Water bath
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blackbetty61 Yeah, I agree with Parksider parksider, I have never had that issue. Has this only happened once? My thought would be for some reason you experienced a fatting out and that changed the flavor of the sausage, water alone won’t leech out that taste.
Hmmm I wonder if fatting out is more likely to occur in a water bath? Does anyone have any good way they can think of testing this, I’d be more than happy to run an experiment on it!
Jonathon
Yes only happened once but I’ve only done the water bath once so far so I’m 0-1 that’s why I’m a little nervous about doing it again. Maybe the water was too hot it was quite a while ago when we did it can’t remember the temp of the water but I thought it was 170 or less. Maybe it did fat out but I don’t remember any fat between the casing and meat unless it ended up in the water. I do remember the water looking kinda greasy. Not sure what happened but I have to try this water bath process again, it takes too long just in the smoker. We’ll see what happens when we make sausage in a couple months
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I just did 2ea 25lb batches of summer sasuage same seasonings and stuffed one batch in 73mm casing and it took 10 hours to finish cooking at max 180 degrees smoker temp and 156 degrees internal , one in 43mm meter casing with max 180 degree smoker temp and it only took 5 hours to finish cooking to 156 degrees internal so I am now going to do a lot more of my summer sausage in smaller casings as it saves a lot of time and you get the same flavor.
Dave
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Parksider Right, but what if you didn’t get enough protein extraction, would the water have a reaction to the loose fat that would be greater than air?
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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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