Souse vide questions, bringing sausage up to temperature

[charlieL]

I poach a lot of the sausage that I make. I poach my fresh (I guess that makes it a cooked sausage) sausage before freezing. I also poach my smoked sausages to bring the up to food safe. I am thinking about getting a sous vide to make the process easier. I like the idea of temperature control, but not like the idea of vacuum bagging the sausage. Will putting the sausage directly in the water work with sous vide? What about the heating portion of the immersion circulator will stuff burn to it.

 

[Steve H]

A lot of people do it this way. Then just clean the SV after you're done. There is a few threads here that cover cleaning the SV after this.

 

[charlieL]

Thank you, that is what I wanted to hear. I will put the search bar to work.

 

[LoydB]

I personally don't want sausage juices cooking onto my heating element no matter how it gets cleaned afterward.

You don't have to vacuum bag the sausage, you can put it in a normal ziploc and lower it into the water bath so the air gets pushed out, then seal it up.

I don't vac seal a fresh sausage unless I freeze it first, I don't need the juices boiling inside it when the vacuum gets pulled.

 

[chopsaw]

I've done both ways . SV'd and poach on the stove . I prefer poaching on the stove , but I'm doing small batches .
I've done SV both bagged and no bag . I stopped doing no bag . I do have water proof high barrier casings that I use for cooked salami and stuff . No bag needed .
I use a flower vase and 50 / 50 vinegar and water to clean .

Always freeze my links before vac sealing .

 

[DougE]

I do it all the time and have seen no ill effects to my SV cooker. I just wash the tube and part that is in the water when I get done.

 

[DougE]

I personally don't want sausage juices cooking onto my heating element no matter how it gets cleaned afterward.

I've not seen that happen after having done a ton of sausage. The submerged element just doesn't get hot enough to do that.

 

[charlieL]

Thank you guys for the knowledge, I think I will go ahead and order an immersion circulator. I can always use it for other things if I find out I like the stove top poaching better.

I have always frozen my sausage before vacuum sealing. That is one of the reasons I was hesitant about vac sealing before poaching. I did not have a good grasp of what would work and how to do it, now I am ready to give it a whirl.

 

[DougE]

Thank you guys for the knowledge, I think I will go ahead and order an immersion circulator. I can always use it for other things if I find out I like the stove top poaching better.

I have always frozen my sausage before vacuum sealing. That is one of the reasons I was hesitant about vac sealing before poaching. I did not have a good grasp of what would work and how to do it, now I am ready to give it a whirl.

I got the SV cooker mainly for finishing sausage, but I have found it useful for a lot more. Mine gets used enough that it never gets put away.

 

[jimmyinsd]

I did a batch of hot dogs by putting them directly into the water and I thought the finished product tasted washed out.

I had ground a batch of meat and mixed it with Leggs bologna and frank seasoning, I stuffed some of it into sheep casings for the hot dogs, and rings casings for ring bologna, the hot dogs tasted bland after finishing in the water, while the rings sausage which was finished in the smoker was great. Only differences was the finish method, and I did give the ring sausage about an hour more smoke to account for the thicker diameter. Maybe I am missing something, but next time I make dogs I will use the same processes, but will either finish them in the smoker or bag them prior to sous vide.

 

[zwiller]

Like all things, it's debatable. I have a water oven so I can recirc without fear of damaging but swear I lost some flavor doing it that way and prefer vac sealed. SV is AWESOME for poaching sausage. I like to run mine hot and fast (150F 60m). If you are worried that vac sealing will compact them or distort them, it doesn't.