Yikes What Did I do Wrong ?

[mojo]

I just smoked my very first pork sausage. I used a 10 lb picnic shoulder and used hog casing. I split my sausage into three different spiced varities - Italian, Cajun and Breakfast sausage.

Before I threw the links into my new Masterbuilt electric smoker ( which I have zippo experience with ) I set the temp at 135 and once that temp was achieved I put in the apple wood and sausage and set the temp to 170 for 6 hours. This was per the Masterbuilt instruction manual.

The sausages came out completely dry. They were so bad I wouldn't even feed them to our dogs.

My thoughts were that I used too high a temp or I left them in the smoker too long or BOTH.

Can someone give me an idea as to where I went wrong and help get me started for my next pork shoulder ?

Thanks ahead of time for any and all of your help. :)

Mojo

 

[rbranstner]

Boy I am not sure why you sausage was so dry. Mine never turn out dry and we even smoke them at a higher tem (200 degrees). Maybe you didn't have enough fat content or something. But when we make ours we use very lean venison and very lean pork and they are never dry. Sorry I can't be more helpl. Hopefully someone will be around soon to help you out more.

 

[meat hunter]

Most sausage in the casing is smoked to an internal temp of 152-155 degrees. One must really go by temp when smoking and not times. Italian done at 152, but a boudin can be smoked up to 160 internal. Smoked breakfast sausage to an internal temp of 142 degrees. I'd say you just had them in there too long and basically rendered most of the fat out of them. Do you have a good reliable thermometer? Either a probe or a digital? If not, its a must have. Don't throw them out, they can always be used for other dishes like caseroles or chiles.

Smoking temps vary slightly on sausages, but most hover around 160 degree mark, give or take depending on what the sausage style is. I think I mentioned it in your introduction to the site under roll call, to look for a copy of Ryteks book. I know you will benefit from it.

 

[mojo]

Thank you for the replies. I am going to give it another try next week and this time smoke according to internal temp rather then time. :)

I did subscribe to Jeff's course and have been reading up on those as I get them.

Thanks again for all the help.

Mojo

 

[plj]

I'd also check to see if the temp control on your MES is accurate, you may have been hotter than you wanted.

 

[mballi3011]

You need to remember the old saying we cook by temp and not time here. Unless you are taking ribs of course. Now when you smoke your sausage all the recipes I have seen says to start out really low maybe 100* for the first hour and then move it up maybe 10* or so and then add smoke. Then bump it up alittle more and after 3-4 hours you should be at about 170* and you take your saussge to a finishing 156* or so. Check your recipe again ok??