Water bath
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The only time I do a water bath is with cold water and Ice or throw them in snow when they reach 156 to stop the sausage from cooking any more. I have added a pan of water on top of the burner to make steam and raise the humidity but I have not found that to decrease cooking time much but will try it again with the smaller diameter stuff and see if it helps
Dave -
akdave Not sure what your smoker set up is but the best way I have found to increase the humidity in a smoker is with Automotive Sponges. I detail that in this post https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1077/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing
Raising the relative humidity will absolutely decrease your cook times, and it prevents/combats the stall
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Screamin I have a dual probe thermometer that monitors both water and sausage temp. I just put the temp probe in then throw them in the water, didn’t have it set up in the pic above. I usually pull them when they hit 158F or so, plenty of carryover cooking to bring the temp above 160F even if you hit them with an ice bath.
As far as the smoke, I don’t think it impacts the flavor at all. The water does turn a brown, I’m sure some is from the casing itself and some from the smoke. The smoke is driven into the meat, it doesn’t just cling to the outside of the sausage. -
Screamin I have a dual probe thermometer that monitors both water and sausage temp. I just put the temp probe in then throw them in the water, didn’t have it set up in the pic above. I usually pull them when they hit 158F or so, plenty of carryover cooking to bring the temp above 160F even if you hit them with an ice bath.
As far as the smoke, I don’t think it impacts the flavor at all. The water does turn a brown, I’m sure some is from the casing itself and some from the smoke. The smoke is driven into the meat, it doesn’t just cling to the outside of the sausage.Parksider Thank you for your time. Very helpful. I also have a digital thermometer with 4 probes. I’m doing a test now to try to hold 170. The oven heat cycle allows swings in temp. I assume it would require constant monitoring or add cold water ? Someone said they vacuum pack prior to water heat. How would they monitor temp?
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Parksider
I tried this with a couple summer sausage logs, seems like when I did it there was no flavoring in the sausage, is it possible that I simmered/boiled the seasonings out of it. I’m kinda leary of trying this again but it takes so damn long in the smoker. The ones just in the smoker had good flavoring. I thought about doing it the way Jonathon did with vacuum packing first. What did I do wrong? Anyone else chime in or have this problem? I tried keeping the temp @ 170blackbetty61 I have done water baths many times because its faster.but I do see that some of the flaver gos away and it washes the smoke off the caseings but all in all I still do it today.
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Jonathon I did pepperoni snack sticks for the shop yesterday and had planned on doing a water bath but I just wasn’t easily set up for it. Our cookshack doesn’t have the programming capability I wish it had so I ran at 160 for an hour and a half and approx another hour at 180 with smoke until I hit 160 followed by an ice bath. They were by far my best sticks to date.
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blackbetty61 I have done water baths many times because its faster.but I do see that some of the flaver gos away and it washes the smoke off the caseings but all in all I still do it today.
farmer jim
Yea I’ll just have to try it again and monitor it really close…maybe add a tish more seasoning
️ I like it cause it’s way faster than 13-14 hours in the smoker -
Joe Hell wow joe that’s great they turned out. but iv never had any luck with those high of temps to start with.but 180 for finish many times.
farmer jim I made another batch last night. Once again the cookshack was faster and hotter than expected. I had the temp set to 160 and it cruised along at 180+. The sticks were done in about 1 hr. 20 and surprisingly perfect.
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I have been making a chart for my smoker and noting the thermostat setting and the actual temperature as there is no way to calibrate most of the thermostats we have on our smokers, sounds like the 160 setting is perfect for your smoker… I give you A++++ on presentation, send me some and will be glad to rate texture and flavor…
Dave
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Parksider
We always take some outta the mixer and fry it up… we usually do #25 batches to make things easy so I don’t think it’s the seasoning…guess I’ll have to try the water bath again…kinda curious has anyone ever tried using a roaster for a water bath? -
blackbetty61 We have been using turkey roasters for years (no exaggeration, over 1000 lbs worth over the last 15 yrs) to hot water bath our sticks and sausage. They always turn out great and have never had them lose seasoning.
jboz51 I’m gonna try the water bath again in a couple weeks I plan on doing some summer in just the smoker and some in the smoker then move to the water when they reach 140° to see which I like better
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Parksider When we started doing it we always kept the water under 200 degrees, if it went above that we would get some casing blow outs. The last year, based on info from this site we have been keeping it between 170 -175 to avoid the fat melting, seems to work as good/fast so will be sticking with the 170-175 range. If your roaster just has a dial you really have to keep an eye on the water temp with a thermometer and adjust accordingly.
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And just to clarify, we bring the sticks up to about 145 degrees in the smoker, cut into the lengths we want to package (either 4 or 8 inches), add to the hot water baths and cook until 160 degrees, then cold water bath, air dry for an hour or so, then vacuum seal.
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And just to clarify, we bring the sticks up to about 145 degrees in the smoker, cut into the lengths we want to package (either 4 or 8 inches), add to the hot water baths and cook until 160 degrees, then cold water bath, air dry for an hour or so, then vacuum seal.
jboz51
Nice looking run of sticks. -
jboz51 Yeah, I’ve never used a roaster, we use commercial roasting pan or turkey fryer with the basket on propane. That can be tough getting it dialed into the 170 marker. We also have just put the pot on top of the wood stove and ran it that way, like the old school feel… I was looking for a large stainless steel box to do 60#-80# at one time and I ran across a maple syrup operation liquidating some equipment and found the evaporator box would be about the right size…still working on that one!
John C.
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jboz51 Yeah, I’ve never used a roaster, we use commercial roasting pan or turkey fryer with the basket on propane. That can be tough getting it dialed into the 170 marker. We also have just put the pot on top of the wood stove and ran it that way, like the old school feel… I was looking for a large stainless steel box to do 60#-80# at one time and I ran across a maple syrup operation liquidating some equipment and found the evaporator box would be about the right size…still working on that one!
Parksider
Just picked up the Weston Sous Vide circulator. Going to try that on next batch. Tried your turkey cooker method this past spring and it worked great but a little hard to control the temp as you said. Tough part now is waiting. Busiest time at work with the holidays and everything else. After the first…game on. -
There are Sous Vide controllers out there that you can plug anything into such as a roaster pan or slow cooker. It will cycle the power to the appliance to keep the water temp closer to what you want. If you really want to get fancy you could get a PID controller that learns how your appliance heats up and cools down and will cycle the power to keep the temp VERY close to your set temp.
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