Jamieson22 looks like a great product and lots of learning going. Some of the best ways to get experience is hands on.

Surg said:

Jamieson22
Nicely done!! They look delicious.

Thanks to you both! Been doing BBQ for so darn long it is like cruise control and have to admit nailing this sausage process has been a challenge but am loving it. Still not 100% happy with my outcomes but they are still delicious and getting better each time. This group certainly has a lot to do with that!

Jamieson22 drying stage did you have all dampers wide open? It has the small round one on the bottom door does it have one on the top where smoke comes out as well or is that just a wide open chimney?

When drying I did have both vents wide open. The top vent is a circle baffle within the chimney, but even “closed” it leaves a gap all the way around it.

Trying to remember exactly but when I added smoke I closed them down a good bit and when cooking I closed bottom and left top cracked but also tried with bottom cracked as well to see if that helped push through stall at all. Pretty much followed the guide on the control panel as it has the Dry/Smoke/Cook phases on it.

if you load your smoker with cold not room temp. meat it will increase the drying time and take longer to get up to Temp, and in the end affect your cook time

Yeah and I did pull it out of fridge first thing in morning but def think a 25lb pile of sausage in a lug didn’t get to room temp. Will do a better job next time - likely hang in garage with a fan for an hour or two while before adding. Wish I had room to hang them in fridge but will have to deal with ambient temp in summer.

twilliams said in 25lb batch of Hot Links with Swiss Cheese:

Jamieson22 maybe I missed it in the comments but I’m gonna ask, did you get the smoker cabinet up to temp before filling with sausage?

I did but only to my initial 110F. Will def pre-heat at higher temp next time. Thanks.
My bigger fear was that the element just didn’t have enough power/energy to handle this much. I did keep it on 1250 watt the entire time.

Also did you have it on the 1250 watt setting the entire time from start to finish?

My bigger unit takes about 7 hours for 25 lbs of product, maybe your single burner will take some time longer but I wouldn’t think much longer with how well insulated these units are

Jamieson22 First, how was the tornado? How odd to hear Chicago getting hit with a tornado! 2nd I am going to guess that you had what is known as case hardening. This is when the outside of the sausage cooks and or dries too quickly (you said it flew up to 130) and then it can no longer pass heat into the center of the sausage efficiently. This is the cause of most marathon smoking sessions on something like a sausage. My suggestion would be to do the automotive sponge trick in your PK. Having a lot of humidity in there should prevent this from happening and it should speed up your cook in the future.

The weather around here has been nuts. Can’t remember a time I’ve seen this much rain and crazy storms. Luckily no tornado in my immediate area though we did get a nice 1145pm wakeup call by a blaring tornado siren last week. Scary stuff.

Watched the video on wicking towel. In general I’d still do 1 hour at 120F to dry, then add the wet sawdust pan and put on burner. Should I also add the water at this point or after the smoke is done? Any advice on a good water pan to use? It does look like I’ll lose quite a bit of room in smoker with a water pan on drip tray and the towel on rack above. Could it be rigged with water pan on burner and towel on drip tray?

Also, after I make the sausage I usually clean the meat lug, add a plastic lug liner, toss all the sausage in, close up the liner and put lid on, and toss in fridge overnight. Next morning I add it to smoker right from the lug so it is usually fairly wet/cold - even if it has been on counter an hour or two. Should I dry it off a bit better and let it warm up at room temp or just extend drying phase a touch?

Running out of time for the night I fired up my P&S pellet smoker to 180F and transferred them over to it. This finished them up in a 90 minutes or so.

Not really sure if there was an issue with the cook or if I just needed to be more patient. Been doing BBQ a LONG time so know all about stalls, just not often I see temps drop like that. Worried the PK100 does not have enough power to do 25lbs. What would you all with more experience expect a 25lb batch of pork 35-38mm to take?

I did grill one up after the ice bath for dinner and they were fantastic in taste. Great kick and I really like this hi-temp swiss. It doesn’t really give a string swiss cheese flavor, but adds a great creamy/cheesy edge to the bite.

Jamieson22 meat looks good, but I’m disappointed in ProSmokers caulk sealant job around the door seal and bottom of smoker. Sorry I’m just a little OCD. After 2 years of service of my smoker I am currently as I type this cutting out the loose caulk and resealing mine

Hopefully it is ugly but functional as there is little I hate more than redoing caulk.

Currently nearing 5 hours in the smokehouse and sitting at 170F with both dampers shut. Links seem to have hit a big stall at 138F as they have not budged in some time. I opened it up to remove the sawdust pan from the burner and took a quick pic. Not super pretty yet, that’s for sure!

The full batch (25lb butt/2.5lb cheese/5c water/seasoning in 35-38mm casings) fit. Had a few stray singles that I tried to hook - not sure if these will hold. Also since these are paired links they kind of overlap each other at the bottom - again not sure what I can do.

Also having to run it in the garage. We have had CRAZY storms this week and don’t want to be stuck in one. Figure if no rain I’ll open windows for cross-breeze, else rig a fan to blow smoke out.

The hot links look great.

Jamieson22 Looks great, let us know how you like the finer grind
I am going up to the 10mm plate on my next rope sausage for more texture

After like 5lbs I started regretting my decision. I turned grinder off and went to switch the plate to 6mm or 10mm but then figured I’ll never know unless I try. So went with 3mm the entire batch. Fingers crossed.

I am pretty new to sausage making and have been buying all my mixes from Walton - figured I’d take recipe out of the equation and focus on process until I got good. Then plan was to begin making my own seasoning mixes for my batches. But have to say, I’ve been hugely impressed by how tasty the sausages I have made are and not sure why I’d want to mix up my own now.