25lb of Jalapeno Cheddar Summer Sausage + Modded a Cooler for Sous Vide

[Jamieson22]

Loaded up and started the drying phase. Nice fall colors setting the mood.

[twilliams]

Jamieson22 we are patiently waiting to see the finished goodness and hear the cook time results

[cdavis]

Jamieson22 that is a beautiful background . Enjoy

[lkrfletcher]

Jamieson22 - Great Project!

[Dr_Pain]

Jamieson22 Man, that sight makes me want to buy a dedicated smoker LOL! Beautiful crop

[YooperDog]

Jamieson22 Looks like you done good. We haven’t had leaves in our trees for almost a month.

[Jamieson22]

So am 4 hours in and just pulled the smoke pan and threw some probes in. Currently the front middle sausage is at 119F.

Smoke schedule is as follows, and I just turned up to 155F. Used mixed hardwood dust for these.

1h @ 110F - vents open
2h @125F - vents partially open + smoke
1h @ 140F - vents partially open + smoke
2h @155F - vents partially open + smoke
?h @ 170F - vents partially open (till I hit 135-140F)
1h @ 155F - sous vide

[glen]

Jamieson22 That’s a great schedule, very little chance of overcooking in the sous vide
The same finishing temperature I use

[Ridley Acres]

do you vac pak prior to sous vide or just toss the logs in the cooler as is?

[Jamieson22]

Thinking I should get the sous vide going an hour or more ahead of planned use to come to temp. Maybe longer? Will start with hottest tap water I can and maybe even boil some to add in to help.

Also guessing I’ll have to remove water as I add the summer sausage due to displacement. The min line on my sous vide is pretty high up in the cooler so not really sure if it will overflow. Guess some mysteries soon to be solved!

[Jamieson22]

Ridley Acres I am planning to just toss in the water.

[cdavis]

Jamieson22 I always just put the logs in and never had a problem.

[twilliams]

Jamieson22 ya your smoker is running a bit behind compared to mine, usually my sausage stays pretty even temp wise when I make my jumps. That is to be expected though as I have 1 big burner and one coil burner for the smoke. The sous vide will be your savior so your not in a 12-14 hour cook. Your finished product is gonna be spot on I’m believing.

[Jamieson22]

twilliams Yeah sausage is currently at 123.5F with 15 minutes left in the 155F phase with smoker temp reading 157F from probe I have dangling front center of middle rod. Just bumped it up to 170F now as have to hop on a call/meeting.

So 6 hours in am at 124F now (gained half a degree while typing).

[Jamieson22]

7.5 hours in I am at 140.3F IT. Need to start prepping sous vide.

[Jamieson22]

Well just wrapped up work enough to set up sous vide. We are at 8h45m mark and my IT is 149.2F. At this point tempted to just finish in smoker though that last 6 degrees could be awhile. Will see where it stands once sous vide water is up to temp. Currently at 140F and climbing. May be dumping hot cooler water to make an ice bath!

Sorry for the play by play.

[twilliams]

Jamieson22 if your in no rush let em go, if sleep is needed do sv

[twilliams]

Jamieson22 do you think you hit a stall at all this cook?

[cdavis]

Jamieson22 if my sticks or sausage doesn’t stall out I go ahead and finish in the smoker.

[Jamieson22]

twilliams said :

Jamieson22 do you think you hit a stall at all this cook?

Well seemed to spend some time between 118 and 125F but could just be the lower cook temps during that phase. They basically came right from fridge.

Also am CST so it’s only 5pm here - have a few hours before I’d be concerned about bed.

cdavis said :

Jamieson22 if my sticks or sausage doesn’t stall out I go ahead and finish in the smoker.

Yeah that is kind of where I am at. Also though I am only probing a single sausage so who knows where the others fall. So an hour in sous vide won’t hurt them I guess to be sure they are 155F.