I recently took a shot at making "reuben sausages". Cured a beef brisket in pastrami brine for 2 weeks, and added bacon ends to the grind to get the fat content up to about 30%. The brisket and bacon was ~7lbs, so I added 2 lbs of sauerkraut and 1 lb of swiss cheese. Stuffed into natural casings, and smoked with oak pellets for about 8 hours until it hit 155 IT, then into an ice bath.
The "reuben" flavor I was looking for was more or less there, but I wasn't happy with the texture or the cheese content. Next time, if I do this again, I will search high and low for fat back to use instead of the bacon, and I will double the cheese ratio.
Nest time, try smoking at 150 ish temp... for 24 hours... that reduces the fat out... final temp of the sausage 140 ish for 2 hours or so... that's adequate to pasteurize the meat....
Temperature Time Temperature Time
°F (°C) (Minutes) °F (°C) (Seconds)
130 (54.4) 112 min... 146 (63.3) 169 sec
131 (55.0) 89 min.... 147 (63.9) 134 sec
132 (55.6) 71 min.... 148 (64.4) 107 sec
133 (56.1) 56 min.... 149 (65.0) 85 sec
134 (56.7) 45 min.... 150 (65.6) 67 sec
135 (57.2) 36 min.... 151 (66.1) 54 sec
136 (57.8) 28 min.... 152 (66.7) 43 sec
137 (58.4) 23 min.... 153 (67.2) 34 sec
138 (58.9) 18 min.... 154 (67.8) 27 sec
139 (59.5) 15 min.... 155 (68.3) 22 sec
140 (60.0) 12 min.... 156 (68.9) 17 sec
141 (60.6) 9 min...... 157 (69.4) 14 sec
142 (61.1) 8 min...... 158 (70.0) 0 sec
143 (61.7) 6 min.......
144 (62.2) 5 min.......
145 (62.8) 4 min.......
Table C.1: Pasteurization times for beef, corned beef, lamb, pork and cured pork (FDA, 2009, 3-401.11.B.2).