Summer Sausage End Results Would appreciate some feed back please

[turkey mama]

Okay so started at 120 degrees for 1 hr, then to 150-160 for 4 hours, had trouble keeping heat down, then bumped up to 176 for hours, end results bumped up to 200 and finished 10 1l2 hrs later.  About 9 lbs of beef and pork with PS Seasoning.  The temps dropped to 15 degrees.  So long cook, chilled in cold water and then hung to dry for 2 hrs.  Question, can anyone tell me how to keep the end that hangs down from shriveling.  Sausage was great and the texture was also great.  Has anyone laid their sausage down on the grates to smoke.  Also I left the water pan out, should I have left it in, but with no water to defuse the heat:  Using a Brinkman upright gas fired smoker.

Thanks

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Looks really good.

The end shriveled from a slight fat out causing the meat to shrink some. From being close to the heat......No worries cuz it looks good.  WTG

PS Seasoning is good kits, they make the Cabelas smokehouse line also.

 

[mossymo]

The end shriveled from a slight fat out causing the meat to shrink some. From being close to the heat......No worries cuz it looks good.  WTG

nepas nailed the answer perfectly. To fix this you can shorten the casing length, get a bigger smoker or try having a heat shield in place to difuse the direct heat to the sausage. I personally like the bigger smoker fix (any excuse to get another...

).

Great looking summer sausage by the way!

 

[rbranstner]

Great looking sausage. I have seen several people lay their SS on the racks to smoke them instead of hanging them.

 

[sparky30_06]

I just did some laying down cause I was using the tinny electric cook shack and it turned out good. 

 

[SmokinAl]

Your SS looks great! I think the only problem with laying it on the grate is you will have grate marks on it. I think I would rather have a little shriveling.

 

[fpnmf]

I have had the same issues..

I made the length  shorter and it fixed it..

  Craig

 

[turkey mama]

Thanks everyone for the help, will leave the water pan in without liquid and shorten the length of the sausages.  MossyMo, we are in agreement.  Hubby and I were just talking about a little larger one. Maybe a Christmas present to us.

Thanks again fellow smokers.  Dried Beef Curing and More Canadian Baccon Curing for this next weekend.

 

[exhaustedspark]

Yes the sausage was to close to the heat source however you also are cooking way to high. Never go above 170* Max.

I myself set temp only at 165* for my finish cooking.

Yes it takes longer but it is well worth it.

The fat out on your sausage is all through the whole sausage even though the damage is only shown on the bottom

It still is good eaten but you will realy enjoy it by keeping the temp down.

I also use a heat shield.
Karl

 

[DanMcG]

Yo Mama , nice looking Sausage!

Like Karl (ExhaustedSpark) mentioned kept the heat under 170-175 and although I don't do it, after you're done with the smoking phase of the sausage you can add a water pan and it will cook the sausage faster at the same temp, moist heat conducts heat better then dry heat.

 

[roller]

Looks real good to me...

 

[mballi3011]

Your chubs look fine to me and the ends are what they are. So like Craig said next time just make them alittle shorter. You could try to raise then away form the heat source and that will also work.

 

[shortend]

Turkey Mamma, I think your summer sausage looks pretty darned good. Ya, what the other guys said about holding the heat down a little to keep from getting that fat out. Another possible solution to help, would be to add hanging loops when you tie off the other end of your SS, and "flip 'em" occasionally to keep the heat a little more evenly distributed top to bottom. I do that when I'm going to give it to others for presentation purposes, otherwise, if it's just for myself, I'm not bothered by a little imperfection and just let'er rip.

ShortEnd

 

[michael ark]

 

[africanmeat]

It looks great and yummy

 

[papagreer]

Looks good! Cant really add anything to what the other fellas have said, but give me some crackers, some smoked gouda and a frosty cold one and Im a happy man! Good job.

Chris

 

[boykjo]

Yeah........ I got some feed back.... You didnt make enough..................

Joe