MES - Sausage Question

kron

Newbie

Original poster

Aug 10, 2008

11

10

• Oct 5, 2008

• #1

No pics to post, as the wife took both digital cameras out of town with her for the weekend somehow, but...

Stuffed a 10# batch of Spicy German sausage links last night in some 35mm casings. Ended up making 6 full links, and 2 half links.

So I put some S-hooks on the top rack of the MES, and hung the 8 links from them. Spaced out so that none were touching, or if they spun to touch, very little surface would have been touching.

Heated at 140F with no smoke on for about 30min to dry out the casings a bit and get them tacky. Then bumped MES up to 165F and loaded up with pecan chips and a few hickory chips. Let it smoke away for about 3hrs. Internal temp was at 132F at that point. Raised set point a bit and let it keep going for another 45min or so till bed time. Pulled at 136F internal or so.

These have cure in them and will receive a final smoke/cook in the other smoker prior to eating. The will be vac sealed and frozen for later.

Top vent was open about 1/2 or 2/3 of the way for the first 3hrs. Nice blue smoke coming out the top. Added more chips a couple times during smoke to keep the blue line going.

So the issue...

When I pulled the links, several had one side that was nicely smoked, other sides were kinda pinkish, but nothing like a nice heavy smoke. Some links only got nice n smoky near the top 1/3 or so.

So not sure where my problem lays:

* Vent open too much?
* Too much drying time up front?
* Uneven smokiness inside MES?

Would love to figure out what went wrong to make sure I get a nice even smoke on everything.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
sean

 

mulepackin

Master of the Pit

OTBS Member

SMF Premier Member

Dec 27, 2007

1,328

13

Central Montana

• Oct 5, 2008

• #2

I'm almost certain the pink sides were either in contact with each other or something that prevent smoke uptake on that side (inside of smoker).

 

salmonclubber

Gone but not forgotten. RIP

OTBS Member

Jul 3, 2005

1,283

20

forks washington

• Oct 5, 2008

• #3

i agree with mule

 

zzerru

Meat Mopper

SMF Premier Member

Apr 14, 2007

178

86

Ann Arbor

• Oct 5, 2008

• #4

agreed, links were probably touching. closing up the vent more solved the problem of not getting the whole length smoked for me.

 

bb53chevpro

Master of the Pit

OTBS Member

Dec 29, 2007

1,846

12

• Oct 5, 2008

• #5

I agree as well. Were they hanging or laying on a grill. If they were laying on the grill, maybe try hanging them next time. Get yourself some "S" hooks from hardware store, put in the top rack into smoker, hang "S" hooks on rack, and hang sausage on "S" hooks. Your will find that the links will cross and touch eachother at the bottom. It's ok, halfway through the smoke just switch them around. Or, stick a toothpick into both pieces towards the bottom of the sausage to keep the links seperated.

Hope this helps.

 

formerlyfatguy

Smoke Blower

SMF Premier Member

May 14, 2008

128

10

• Oct 6, 2008

• #6

I ran into the same problem the first time I smoked some kielbasa.
The next 2 times I cold smoked the kielbasa and they were smoked on both sides. I got one of the cold smoke generators from Porky Pa's. Works great with both the sausage and cheese I've smoked, but a bit of a pain in the *** to clean the tar after using it.
The only drawback was that it took about 20 hours total to cold smoke the sausage. There is no heat whatsoever with this method, give it a try.

 

kron

Newbie

Original poster

Thread starter

Aug 10, 2008

11

10

• Oct 7, 2008

• #7

I'll have to try the toothpick thing out if I can't keep them from swinging into each other and touching. Thought I had all the S-hooks spaced pretty evenly and as far apart as I could get them.

Oddly, even though the links weren't all colored nicely throughout, they all smell very smoky. So will have to through a couple on the grill later and see how they taste.

Will ahev to run another batch or two through the MES this weekend to see if I can get better, more consistent results.

Thanks for the help!

 

richtee

Epic Pitmaster

OTBS Member

Aug 12, 2007

10,682

29

N. Oakland County, MI

• Oct 7, 2008

• #8

might I suggest either acetone or laquer thinner as a soak/brush. Of course do not use on any plastic parts. And don't smoke while cleaning