After a few years of doing sticks I have come up with a way that minimizes the time and maintains the quality; thought I'd share it. Here the sticks have been stuffed and sat in the fridge over night. Next morning I set them on the counter early, for an hour or so, then put them in the oven at 135-40 for 45 minutes to get all the moisture off. While I'm at it I put a pizza pan with pellets in too, to make sure they are dry. If there is any question on that I'll also microwave them for a couple minutes. What a pain when you think there's been 2 hours of smoking only to discover the smoke quit somewhere along the way!
Here the pellets are ready and I spoon them into the Amazin.
They start up nice when super dry, and throw a nice steady smoke.
Now here's the key: I decide how much smoke; 5 hours in this case. I run the temp up from 140 to 165 over the course of those five hours, but never check the meat temperature because I don't care what it is (typically 130 or so). I just want x amount of time smoking. At that point, out the sausage comes and into the oven set at an equivalent 165 with temp probes in the biggest sausage on each rack. I'll go up to 170, but haven't had to go higher. The oven running on convection, with the fan blowing, distributes fairly even heat (way more even than my MES), but not even enough to avoid a temp probe on each rack of sausage. In not that long a time I start hitting the internal temp targets, the racks close to finishing at the same time but several minutes can separate their finish. I go by the USDA table, and start timing in the high 140's.
The result is sausage that has an exact amount of smoke, and a uniform internal temperature, without all the time I used to spend trying to get that combination from my smoker. Folks with precise high end smokers probably get the same result without switching over to the oven, but in my case it has produced more reliable results way more efficiently. Sticks above are the Owens honey bbq mix with pepper jack cheese. Everybody likes these!
Here the pellets are ready and I spoon them into the Amazin.
They start up nice when super dry, and throw a nice steady smoke.
Now here's the key: I decide how much smoke; 5 hours in this case. I run the temp up from 140 to 165 over the course of those five hours, but never check the meat temperature because I don't care what it is (typically 130 or so). I just want x amount of time smoking. At that point, out the sausage comes and into the oven set at an equivalent 165 with temp probes in the biggest sausage on each rack. I'll go up to 170, but haven't had to go higher. The oven running on convection, with the fan blowing, distributes fairly even heat (way more even than my MES), but not even enough to avoid a temp probe on each rack of sausage. In not that long a time I start hitting the internal temp targets, the racks close to finishing at the same time but several minutes can separate their finish. I go by the USDA table, and start timing in the high 140's.
The result is sausage that has an exact amount of smoke, and a uniform internal temperature, without all the time I used to spend trying to get that combination from my smoker. Folks with precise high end smokers probably get the same result without switching over to the oven, but in my case it has produced more reliable results way more efficiently. Sticks above are the Owens honey bbq mix with pepper jack cheese. Everybody likes these!
