How many days of continuous cold smoke for dry-cured sausage

[sheervelocity]

Specifically csabai kolbasz.

I've done Marianski's process of cold smoking for 4 days straight. I've done this maybe 3 or 4 times with pretty good success.

But is that many days really necessary? With my current set up, I'm having to wake up through the night and check the camera i have inside the smoker to look for smoke. I've had my sausages turn to solid ice because the fire went out.

For fun, I asked chatgpt this question and it responded by saying no, this many days of cold smoke is not even usual, let alone necessary.

Can I get away with 12 hours of cold smoking, what would be the effects (not dry enough?), and what is the science to back that up?

My apologies if this is a regular question.

Thanks everyone,
SV

 

[SmokinEdge]

Cold smoking is actually a drying process, you need humidity 70-75% the process can last a few days to a few weeks, it’s all how much weight loss and smoke you are after. Temps should be above freezing to about 80F. Also continuous smoke is not desirable, you want to smoke 5-10 hours then rest with no smoke. If temps are good you can leave the sausage in the smoker overnight and then apply smoke the next day. Some will smoke 5-10 hours then zip bag and into the fridge overnight to rest then smoke again the next day. The rest is important as a step.

 

[crankybuzzard]

The key word in the Marianski process is thin cold smoke. Also the temp with thin smoke they reference is 66f for 3-5 days. As SmokinEdge said, this is the beginning of the drying process. You can use as much, or as little smoke as you want, the 3-5 days is how it's historically been made.

Still a lot of drying time after the initial smoke.

I've been using the Marianski recipes/procedures for better than 20 years and so far the ones I've done have been spot on.

 

[sheervelocity]

Guys, thank you very much for the replies.

Big relief to hear that it does not have to be continuous smoke, although I'll have to process in the fall before the freezing temps, this seems a much more sane method as I can smoke all day and sleep all night.

Cheers,
SV