Rookie Questions on Smoker Sausage

[mikesr]

YooperDog, I’m using natural hog casings bought from my local butcher - just weeks old since purchase. I’m using an electric low-end Cookshack smoker with a water pan. The smoker doesn’t have real good temperature control - it’s hard to keep it steady below 250 degrees. The sausages were only in the smoker 2 hours before reaching 160 degrees internal. I cooled them in the fridge after they came out of the smoker. It hadn’t occurred to me that a second grind would make them less dense. I thought it would be the opposite. Thanks for your suggestions.

[YooperDog]

mikesr I agree with @joe hell also you don’t want your casings wet because the smoke won’t adhere to them. Do you have a lot of liquid fat in your drip pan? The second grind would help with texture, though not necessary if you are happy with what you have. Have you calibrated your thermometer? My initial thought is that you are over cooking the sausage. The temp is to high and drying out the outside and fatting out. With hog casings I am assuming that you are around 30-35mm and two hours seems to me to be a little fast of a cook. Also, when you bring them out of the smoker you should put them in an ice water bath or shower them to cool them down to 1/2 the temp and then let them dry and bloom, unless of course you are going to eat them right away.

It sounds like you are on the right track, just needing some adjustments.

I am not familiar with your smoker brand, but something I found with my temperamental smokers is cracking the door open or turning them off if the temp got to high, basically you become the temp regulator.

[mikesr]

YooperDog, There’s a considerable amount of fat in the drip pan and I think you’re right that the sausages are getting overcooked and losing both fat and water. My smoker has very poor temp control - it has swings as much as 100 degrees above the set temp. I’m thinking that this, along with the fact that I didn’t use the ice bath after smoking might also be contributing to the leathery, un-chewable skin. I’m looking into an Auber digital temp controller at this time and I think there might be a solution to temperature control there. Thanks YooperDog.

[Jonathon]

mikesr I’m betting your problem is smoke schedule, I’ve had that happen with casings before when I tried to smoke natural casings without paying attention to temps or humidity. I know you said 250 was what you were aiming for but can you give us what your full schedule was?

It also could be (unlikely) that the casings weren’t prepared correctly. If you don’t soak them in hot water for about 30- 60 minutes before stuffing them they can have similar issues. I just put that in there to be safe but I am fairly confident that the issue is the smoke schedule.

[mikesr]

Thanks Jonathon. I don’t really have a smoke schedule. I put a water pan in the bottom of the smoker and try to keep the temp as close to 225 as possible (the smoker is very inconsistent and will spike to higher temps unless I’m standing over it constantly). Then I just monitor the internal meat temp. It’s taken 2 hours or less for the sausage to come to fully cooked temperature, so I think that amounts to “no schedule”. I do soak the casings, but only in tap water temperature. Thanks again.

[Jonathon]

mikesr Stepping up your temps is the first thing I would try. Follow this smoke schedule and see if it works better
Set up your smoker and hang your sausage on smoke sticks or lay on racks and smoke at
125F for 1 hour
140F for 1 hour
155F for 2 hours
175F until internal meat temp of 160F
Got that from here https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/761/cured-sausage-108-basics-for-making-smoked-sausage/2

[mikesr]

Thanks Jonathon. My smoker isn’t capable of anywhere near that degree of precision. I’m ordering a digital temp controller and I think that is going to remedy the smoking schedule / temperature situation. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

[Joe1]

mikesr I have an older charbroil electric smoker. I purchased an auber instruments WSD-1500H-W it was a little pricey at $240.00 but it works great at maintaining temperature and it’s programmable for smoke schedule. Also has an app you can use to monitor/modify schedule on your phone or tablet. It has 1 probe for smoker temperature and 2 for IT. only problem, I could have used the money to upgrade smoker .

[mikesr]

Thanks Joe1. That’s the system my research has led me to. It’s great to hear that it works as advertised. I thought about upgrading my smoker too. Only problem: it’s built in to an outdoor cook center and nothing else would fit. Sounds like the Auber Instruments is at least part of the solution. Thanks!

[Joe1]

This post is deleted!

[Joe1]

mikesr here’s a screenshot of what I got from the app.

[mikesr]

Thanks Joe. Looks like the real deal.

[Joe Hell]

Jonathon I prefer to soak my casings for several hours or overnight in the fridge. The standard 30-60 minutes never gives me the results I’m looking for. They don’t come off the horn as easy as ones soaked longer

[glen]

Joe Hell Good tip, that could explain why my casings are sometimes hard to get along with

[mikesr]

Thank you Joe. Many good tips here for a beginner.

[glen]

mikesr Mike, lots of experience in the community but I don’t think you will find anyone here who hasn’t learned a few things

[mikesr]

And willing to help. Thanks.

[TexLaw]

Jonathon said in Rookie Questions on Smoker Sausage:

140F for 1 hour
155F for 2 hours

I’ve been meaning to ask (and apologize if you’ve answered this somewhere else). For those steps, when do you start the clock?

Is it once you’ve reached the target temperature? That’s what I’ve been doing, and it’s working fine, but I wanted to check on that.

[TexLaw]

mikesr said in Rookie Questions on Smoker Sausage:

Also, the meat filling itself is somewhat dense in texture, even though I use the coarse grinding plate and only run the meat through the grinder one time.

I agree that you probably are overcooking your sausage, especially since you didn’t use an ice bath. You will get some carryover temperature rise, especially if your smoker temperature is getting as high as 250F. I overcooked a batch, and it was very dense–sort of rubbery. It tasted good, but that wasn’t the texture I wanted.

Also, what binder are you using (and how much)? That can make a significant difference on your final product.

[Jonathon]

TexLaw that’s a good question and not one that I think we have covered but you will want to get your smoker up to temp before putting in the sausage. Sort of like pasta to boiling water, best analogy I can come up with right now!