# store bought sausage smoking?



## smokey2 (Jan 1, 2010)

Hello everyone. I have a Char Griller smoker from Lowes and made 10 mods to it and have used it every weekend since April. I did alot of ribs and other things that turned out great. I tried some country sausage that I bought at the store and everyone LOVES IT. this is how I do,Just thought I would write and see if there is anything I'm doing wrong or somrthing I should change. I put the sausage on and smoke with oak for 10 hrs at 150 to 175. after that I take the sausage and put in fridge. thank you for your help.always trying to learn about this great hobbie.


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## hog warden (Jan 1, 2010)

The problem with smoking your store bought country sausage is it probably doesn't have cure in it. "Cure" being a product like Insta Cure or Prague powder #1 that has sodium nitrite in it. The danger is botulism poisoning, which can be fatal. Nothing to mess around with. With sausage, the basic rule is if lacks "cure", you don't smoke it. You could look at the contents label  to see if it has "nitrite" in it. If no label, does it turn pink or gray when you cook it? Pink suggests cure. Gray......no cure. 

Otherwise, the process you are following is the basic process for a fully cooked, smoked sausage. If you like it, time to make your own! 

Is this "country sausage" stuffed or bulk?


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## mballi3011 (Jan 1, 2010)

Just one question for ya?? You said that you put this sausage in the smoker for 10 hours at 150 or 175 and it's eatable after that?? I would think that it would be shoe leather or something.


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## tn_bbq (Jan 1, 2010)

Store bought sausage (the kind you find near the hot dogs) is a staple on my smoker.  Pretty much goes on the cooker everytime I fire it up.  

Smoking time vaires, but I find that somewhere in the 2-4 hour range works great.

So long as the casings don't burst, they're yummy when served with a little mustard and make great chef samples.


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## pineywoods (Jan 1, 2010)

If the sausage isn't cured it needs to be hot smoked at temps above 200 degrees. You don't want to cold smoke anything that is not cured as it remains in the danger zone too long. You may get away with it once or 10,000 times but the one time you don't and make people sick isn't going to be fun


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## smokey2 (Jan 3, 2010)

Thanks for helping. I'll check the pack of sausage at the store and see if it is cured.


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## ugaboz (Jan 4, 2010)

how long can you smoke a sausage


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## smokey2 (Jan 4, 2010)

I smoke mine for 10hrs and you can eat it cold the next day for a snack or use it in a stew.


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## tn_bbq (Jan 4, 2010)

I can hardly make it past 3 or 4 hours before I have to eat it. 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






  That's why I usually cook a couple pounds of sausage (so there will be some for the others to eat).

On a slightly more serious note, I found that it IS possible to oversmoke sausage.  I left some on overnight with a pork butt and it dried out (casings must have burst).


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## smokin dad (Jan 4, 2010)

I think this makes a good appetizer with ABTs while waiting for the main course.   Also darn good the next day from the fridge. 
Can get on sale at our local Krogers for about $1 each pack
takes about as long as the ABTS for me. Never tried to cook longer


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## gasbag (Feb 29, 2012)

smokey2 said:


> Hello everyone. I have a Char Griller smoker from Lowes and made 10 mods to it and have used it every weekend since April. I did alot of ribs and other things that turned out great. I tried some country sausage that I bought at the store and everyone LOVES IT. this is how I do,Just thought I would write and see if there is anything I'm doing wrong or somrthing I should change. I put the sausage on and smoke with oak for 10 hrs at 150 to 175. after that I take the sausage and put in fridge. thank you for your help.always trying to learn about this great hobbie.




This thread is pretty much what I'm trying to do.  I've finally sourced some traditional sausage that doesn't contain any flour or meal - this has been half the battle.  As stupid as this may sound, I plan to do one of two things:

Gently dry-rub cure them with a 12.5% Sodium Nitrite curing powder, along with salt, and possibly some other spices, prior to leaving in the fridge for about 1-2 days.  After rinsing them, I'm going to cold smoke them for several hours before laying them on racks in the oven at about 80 Degrees Celsius (with the fan on) until they're adequately dried.  The reason I plan to cold smoke first is because I will get a much stronger smoke flavour than hot smoking. _ The problem here is I haven't been able to find any guide in regards to quantity of sodium nitrite and sodium chloride, per weight of meat, if using a dry-rub cure. _ I am also looking for a metric guide, not imperial.

The other option I am considering is pickle curing the sausages in a Sodium Nitrite solution, which I do have directions for.  Again, I am likely to add salt and other spices to the pickling brine.  I have made some inquiries into this, and it can work.  After cold smoking, I will prick the sausages and oven dry them as mentioned above, but for a much longer period as they'll be quite swollen with water.  _Can anyone offer advice, in regards to sodium chloride concentration in a pickling brine? _ This pickle-curing option will be easier for me to do, as I know what concentrations are required, but I would prefer to dry-rub them.

_The only other issue is these sausages contain Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) liquid preservative.  Will this clash with the nitrite at all?_

I know what I'm doing may seem quite way out in left field, but please try and offer what helpful advice you can.  If you want to reply in the forum, by all means do, but please PM me.  Thanks.


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## sausageboy (Feb 29, 2012)

Deleted by SausageBoy!


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