cooking temp on sausage **first timer*

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smokinadam

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Aug 31, 2013
739
127
Appleton,WI
Want to do a batch up Tuesday and have a pellet grill to do the smoking of them. I have been reading to start at 130 and lowest I have is smoke and 180. I can probably get it on smoke lower worth adjusting the p setting but wondering if anyone had input. I picked up a hot stick box at cabelas.

Thanks
Adam
 
Adam,
IMHO At 180 deg. {if your pellet grill will maintain that} you have a good chance to have what is called "fat out". Basicly the fat in the outside layers of your sausage is going to melt before you can reach a safe IT. Fat out affects the final product in a negative way! Taste and Texture suffer.
What type of sausage are you making? Do you have a way of cold smoking your sausage? If you do you could cold smoke then into a 165 deg water bath to poach them to 154 deg. IT then into an ice water bath to cool.
Keep Smokin!!!
Wolf
 
I'd smoke em at 180 and roll with it....If you cant keep your temps below 180 i would look into another heat source like a hot plate...... i only poach hot dogs and thats out of the smoker at 140 and poach to 160

My 2 cent
 
Adam,
IMHO At 180 deg. {if your pellet grill will maintain that} you have a good chance to have what is called "fat out". Basicly the fat in the outside layers of your sausage is going to melt before you can reach a safe IT. Fat out affects the final product in a negative way! Taste and Texture suffer.
What type of sausage are you making? Do you have a way of cold smoking your sausage? If you do you could cold smoke then into a 165 deg water bath to poach them to 154 deg. IT then into an ice water bath to cool.
Keep Smokin!!!
Wolf

I was hoping the it being -20 outside it would help keep it lowered. I do have an AMNPS that I can use. Usually use it in my gasser.

Can I lay the sausage on the grates or do the need to hang? I'm gonna use 80/20 and might do a pound with venison hamburger I have in the freezer.

I also bought this other no casing sausage mix that you make logs and place in the oven at 300. I was thinking there's no reasoning I couldn't fire up the smoker at 300 and place it in there for the same amount of time.

It's definitely gonna a be a trial and error run but hopefully they pull out ok. I'm pretty sure I can't convince the lady to let me have another smoker (MES) that would get that low.
 
I was hoping the it being -20 outside it would help keep it lowered. I do have an AMNPS that I can use. Usually use it in my gasser.

Can I lay the sausage on the grates or do the need to hang? I'm gonna use 80/20 and might do a pound with venison hamburger I have in the freezer.

I also bought this other no casing sausage mix that you make logs and place in the oven at 300. I was thinking there's no reasoning I couldn't fire up the smoker at 300 and place it in there for the same amount of time.

It's definitely gonna a be a trial and error run but hopefully they pull out ok. I'm pretty sure I can't convince the lady to let me have another smoker (MES) that would get that low.
The outside temps don't much matter as the smoker is doing smoker temp. The Amnps will help with TBS. You can spend the day baby sitting it and turning it on and off. You can lay them down if you like. they will have grill marks on them but that is just looks. As for the oven or smoker it is just a heat source so still no problems. And yes that is why a lot of us have several smokers.

Happy smoken.

David
 
Did mine today with a mix of 80/20 and veal. A pound of each. Smoked gradually from 140 up to 180 smoker temp until the sausage IT got up to 155. Turned out great. I may go with leaner beef next time and after getting a rough hand shaped log, toss it in the freezer for 30 min then use a sushi roller and some saran wrap to form a more uniform shape.

Tasted great with some hickory smoked cheddar and crackers. Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.
 
Did mine today with a mix of 80/20 and veal. A pound of each. Smoked gradually from 140 up to 180 smoker temp until the sausage IT got up to 155. Turned out great. I may go with leaner beef next time and after getting a rough hand shaped log, toss it in the freezer for 30 min then use a sushi roller and some saran wrap to form a more uniform shape.

Tasted great with some hickory smoked cheddar and crackers. Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.
nice! I'm gonna do smoke for a hour then crank it up to 300 as package says to finish it off and see how it turns out...this is only trial and error on the pellet grill... as the chefs that teach say..."you don't burn things in your frying pan you are OVER caramelized" my thought is your don't over cook them you just dehydrate them more!
 
Agreed. Been a good snack. Planning on mixing up my own cure on a lb of 93/7 ground beef this weekend to see if I can get closer to summer sausage flavor.
 
Agreed. Been a good snack. Planning on mixing up my own cure on a lb of 93/7 ground beef this weekend to see if I can get closer to summer sausage flavor.
Ya I have the cure and all but need to get some mustard seeds... summer sausage isn't that without those! I think I'll fry it in a pan and sear both sides of it. Was worth a try but need to get a smoker that goes lower than mine. I had it nice and low but kept going out on me. Maybe time for a MES40... but I have alot of convincing to do first. Also need a patio big enough.
 
MES40 is great.  I'm not sure why I wasted my time with a little chief before picking up my MES.  I'll need to get some mustard seed...that may be the 1 spice I don't already have in my cabinet. Let me know how it tastes fried up.  I've just been eating it cold.  Vac packed the second log I wrapped in parchment before puttin the smoker.  Not sure if it hit the necessary internal temp.  Might need to fry when I dig in to that one. 
 
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