Using a turkey roaster for a hot water bath. Questions?

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worktogthr

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
SMF Premier Member
Nov 3, 2013
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Massapequa, NY (Long Island)
Hi everyone! I'm fairly new to making sausages but I really love it. I've made a few smoked sausages with great results both finishing in the smoker and with a hot water bath in a pot on the stove. One requires a lot of time while the other requires a lot of tinkering and monitoring temps to make sure the water doesn't get too hot and the sausages don't fat out. I have seen some sausage pros on here use a turkey roaster for the hot water bath and I have some questions.

1. What is the reason for this? Are you able to just dial in a temperature?
2. Do you have to guess at first because the turkey roaster is designed to create an oven or air temp of whatever the dial says since you don't cook a turkey in water?
3. Will any type of turkey roaster do the job?
4. Can a slow cooker work for a water bath?

Haha I think that's it for now unless I think of something else. Thanks everyone!
 
Slow cooker will work fine... Set the temp to 170-180 deg. f... immerse the dogs, sausages and let them sit until the Internal Temps comes up to 165 and let them sit for 5-10 minutes... dunk in an ice water bath to cool to less than 80 deg. F.. refer uncovered until at refer temp.. then store however you want... vac-pac and freeze...
 
Slow cooker will work fine... Set the temp to 170-180 deg. f... immerse the dogs, sausages and let them sit until the Internal Temps comes up to 165 and let them sit for 5-10 minutes... dunk in an ice water bath to cool to less than 80 deg. F.. refer uncovered until at refer temp.. then store however you want... vac-pac and freeze...

I have a fairly large slow cooker but it only has warm, simmer, low, high settings so I guess I'd have to experiment with how hot each setting makes the water .
 
I have never used a slow cooker would think it would take a long time to get up to temp!!  Have used a electric roaster alot!!  Usually use it when in a hurry seems to go faster!  As far as taste never been able to tell diference but im sure some could!
 
I have never used a slow cooker would think it would take a long time to get up to temp!!  Have used a electric roaster alot!!  Usually use it when in a hurry seems to go faster!  As far as taste never been able to tell diference but im sure some could!

So any electric roaster should work? It gets the water to the desired temperature quickly?
 
I would assume so!  But i would do some practice runs getting it to temp!  Mark on dial where 180 degrees is!  Don't just take for grant 175 degrees on the dial is right!
 
I don't know what what diameter sausage you're looking to poach but those from normal hot dog size (22-26mm-ish) to polish sausage size (36-40mm-ish) will come to temperature in something like 20-30 minutes with the water only 10 degrees above your target internal temp.

I'm unsure of the reasoning behind a turkey roaster but without specific info suspect it's because that's the pot folks have that the sausage fits into (if the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks kind of like a nail).  An electric roaster seems like it would be just about ideal.  I'll have to try that.

As far as the stove top, my experience has been that a tall pot is easier to hit and maintain my target temp with than a short fat one is as sometimes a pot much wider than the burner has hotter and cooler areas and I wind up agitating the water to even them out.  With either one though the fact that I can sneak up on the target temp and not worry about over cooking things means that I've become a big fan of poaching when it's appropriate. 

In any case, a candy thermometer is a great aid to hitting and maintaining your target temperature.  You can get an electronic one with a temperature alarm for $25 or less and an old school mercury bulb style one for $10 or so.

Lance
 
worktogthr fill the unit with the amount of water you think you will need.Set the temp on a lower setting,bring the water up to your target temp,mark the setting spot and you are good to go.

Richie
 
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