Smoking Sausage

[bakingnana]

So glad to find this forum. Newbie here. Double checking what I'm doing. Fresh homemade sausage, smoked at 200 degrees for 2 hours, removed and finished in oven in less than an hour to internal temp of 160 f. I believe this meets all safety requirements but want to be sure I'm not missing something.

 

[LanceR]

Hello Nana

I'm assuming that the sausage went right into a 200 degree smoker and wasn't smoked at a low temperature before raising the temp to 200 to cook it.  If so you are fine. 

For future batches, I'd recommend that you rinse it under hot water for a minute or so when it comes out of the smoker to get any sooty particles off.  You can cool it quickly after reaching your target temp by spraying cold water on ot unitl it is cooled down.  That will helps get it back down through the danger zone quickly and prevent the sausage from cooking too much.

If the surface of the sausage isn't dry before smoking most folks let the sausage surface air dry before it goes into the smoker to cut down on sooty particles adhering to the sausage.

I hope you enjoy the sausage!

Lance

 

[dward51]

By "fresh" I presume you mean that it was without a cure added.  Sounds like you did fine.

On the other hand, if you did use a cure then you would get a better flavor profile by smoking at a lower temp for a few hours and then raising the pit temp to finish the meat like you did.  But even with cure, you can hot smoke it.  It will be safe, just not have the same flavor profile.

 

[chef jimmyj]

 
Hello Nana

I'm assuming that the sausage went right into a 200 degree smoker and wasn't smoked at a low temperature before raising the temp to 200 to cook it.  If so you are fine. 

For future batches, I'd recommend that you rinse it under hot water for a minute or so when it comes out of the smoker to get any sooty particles off.  You can cool it quickly after reaching your target temp by spraying cold water on ot unitl it is cooled down.  That will helps get it back down through the danger zone quickly and prevent the sausage from cooking too much.

If the surface of the sausage isn't dry before smoking most folks let the sausage surface air dry before it goes into the smoker to cut down on sooty particles adhering to the sausage.

I hope you enjoy the sausage!

Lance

Lance, Just curious...What are smoking with and what fuel? I have used a few different smokers and never had Soot on the meat. That is typical of a poorly burning fire with lots of white smoke. But small hot fires for low and slow or larger fires for hot cooks, both making TBS, should never be sooty...JJ

 

[LanceR]

JJ, thanks for the input.  I sure could have been clearer in my response.  Maybe I should have kept the draft response until after I got some sleep as I was pretty whipped when I replied.

My brain cell defaulted to a cold smoke then smoke cook and eat cold setting (think snack stick) and when on looking again at Nana's post that likely wasn't what she was doing anyway.  I wasn't refering to soot in the sense of creosote type deposits as much as the light sheen of grease that is sometimes on the exterior of sausage that started out cold smoking and then was brought to cooking tenmperatures.  My experience has been that the bit of grease that sometimes coats the sausage has a somewhat more bitter smoke flavor and that most often when cold still sweating sausage was put in the smoker.

Nana, I'm sorry for any confusion I might have caused. 

Lance

 

[chef jimmyj]

Lance, Ok, that makes sense. I was just reading a review of Kingsford Charwood and other natural lump and how they can spark and ash meat. Also some Pellet Grill/Smokers can blow ash around and on meat. So I was curious if this was your situation or something else...JJ

 

[bakingnana]

Thanks, y'all!!  Great info, and it WAS delicious!!!