Hello everyone. I have a Char Griller smoker from Lowes and made 10 mods to it and have used it every weekend since April. I did alot of ribs and other things that turned out great. I tried some country sausage that I bought at the store and everyone LOVES IT. this is how I do,Just thought I would write and see if there is anything I'm doing wrong or somrthing I should change. I put the sausage on and smoke with oak for 10 hrs at 150 to 175. after that I take the sausage and put in fridge. thank you for your help.always trying to learn about this great hobbie.
This thread is pretty much what I'm trying to do. I've finally sourced some traditional sausage that doesn't contain any flour or meal - this has been half the battle. As stupid as this may sound, I plan to do one of two things:
Gently dry-rub cure them with a 12.5% Sodium Nitrite curing powder, along with salt, and possibly some other spices, prior to leaving in the fridge for about 1-2 days. After rinsing them, I'm going to cold smoke them for several hours before laying them on racks in the oven at about 80 Degrees Celsius (with the fan on) until they're adequately dried. The reason I plan to cold smoke first is because I will get a much stronger smoke flavour than hot smoking.
The problem here is I haven't been able to find any guide in regards to quantity of sodium nitrite and sodium chloride, per weight of meat, if using a dry-rub cure. I am also looking for a metric guide, not imperial.
The other option I am considering is pickle curing the sausages in a Sodium Nitrite solution, which I do have directions for. Again, I am likely to add salt and other spices to the pickling brine. I have made some inquiries into this, and it can work. After cold smoking, I will prick the sausages and oven dry them as mentioned above, but for a much longer period as they'll be quite swollen with water.
Can anyone offer advice, in regards to sodium chloride concentration in a pickling brine? This pickle-curing option will be easier for me to do, as I know what concentrations are required, but I would prefer to dry-rub them.
The only other issue is these sausages contain Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) liquid preservative. Will this clash with the nitrite at all?
I know what I'm doing may seem quite way out in left field, but please try and offer what helpful advice you can. If you want to reply in the forum, by all means do, but please PM me. Thanks.