Help with cold smoking sausage?

[flyboys]

I have been doing my homework on sausage making and would like to try my hand at it. Thanks to I believe a post by Deejaydebbie, I ordered Rytek Kutas's Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing book and have been reading it through. Would anyone have any tips on an affordable cold smoker that would be good for sausage making, if there is such a thing as an affordable cold smoker? I have a WSM and read up on how to use that as a cold smoker by using a card board box ( http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/coldsmoker.html ), but I have envisions of burning my house down doing that. I would really appreciate any tips or learning what you guys use to smoke sausage on.

 

[bigarm's smokin]

Hey Flyboys, someone will be along shortly to correct me, but I don't think you want to "cold smoke" , sausage, for a little while, yes, but then bring the temp up and cook it. I think???

I sure wouldn't eat it cold smoked. I hot smoked some last week, the sausage on the cool end of my smoke shack, was too soft, I had to put it in the oven to firm it up.

 

[salmonclubber]

flyboy

i made my smoker out of an old fridge that i got from the dump it is a all metal fridge i got a 1100 watt burner from the sausagemaker it cost around $40.00 i also got a thermostat from mcmaster carr it cost me about $60.00 it will control temps from 90-210 it does a great job on sausage

i have a friend that uses a standard hotplate in his smoker it is also a fridge smoker he makes a lot of sausage in it so you have a lot of options i posted some pics on here somplace about how i made my smoker i used to use a smoker that i made out of plywood and some insulation it was ok but i was afraid it would catch fire so i went to the fridge if you need help just ask i will try and help you out

huey

 

[flyboys]

Salmonclubber,

I was actually reading up on doing that earlier today. I am going to keep my eyes open for an old fridge. Thank you for the offer, and I will let you know if I do that.
As far as cold smoking certain sausages, Is that the purpose for the cure, or am I misunderstanding this?

 

[bigarm's smokin]

I am not certain about the cure, Mossy Mo can tell you, I just don't like the "mush" texture that comes with cold smokin sausage. As I say, the experts will be along to guide you in the proper method.

 

[pgeobc]

You are correct that some types of sausage can be cold smoked. And you are right that the purpose of the cure is to make the process possible.

Smokin Tex makes an adaptor plate for cold smoking and the Bradley electric smoker can be adapted to cold smoking. However, both are of relatively small size and one would need to make recipe adjustments for, say, summersausage.

I know it sounds crazy, but the most satisfactory smokers are smokehouses built for you and/or by you. Colt smoking lends itself well to larger quantities and the larger smokers and smokehouses are better adapted to this.

Nevertheless, smaller units can be made to work successfully, if one wants to scale recipes down to fit or to smoke multiple batches. I have, over the years, tried to make smaller units work and did so, but the compromises were always a pain. I am now at the stage where I want to have a real smokehouse built and keep a separate hot smoke-cooker for meats that require that sort of preparation; it just seems, at this late date, the more sensible thing to do.

Rytek Kutas' book and video are just fine and are used in many university meats programs as source material and even sole texts for the sausage part of the course.

 

[goat]

Flyboys, Here is mine. I'll be glad to help any way I can. http://www.darylecoates.com/sausage.html