That does look amazing. I am curious to see how it turns out after wrapping in butcher paper. I typically go right from the smoker to vacuum sealed bags as it seals in the smoke and keeps the outside surface of the cheese from getting hard. How long did you keep them in the smoke?

That’s awesome. Thank you for sharing. I will be trying this next weekend too. (or this week if I can’t wait that long)

I have been documenting everything I do any more when making new things (mustards, pickles, pickled Brussels Sprouts, etc…) so I can eventually end up with a reproducible product that everyone can enjoy time and time again. I probably ruined 20 lbs of almonds before I ended up with a recipe that I loved and could reproduce without fail.

I am sorry to hear about your parents, though I love how you are keeping the tradition going. I have been making “Hickory Farms-ish” baskets for friends and family for the past several years that include summer sausage, kielbasa, smoked cheese, smoked almonds (3 flavors), homemade mustard, fudge, and a random candy (whatever I feel like making - last year it was a cayenne caramel on a bacon-pretzel crust). After reading some of these posts, maybe I should limit my scope a little. lol I too, but them in a cookbook for the kids so maybe they will pick this up too (or some of the easier recipes). Nothing brings joy more than homemade goodies! Thank you for such a great post.

craigrice By freezing the plain pork alone, then mixing the seasonings when you need the sausage, you are thus removing any chance of flavor loss that would be caused by freezing the final product?

Thanks. I am going to try it on my next batch.

I have been using carrot fiber for a few years, but realized that I was using it for a smoked sausage when I should’ve been using it for fresh sausage (the results were good, but I had much longer cook times that were probably caused by the water retention). If I was going to save the sausage in bulk 1# parcels (for bratwurst or Italian sausage), would it be ok to still add the carrot fiber?

I use 80/20 all of the time without any issue.

I use a cold smoke generator and a few inexpensive electric burners to get the lower temperatures with smoke. There are a bunch of cold smoke generators out there, but I use one called the Big Kahuna from smokedaddyinc. Oftentimes, I don’t even bother with the pellets and just vacuum seal the snack sticks and throw them in a sous vide bath at 155 degrees for about 60 minutes to finish them off.

Monoprice has a 800 watt model that is just as good. In fact, they had a sale near Thanksgiving one year and had them down to $42 so I bought 3; kept 1 and gave the other 2 away for Christmas. lol I really didn’t need the 1100 watt version, but I bought it anyways.

the link removed was amazon.

I have 2 of them actually.

The first one is called Joule by Chef Steps:
https://smile.amazon.com/ChefSteps-Joule-Sous-Watts-White/dp/B0727R431B/ref=sxin_10?ascsubtag=amzn1.osa.e539f9c8-727a-41d6-93c5-6004f1e7be23.ATVPDKIKX0DER.en_US&creativeASIN=B0727R431B&crid=3E0LJJZ9FJ87V&cv_ct_cx=joule+sous+vide&cv_ct_id=amzn1.osa.e539f9c8-727a-41d6-93c5-6004f1e7be23.ATVPDKIKX0DER.en_US&cv_ct_pg=search&cv_ct_we=asin&cv_ct_wn=osp-single-source-gl-ranking&dchild=1&keywords=joule+sous+vide&linkCode=oas&pd_rd_i=B0727R431B&pd_rd_r=e8c86836-da9a-4c1a-82c7-cd67db779da5&pd_rd_w=z6LGB&pd_rd_wg=JVcDX&pf_rd_p=26c7e498-3189-4918-a321-ec25e32964ce&pf_rd_r=2YGRE97RT1J5NV6HKQJS&qid=1603914260&sprefix=joule%2Caps%2C222&sr=1-2-d9dc7690-f7e1-44eb-ad06-aebbef559a37&tag=foodwine01-20

and the second one is by Monoprice (www.monoprice.com
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21594

They are both 1100 watt models and heat up pretty quickly. The Joule model is controlled via an app only and has a smaller footprint, while the one from monoprice has buttons to control it. I bought the second monoprice one for the external controls for the times when I am camping and don’t want to have a phone with me.

As far as the tubs go, I use a Weston Meat Lug (50 lbs capacity), and then I have a LIPAVI 26 Quart Sous Vide container as well as a smaller 12 quart container. The sous vide containers also have available lids that are designed to go around different models of sous vide’s to keep evaporation at a minimum. I have seen people use ping pong balls as well (just floating on the top of the water acting as a barrier) for longer cook times. I have done 24 hour cook times for tri-tip and they come out as tender as filet.

Buckeye,
My vertical smoker that I use for sausages/snack sticks is made out of an aluminum pan rack (bakery style) and I have a tough time keeping the internal temp towards the end of the day as it cools down, so rather than bump the temp up (and risk rendering all of the fat in the sausage), I will just pull them and put them in the sous vide bath set to 154 degrees for about an hour (regardless of the temp when I pull them). I take them from the smoker and vacuum seal them before putting them into the water. This helps seal in the smoke flavor a little better in my opinion. Once I pull them from the bath, I plunge them into an ice bath (still vacuumed sealed) to stop the cooking process. The next step depends on the type of sausage; if they are snack sticks, then I will remove them from the package and let them bloom (sit out at room temp) for an hour or two before I cut them up and refrigerate. For everything else, they go right into the refrigerator for the night still vacuum sealed. From there they will go into the freezer for later use.

With all of this in mind, I tend to make my snack sticks a little bit shorter in length than the lenght of the sous vide container so everything fits when I vacuum seal them, and I keep them flat (single layer) when I seal them so they have equal exposure to the heated water. The beauty of the sous vide is that whatever you are cooking will never reach a temperature higher than the temperature of the water, so you won’t have to worry about it going over the temp. I hope this helps.

I personally have not attempted to take temp once vacuum sealed, but I often finish all of my smoked sausages via sous vide, but I take them to 155. I set the sous vide at 155 and let the sausages (vacuumed sealed) sit in there for an hour. The beauty of sous vide is that the meat will never get any hotter than the temp of the water so I never even thought to check the temp at that point. I have seen instances where people do not use a vacuum seal to get the air out but rather submerging the bag with the meat in the water until the air around the meat escapes the top of the open bag. The pressure of the water keeps the bag tight against the meat while it is submerged (sometimes it is necessary to weigh the bag down with some spoons or other type of weight), but with the bag being opened at the top, you could easily put the probe into the meat and have the lead go out the top. You could do this with maybe one bag of sausage and use it as a rough estimate of the temp for the rest of the product.
I actually have 25 pounds of Cajun Sausage in the smoker right now and I intend on finishing them in a 155 bath.

Thanks for the tip; I’ll have to look into those. I have been putting my food saver through the paces lately.

That looks great. Did the chicken absorb much of the bbq sauce’s flavor? How did you get those bags to seal so nicely without any sauce near (or in) the seam?

Jonathon Thanks again for this and all of your answers to my questions. I will certainly give this a try. What size casings did you use when you made this?

Jonathon Thank you Jonathon. Those guidelines helped out a lot. I agree with you on the freezer life of smoked meats though; I have had tasty treats that were in the freezer much longer than that.

Austin I have a question regarding shelf life. I made some snack sticks Tuesday, using Willie’s Snack Stick (Non-MSG), Sure Cure, Water and Carrot Fiber. I have them now vacuumed sealed in smaller packages after processing, blooming, and cooling, and sitting in the refrigerator. My intention is to put these into holiday gift bags for friends and family for Christmas. Will I have to freeze these between now (12/12) and Christmas or will they be ok as they are in the refrigerator? I already made 30# of H Summer Sausage and froze those. Any input would be appreciated.

Jonathon Thank you Jonathon. I just picked up some of your Signature Smoked Kielbasa and Cajun seasoning so I might try a 5# trial batch to see how those casings they work for me.