Smokin It 4D Venison Summer Sausage

[jrinaldi99]

First off hello! Ive enjoyed reading many of the posts on here. I recently purchased a Smokin It 4D. It's been great so far and now I'm ready to take a stab at SS. I've done several batches of SS previously but never on such a precise smoker. I'll be hanging from the top rack which leaves plenty of height off the heat source so I don't anticipate the wrinkling many have experienced. Can you guys give me some advice on temp and times while cooking? I was thinking of starting at 130 for 1.5 to 2 hours to dry the SS with no smoke. I'd then bump to 140 and start the smoke. I'll be starting the jerky dryer then as well. Everyone on the Smokin it site says its a must for sausage. Incrementally bumping to a cooker temp of 175 max. I'll pull and do an ice bath around 155IT.

I'd love to hear what y'all think. Hopefully I'm heading in the right direction. Thanks.

 

[whistech]

I am pretty new to sausage making but it sounds like you are doing it right.    I would start out like you said but I would check the casings after one hour to see if they are dry.    Fiberous casings seem to dry fairly quickly.    Oh, and just so you know, it's going to take a long time to get the summer sausages up to 155 degrees.

 

[jrinaldi99]

Thanks Whistech.  I'll be starting this late Saturday evening and will check the dryness at 1 hour.  The nice thing about the Smokin IT 4D is I can program it to bump the temp as desired.  This will allow me get some sleep while the smoker is doing its thing.  Like you mentioned, it sure does take a lot of time to reach 155 IT.  I have had my fair share of cooks where I started in the am and things took longer than planned.  Being forced to increase the cooker temp at midnight is no beuno!  Thanks for chiming in!

 

[mowin]

The ability to program your pit should be a great help. I do my SS in my vertical gasser.
Last batch took 19 hrs. My neighbor said its not worth it, but every time i have a slice, i have to disagree with him.

 

[oberst]

On getting sausages to a final temperature; what I do is finish them in the oven on convection bake, which is a very even heat compared to my smoker. So, let's say I have smoked some Polish for 4 hours, increasing temp to 175 in last hour or so, but sausage internal temp is still a stubborn 124 degrees. Into a 175 degree convection oven they go and I watch the internal steadily creep up to 150 or whatever my target is. And I'm way more confident that all the links are a similar temp. Saves a whole lot of time and is more consistent. So I'm using the smoker (MES30) for what it's good at, and the oven for what it's good at.