Help learning Water bath finishing Summer sausages

[Jonathon]

DeerSlayer Good question, no, you can go right from the smoker to the vac bag. If you are using a chamberless machine I recommend you put some paper towels into the mini chamber as you will be almost assured to get some moisture pulled in with all the heat from the sausage.

[DeerSlayer]

wonderful.
some background before I continue.
Being born in Deutschland (Germany) and my wife an US Army Brat that spent an extended time there we have been for years looking for a Brat in the Regional flavor we were used to.
Made my first batch of 100% pork Blue Ribbon Bratwurst Seasoning last week… Saw her eyes light up . I must say its as close as we have found anywhere. Will be making much more of these for sure

[msalmon]

Deerslayer, I’ve been using Sous Vide on smoked and unsmoked sausage for years. It really does take all of the guess work out of the process. I won’t do it any other way! Jonathon’s suggestions are pretty much spot on. As an aside Thermoworks makes a prong specifically for designed for using with Sous Vide. I have one it works great.

[PapaSop]

DeerSlayer
How water bath will be the new norm. Done it my last three batches. Once with a turkey cooker and twice sous vide. No issues either way. Did not vacuum seal with the sous vide and had no issues. Summer sausage finished in less than an hour and snack sticks in minutes.
Goodbye stall…

[DeerSlayer]

Thanks guys . definitely looking into the sous vide.

[DeerSlayer]

Thanks guys . definitely looking into the sous vide.

[TexLaw]

Yes, indeed. Sous vide is fantastic. My last batch of Summer sausage came out wonderfully.

I brought that batch very slowly up to 150F over about 12 hours to get it semi-dried, but I finished it by sous vide. The shots vide took something like 30 minutes, if that. Then, the water bath, and then I let them sit out for a good hour or so to dry out the casing enough to package and freeze.

[DeerSlayer]

OK got a Vnova Sous Vide and a container . Making Kielbasa Sunday afternoon and Smoking Monday .
Looks like Smoke to 130 internal then Sous Vide to 152 internal temp.
Thanks for all the responses

[TexLaw]

DeerSlayer That doesn’t sound like a bad plan at all for kielbasa. You probably can just set that sous vide wand to your target 152 and drop the kielbasa in for 45 minutes to an hour (probably not even that long, but it won’t hurt, and you’ll know you got it where you want it.)

For Summer sausage, I recommend putting in the time to slowly bring it up to 150F (or so) in the smoker and then finishing briefly in the sous vide at 158-160F. It might take all dadgum day, but the texture is worth the work. I did my first batch of Summer sausage along the lines of your kielbasa schedule, and the texture was more like baloney. Not bad, mind you, but not what I wanted.

Happy cooking!

[KenQ]

DeerSlayer