# Cold Smoked Sausage



## buckbros (Jan 16, 2021)

For years I have been cold smoking rope sausage for about 1½ hours. The sausage does not get cooked at all. This is usually done in cold weather. 
I then vacuum pack & freeze. When I want to eat some I  put it in a frying pan with some water & boil it to it reaches 190 Degrees. 
After reading the 40 to 140 threads I am curious. Is this unsafe??


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## indaswamp (Jan 16, 2021)

What temp. are you cold smoking the sausages at? And do you add and cure #1 to the meat?


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## buckbros (Jan 16, 2021)

indaswamp said:


> What temp. are you cold smoking the sausages at? And do you add and cure #1 to the meat?


Smoking with a smoking tube. Do not turn the pellet grill on. I get the sausage from a local butcher shop. Don't know if they add cure.  The temp inside the grill only gets to about  degrees.


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## indaswamp (Jan 16, 2021)

buckbros said:


> The temp inside the grill only gets to about degrees.


How hot?


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## buckbros (Jan 16, 2021)

Sorry. About 100 degrees.


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## SmokinEdge (Jan 16, 2021)

If no cure #1 is in the sausage, yes this could be dangerous for botulism. Without cure #1 you need to keep the meat below 40* at all times.


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## thirdeye (Jan 16, 2021)

buckbros said:


> For years I have been cold smoking rope sausage for about 1½ hours. The sausage does not get cooked at all. This is usually done in cold weather.
> I then vacuum pack & freeze. When I want to eat some I  put it in a frying pan with some water & boil it to it reaches 190 Degrees.
> After reading the 40 to 140 threads I am curious. Is this unsafe??


So you are flavor smoking non-cured sausage links for 1.5 hours. And even though your outside temp is "cold", the smoker temp gets up to 100°.  We don't know the actual internal of the sausage at the end of the 1.5 hours, but we can assume it's >40° for maybe an hour.  Lets say you are in the low range of the "danger zone" for at least an hour.  If, for example, you went immediately to the grill or a beer/butter bath you would kill any baddies. 

I'm not sure about freezing after flavor smoking..... however, freezing does not kill bacteria, but it does not multiply while food is in the freezer. When you thaw your sausage, any bacteria will begin to multiply once it gets  >40°.   Is it correct to assume you have 3 hours of "danger zone time" since you used one hour before the food was frozen?  Or can we assume that once thawed, you begin to cook the sausage and you speed through the danger zone.   Scratching my head on this one for now....


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## SmokinEdge (Jan 16, 2021)

buckbros said:


> For years I have been cold smoking rope sausage for about 1½ hours. The sausage does not get cooked at all. This is usually done in cold weather.
> I then vacuum pack & freeze. When I want to eat some I  put it in a frying pan with some water & boil it to it reaches 190 Degrees.
> After reading the 40 to 140 threads I am curious. Is this unsafe??



On another note, I noticed that you are cooking your sausage to IT of 190*. That’s fine, but I would encourage you to finish internal temps between 150-160* the finished product is much better with less fat-out. Juicy tasty sausage.


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## buckbros (Jan 16, 2021)

Yes, I am sure it is over 40 degrees for an hour. It comes out of the smoker & goes into the fridge. We then vacuum pack within 24 hours & it goes into the freezer.  Right now I have a piece in the fridge thawing that I am cooking for breakfast in the morning. I put it in a frying pan with some water & par boil it until it gets to 190 or above.  I am not saying this is right but I have done it this way for years.  Maybe I've been lucky although I was not lucky with the Covid as I ended up with the s**t about a month & a half ago. I am doing ok now but I don't want it again. 
I am going to ask the butcher if he uses a cure when he makes the sausage.


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## SmokinEdge (Jan 16, 2021)

What color is the inside of the cooked sausage? Pinkish or gray? The pink is cure, the fresh will be gray cooked.


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## buckbros (Jan 17, 2021)

I just cooked a piece this morning. It did have some pink but more of gray.


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