La Caja China cooker, and just whole (wrapped in couple layers of chicken wire so that it was easier to turn them, mostly by hooking that chicken wire with a garden rake). We’ve also halved them to make them easier to handle and speed up cooking a bit. The quickest and most consistent method is with that La Caja China, but those things aren’t cheap. The rotating spit is nice and has a good “wow” factor, especially if motorized. The “chicken wire method” doesn’t look very sexy, but it’ll get the job done. Timing is the real trick, unless you’re using the La Caja China. As I mentioned, it’s fairly consistent. Since you aren’t worried about flipping the animal, you can easily use a leave-in, probe thermometer to monitor internal temperature. If you follow their directions, you should be done in about 3 hours, give or take depending on all the usual factors. For the other, open methods, the key is to concentrate your fire on the thicker parts of the animal (shoulders and thighs). You need some fire in the center, but not as much. I can’t give you anything precise, because I have to depend on nothing more than my visual memory, but I want to say you want about twice as much fire (coals, of course) under the thick parts as you do under the thin. Start with a good & hot fire and gradually let the temperature go down–add coals as the cook goes on, but just enough so that the temperature goes down gradually. We placed the grill about a foot above the fire, and we had the spit so that the lowest part (the back) was about 8 or 9 inches from the fire, if I recall. If you have an adjustable spit or grill, you can raise that after the first half hour or hour of cooking to help with cooking temperature. It should take several hours, around 6-7 if I recall. Seasoning was fairly simple for us–salt, pepper, a little garlic powder. I know the Greek Easter lamb gets more more complex with seasoning, but I’ve never helped with anything like that. I wish I could be more help, but it’s been a long time since I did anything like what you’re asking, and I never led the cook in the first place. The memories started a little foggy (due to a drink or few), and time hasn’t made them any clearer.

@Camardelle said in Smoked Polish Kielbasa: are you speaking of Pink cure #1 when you talk of a cure accelerator? The Sure Cure (a.k.a., pink salt, cure #1, etc.) is not a cure accelerator. It’s the actual cure. If you’re only using Sure Cure or other pink cure, then you need to let it sit overnight before smoking so that the cure can work. As @YooperDog mentioned, there are a lot of cure accelerators out there that allow you to go straight to the smoker after stuffing. My preferred cure accelerator at the moment is ascorbic acid (1/4 tsp per 5 pounds of meat). The Smoked Meat Stabilizer is a good product, but note that it contains a good deal of salt and dextrose, so you might want to adjust your recipe accordingly. I haven’t used sodium erythorbate, but a lot of folks like it. I think the challenge with sodium erythorbate is that you need so little of it per pound of meat that it can get tricky for the home sausage maker. Yes, do see if you can get your smoker temp down below 125F or so to get started with your cook. The simplest thing to try is to crack the lid (use a dowel or something to hold the lid open a little). You also can start by poaching the sausage or par-cooking it by sous vide, giving it some time to dry back out, and then finishing it on your smoker. You should still get plenty of smoke in your final product, especially for kielbasa. You want to shoot for an internal temperature anywhere between 152-160F, depending on what you want and who you listen to. Obviously, 160F is the safest way to go, and it also will get you a texture that is most like what you’re used to from commercial outfits. Some of the old sausage sages go for lower temperatures (152-155F) for texture reasons. Personally, I shoot for 160F or just shy.

@scott-farm It sounds like it got overcooked it in the sous vide and pretty much broke down all the connective tissue to the point that you had that “really tender roast” texture in the flat. As for the bark, about the only thing I can think of is that it wasn’t in there long enough to evaporate enough from the surface relative to the rest to form that bark. I guess that six hours of ramping up from 175-250, especially if you’re starting with a cold brisket (which I assumed you did). All that’s good to know. Thanks for checking it out. Hey, you can’t complain too much if you wind up with something good and tasty, even if it’s not the good and tasty you were shooting for.

I have never heard of that.Sounds interesting though!

Well I wound up ramping up 10 degrees and it broke and hit 160. I think your correct that the casings hardened and prevented the heat from exchanging. Still taste amazing too. We used turkey and chicken with cold phosphate to increase moisture. It is seriously some of the best andouille I have had. Thanks for the help

@Jonathon just sliced and tried some of the bacon i did with the jerky mix. I did some others the way I normally do with an dry EQ at 2.5 percent salt. The jowls made with jerky mix were less salty than my traditional bacon cure. Pretty sure this will work for fish now. I used habanero lime and pepper garlic. Didn’t take much flavor. Habanero has some late heat come through and the pepper garlic was feint but still there. I used the same rate per pound of meet as instructed with the jerky mix. May try 10% extra next time.

@MTArcher dimensions are mentioned in this review by Johnathon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0soB5ZlztU

I have been using newspaper for years, but I would just about bet dollars to doughnuts, Double to nothing, that I have snuck some oil (not auto) or bacon grease in there a time or two maybe thinking I could ramp up everyone’s appetite or something. No Problems.

@chippewa. Hickory is my favorite. But I’ve also done apple and cherry too.

make sure you save enough for hunting season and some sticks or jerky !

100% would love them! Yes I have a bunch of unanswered things and I am really sorry about that guys, I finally managed to carve out an hour to be on meatgistics (I worked both Saturday and Sunday to try to get ahead on the website, I MAYBE got to where I should be) and I am answering posts and will try to get to chats either tonight after a meeting with Pheasants Forever or tomorrow.