# Smoked breakfast sausage question.



## wooddoug (May 25, 2013)

My dads smoked breakfast sausage was my favorite. I'm preparing to learn how and smoke some sausage this winter. I am confused as to the process and the name of the process! He did it when cold but above freezing. He froze the sausage afterward. Didn't use cure or nitrates/trites. What i see on here is a different process using warm temps. Am i not looking in the right section?


----------



## s2k9k (May 25, 2013)

If you are smoking any ground meat without cure above 40* then you need to get the internal temp of the meat above 140* in less than 4 hours or you are really risking bacterial growth which can lead to botulism! 
I think we need a lot more inf on what you are wanting to do, specifically what kind of sausage, what kind of smoker, what temps you are planning on smoking in.
There are a lot of very experienced sausage makers on here who can help you with whatever you are wanting to make. I don't know too much about it but have been learning the basics so far. I want to start making my own also but am taking it slow and learning all I can before I might make a big mistake.

I see this is your first post here so when you get a minute woud you do us a favor and swing by *"Roll Call"* and introduce yourself so we can give you a proper SMF Welcome, Thanks!


----------



## wooddoug (May 25, 2013)

My understanding is the sausage should stay between 32-38 degrees during the entire preparing and smoking process. This is uncooked breakfast sausage smoked in a smoke house in muslin bags then frozen.


----------



## reinhard (May 25, 2013)

I guess i dont understand the requirment that the temps have to be between 32 and 38 degree during the entire process from start to smoking finish. That just doesn't compute to me so let's start from here.  Do you want to make fresh breakfast sausage or do you want smoked sausage with a cure involved?  I think there is me and others here who want to help you through with the whole deal.  Let's start with step one, fresh or smoked and ask away. Reinhard


----------



## woodcutter (May 25, 2013)

Reinhard said:


> I guess i dont understand the requirment that the temps have to be between 32 and 38 degree during the entire process from start to smoking finish. That just doesn't compute to me so let's start from here.  Do you want to make fresh breakfast sausage or do you want smoked sausage with a cure involved?  I think there is me and others here who want to help you through with the whole deal.  Let's start with step one, fresh or smoked and ask away. Reinhard


I think he wants to cold smoke it so it stays in the safe zone while he gives it some smoke.


----------



## boykjo (May 26, 2013)

Just be sure your meat temps dont get in the danger zone and all your equipment is sanitized before use and chilled below 38 degrees. Sounds like true cold smoking to me............... Might want to look into a vacuum sealer to keep the sausage from crystalizing and losing moisture in the freezer

Let us know how it turnes out and welcome to SMF

Good luck

Boykjo


----------



## reinhard (May 26, 2013)

That's something i have never done [cold smoking]. So now it computes with me LOL.  I'll follow this as well.  Reinhard.


----------



## wooddoug (May 26, 2013)

Good morning Reinhard and others, yes thats correct I'm making cold smoked sausage, I was afraid to use that term as I've been confused by some things i've read. I guess its also called fresh sausage. Perhaps your site deals more with "summer" sausage and sausage in caseins?


----------



## boykjo (May 26, 2013)

wooddoug said:


> Good morning Reinhard and others, yes thats correct I'm making cold smoked sausage, I was afraid to use that term as I've been confused by some things i've read. I guess its also called fresh sausage. Perhaps your site deals more with "summer" sausage and sausage in caseins?


OK.... thats another wrench you threw in..... Is the sausage your talking about in *casings* are was it in bulk patties and cold smoked at low temperatures.


----------



## wooddoug (May 26, 2013)

Thanks boykjo and others for taking the time to help me. Sorry I'm slow to respond. Here's what I remember. Putting raw ground pork into homemade muslin bags. Hanging them in the smokehouse, the same time of year as the hams were smoked. But the sausage only stayed in a short time. Hours or a coupla days, I don't remember which. Then the raw sausage, stained and smokey was vaccum packed and frozen. We kept it frozen and cut it frozen cause the outer layer of meat would tear loose when the cloth bag strip was pulled off, if you thawed then cut it. Man I loved that stuff. You can buy it a cracker barrel but I wanna do it myself. My dad was still smoking hams and bacon up to about 4 years before he died.

     One of the things i want to be sure of, dad didn't use any cure or nitrates. And I don't put much salt in mine.I wanna make sure thats the proper way. 

     I've made two twenty pound batches of fresh sausage (unsmoked) this year getting my spices like i want. I cut Looking forward to the winter smoking season!


----------



## rexlan (May 26, 2013)

Sounds like you want to make a simple bulk breakfast sausage around hog killing time ... late November.  You're using the muslin bag as a simple package holder for it.  No problem.

If it were me I would add the #1 cure just as a safety ... it will not change the taste of the sausage at all and should it get too warm, by accident, it will prevent problems.

Make you sausage as you like then pack it as tight as possible in your muslin bag.  Keep the smoke house/smoker temperature 38° maximum and apply a very mild smoke for up to 2 days.  remove, package and freeze.

IF you add the cure you can put it in a regular smoker at 110° or so and smoke it for 2-4 hours then package and freeze.

The muslin bags are very easy to make if you can't find them to buy.  Wal Mart has the material ... ultra cheap.

Take a 9" x 14" piece of the cloth, fold it in half lengthwise and sew it shut on the edge putting a slight curve at the bottom.  If you want it fancy, sew two nylon strings in the top edge to tie with.


----------



## shannon127 (May 26, 2013)

Doug,

When the sausage was cooked, was the inside a pinkish color or was it grey?  That will help understand better the process your dad used.  From there we may be able to give you a little better guidance to recreate his recipe


----------



## diggingdogfarm (May 26, 2013)

Non-proteolytic types of botulinum begin to multiply at 38°F, so you'll definitely want to keep the temperature safely below that when not using cure.



~Martin


----------



## wooddoug (Jun 15, 2013)

The sausage was pink.


----------



## boykjo (Jun 15, 2013)

I assume your dad isnt around to answer your questions...... do you have a recipe or are you looking for one. Red wine, food coloring or cure will turn sausage red so its still hard to answer... any of your dads buds or relatives helped him make this.............. I highly recommend you use a cure if attempting to cold smoke raw sausage.....

Cure #1 and insta cure #1 are the same.

MTQ is different and should not be used with cure #1

Cure #1 is used at 1 level tsp per every 5 lbs of meat.

MTQ is 7.5 tsp per every 5 lbs of meat and you may have to adjust any salt in a recipe when using MTQ.

I dont know what they call cures in Canada.

CURES - Cures are used in sausage products for color and flavor development as well as retarding the development of bacteria in
the low temperature environment of smoked meats.
Salt and sugar both cure meat by osmosis. In addition to drawing the water from the food, they dehydrate and kill the bacteria that make food spoil. In general, though, use of the word "cure" refers to processing the meat with either sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate.
The primary and most important reason to use cures is to prevent BOTULISM POISONING (Food poisoning). It is very important that any kind of meat or sausage that will be cooked and smoked at low temperature be cured. To trigger botulism poisoning, the requirements are quite simple - lack of oxygen, the presence of moisture, and temperatures in range of 40-140° F. When smoking meats, the heat and smoke eliminates the oxygen. The meats have moisture and are traditionally smoked and cooked in the low ranges of 90 to 185° F. As you can see, these are ideal conditions for food poisoning if you don't use cures. There are two types of commercially used cures.

Prague Powder #1
Also called Insta-Cure and Modern Cure. Cures are used to prevent meats from spoiling when being cooked or smoked at low temperatures (under 200 degrees F). This cure is 1 part sodium nitrite (6.25%) and 16 parts salt (93.75%) and are combined and crystallized to assure even distribution. As the meat temperate rises during processing, the sodium nitrite changes to nitric oxide and starts to ‘gas out’ at about 130 degrees F. After the smoking /cooking process is complete only about 10-20% of the original nitrite remains. As the product is stored and later reheated for consumption, the decline of nitrite continues. 4 ounces of Prague powder #1 is required to cure 100 lbs of meat. A more typical measurement for home use is 1 level tsp per 5 lbs of meat. Mix with cold water, then mix into meat like you would mix seasonings into meat.

Prague Powder #2
Used to dry-cure products. Prague powder #2 is a mixture of 1 part sodium nitrite, .64 parts sodium nitrate and 16 parts salt. (1 oz. of sodium nitrite with .64 oz. of sodium nitrate to each lb. of salt.)
It is primarily used in dry-curing Use with products that do not require cooking, smoking, or refrigeration. This cure, which is sodium nitrate, acts like a time release, slowly breaking down into sodium nitrite, then into nitric oxide. This allows you to dry cure products that take much longer to cure. A cure with sodium nitrite would dissipate too quickly.
Use 1 oz. of cure for 25 lbs. of meat or 1 level teaspoon of cure for 5 lbs. of meat when mixing with meat.
When using a cure in a brine solution, follow a recipe.


----------



## diggingdogfarm (Jun 15, 2013)

Sounds like typical cold-smoked country breakfast sausage to me.
The method is pretty simple.

See this thread.....
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...ked-breakfast-sausage-1st-thread-with-q-views


~Martin


----------



## bearpaw54 (Oct 19, 2013)

Hello y'all, im not the one who started this thread, however my husband also read somewhere that you can buy a roll of breakfast sausage from 

grocery store and smoke it! I have not seen that so far, but he bought some this week and wants me to try it, I don't know if it can be done or he

misunderstood or what? If anyone knows, can you let us in on how to do it? Im doing chicken tom. and was going to try putting the sausage on to smoke 

as well, but not sure what to do with it/ make it into patties like i would cook in a skillet, then put on a rack that won't let it fall through? or what, i have no idea and would appreciate it if yall know how, to share it with me! thanks ahead of time, Patti


----------



## palladini (Nov 5, 2013)

Bearpaw54 said:


> Hello y'all, im not the one who started this thread, however my husband also read somewhere that you can buy a roll of breakfast sausage from
> 
> grocery store and smoke it! I have not seen that so far, but he bought some this week and wants me to try it, I don't know if it can be done or he
> 
> ...


If store bought, fresh, make sure you do this cooking in the smoker 225 or above, as there will be no cure in those sausages.  But since it is Sausage, you could get some cure, add it, mix it in and reform or stuff again.


----------



## JMcGraw47 (Jul 24, 2018)

wooddoug said:


> My understanding is the sausage should stay between 32-38 degrees during the entire preparing and smoking process. This is uncooked breakfast sausage smoked in a smoke house in muslin bags then frozen.


    Mine also from a co-worker whos family killed hogs every December ground/seasoned and then smoked and sold to us at work........Sure miss those $6 for 2lbs!


----------

