Thanks Jonathon. Great input as usual. I usually go straight to smokehouse after placing in casing. Just good to know of options just in case. That clears up another question and gets me on my way!! @ Blackbetty61. Your summer sausage looks great!! good job. I think I will probably try the water-bath as well next time. As last batch took about extra 4-5 hours to get up to final temp. after the initial 4-5 hours of smoke.

Jonathon. You been big help so far. One more for you. As we discussed Sodium Erythorbate earlier. I also looking through recipes. Was going to make smoked Kielbasa as well. It says to add “Smoked meat stabilizer”. Looks like it is just another type of accelerator. I am sure alot of these do the same thing and I don’t want to order everything under the sun. My guess is they are somewhat interchangeable. The Sodium Erythorbate probably gives the added red color which isn’t really necessary in the Kielbasa. So I could probably use the Smoked meat stabilizer where it sometimes calls for the Sodium Erythorbate? Or like we discussed, if use Sodium Erythorbate it could sit overnight if need be. What about the smoke meat stabilizer, is it faster acting like ECA and should be smoke immediately??

Jonathon and @Boudreaux. Thanks for the input. I was basically looking for a way to have some fresh sausage with smoke flavor and be able to cook afterwards on grill or crock pot. Never gave much thought that the cure would also defeat this plan. Didn’t think of adding something like hickory smoke powder to accomplish this and just freeze. Sounds like that is the perfect way to go to accomplish that! Thanks again!

OK here we go. My questions.
-If making fresh sausage (gonna freeze immediately) i don"t want to use any sure cure?
-If gonna smoke immediately after making sausage, use sure cure and add an accelerator. (ie: ECA or Sodium Erythorbate)
-Can I smoke the sausage/kielbasa (with cure) for 2-3 hours for the smoke flavor and then cold bath and freeze if I do not want to cook it entirely? Or should it be cooked through?
Thanks!

Thanks for your quick response Jonathon!! (and Blackbetty) That pretty much explains it! Can’t wait to try it.

Thanks blackbetty. Guess I meant if I cut out the citric acid completely I can wait on the smoking part. Did read about the need for smoking immediately if using the citric acid at all. Also , just a question but why would some seasonings (Ton’s as you mentioned) contain the Sodium Erythorbate and none of the others do. Is there enough of the Sodium Erythorbate in the Ton’s that you don’t have to add any more to it?? Sounds like a good seasoning I was gonna try.

Love some of the above info. I’m newer to this. Tried 25# summer sausage the other day with Citric Acid. Did not care for the tangy taste at all. Was way too powerful especially for summer sausage in my opinion. Was gonna cut it in 1/2 when I make snack sticks next as figured some tang would be ok with them, but was unsure if be enough “cure accelerator” in it. So sounds like I can make the difference up with Sodium Erythorbate and be ok to smoke immediately or next day in case something arises. Can also cut it out completely in the summer sausage and add the Sodium Erythorbate.