- Mar 14, 2011
- 5
- 10
I read many recipes on how to make smoked, cured sausage before I did my first try. I made 10 lbs of mixed pork and beef and mixed in 2 tsp. Prague powder no 1. with my spices. I ground it, mixed it with the spices and cure and left it overnight in the refrigerator. I stuffed it and smoked it the next day. (should I have left it longer?)
The recipes that I had all instructed me to cook the sausages to an internal temp of 152 deg. I did that in my smoker with a hot plate, and smoke from a Big Kahuna Smoke Daddy smoker. I really liked the look of the sausages when I had finished smoking, before raising them to the 152 deg temp. By the time they were cooked, they had shrunk due to some loss of the internal fat from the cooking.
While I like them, and they have a great flavor, is it possible to stop the cooking after the 2-3 hr smoking time , while they are still plump, and simply cool them and freeze them without fully cooking them? The commercial sausage I buy in the food stores is not cooked at all. I am asking if it is ok to stop the cooking process and freeze, to be cooked when needed.
The recipes that I had all instructed me to cook the sausages to an internal temp of 152 deg. I did that in my smoker with a hot plate, and smoke from a Big Kahuna Smoke Daddy smoker. I really liked the look of the sausages when I had finished smoking, before raising them to the 152 deg temp. By the time they were cooked, they had shrunk due to some loss of the internal fat from the cooking.
While I like them, and they have a great flavor, is it possible to stop the cooking after the 2-3 hr smoking time , while they are still plump, and simply cool them and freeze them without fully cooking them? The commercial sausage I buy in the food stores is not cooked at all. I am asking if it is ok to stop the cooking process and freeze, to be cooked when needed.