Bad Sausage day with the UDS.

[steve079]

    Used my last twin pack of Pork Butt, to make a nice batch of sausage.  10lbs of Kielbasa, 10 of Chorizo, and 3 of Brat's. The problem I ran into, was, due to the colder temps, I could not get the heat where I wanted.  I ran the same setup that worked perfect in late August, but, once the Kielbasa, Brats and some cheese were loaded in, I couldn't get the temp up high enough with the small burn basket I had been using successfully since May, when I first tried making sausage.

Anyway, it took 5 hours before I gave up, with the sausage still at 128, and finished it in the oven, sealed in a foil pan with some beer in there.

Flavor was good, but it was just a tad dry. I may wrap the barrel in insulation, or look at a heating element to use i the barrel so I can control the heat.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

 
    Used my last twin pack of Pork Butt, to make a nice batch of sausage.  10lbs of Kielbasa, 10 of Chorizo, and 3 of Brat's. The problem I ran into, was, due to the colder temps, I could not get the heat where I wanted.  I ran the same setup that worked perfect in late August, but, once the Kielbasa, Brats and some cheese were loaded in, I couldn't get the temp up high enough with the small burn basket I had been using successfully since May, when I first tried making sausage.

Anyway, it took 5 hours before I gave up, with the sausage still at 128, and finished it in the oven, sealed in a foil pan with some beer in there.

Flavor was good, but it was just a tad dry. I may wrap the barrel in insulation, or look at a heating element to use i the barrel so I can control the heat.

5 hours to get to 128? Did you have cure #1 in the meat?

 

[steve079]

    Yes, I don't know how much time for sure the usage of the #1 cure gives you to get to temp before you run into problems.  The meat was in for maybe 3 1/2 hours, I spent over a hour trying to get the them dialed up; it just never got there.  So, I finished them in the oven.

 I had bought the Amazin Tube smoker and pellets, to use in the in the process. I used on UDS as the smoker, giving them 2 hours, then placing the sausage into my other UDS that was up to temp and ready to go.  I tried to combine the process, but the Tube would not stay lit.  Having no prior experience with pellets, It never occurred to me that they could of absorbed moisture.  I thought somehow, the firebasket was pulling so much combustion air, it was snuffing out the tube.

I have the Chorizo ready to stuff and smoke, I'll try the tube in with the lump, again, with fresh dry pellets, and see how that goes. Being able to combine the two, will shorten the process considerably.

I'm completely open to other suggestions that other members might have.  Spend enough time reading about the process on the Net, and you see a lot of contradictions and confusion. One last thing, I used a brand new bag of pure apple wood pellets, gave the sausage 2-3 hours of smoke,  Had very little smoke flavor. 

Just an all around cluster F of a day, happens sometimes, lol.

 

[ironhorse07]

Yes, in a fired smoker the fire will consume most of the available oxygen and the AMPTS will not have enough combustion air to stay lit.
Using cure #1 like you are what you might try is to dry your sausages good, cold smoke for a couple of hours in the UDS with the tube smoker then poach them to temp in a 180 deg water bath. I use an electric roaster. Watch them close as they come up to temp fast in the water bath.

 

[daveomak]

Steve, morning.....  Cure#1 is good for at least a couple weeks...  once above 130 deg. F, it will start decomposing...  usually 10-20% remains in the meats during storage... 

For an UDS, it is probably best to bury chunks of hardwood in the coals to add smoke to the process...   that way they will smolder along with the briquettes....  more hardwood chunks, more smoke, or something along those lines....

Dave

 

[steve079]

 

[oberst]

Even when my smoker will hit my target temp I still finish in my oven because using convection bake I get a very even temp. So I will bring my sausage to around 150 in the smoker, and then transfer immediately to the oven set at 170. It may only take minutes to confirm all sausage is indeed at 150 in the oven, but that way I'm fairly certain I've hit my temp goal uniformly. Even using cure 1 and as a newby to sausage making I feel like this approach helps guarantee I got the heat right. Water bath would accomplish the same.

 

[steve079]

I need to get more of the big chunks of apple, you're right, it works great in the UDS.  Where I live I only have access to buying locally at the start of summer, the local stores don't seem to restock once sold out.  I just need to get it online.  It worked much better then the tube, 

 

[sonofasmoker]

 
5 hours to get to 128? Did you have cure #1 in the meat?

Forgive me for the stupid question, but what does cure #1 have to do with the temperature? Do you HAVE to use curing salt if you are smoking then freezing?

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Forgive me for the stupid question, but what does cure #1 have to do with the temperature? Do you HAVE to use curing salt if you are smoking then freezing?

Cure allows you to smoke or cook at lower temperatures without the risk of bacteria forming. For ground meats and whole muscle meats that have been injected, probed, stabbed, deboned you need to get them from an internal temp of 40 to 140 degrees in four hours or less unless you are using cure.

 

[sonofasmoker]

Thank you Sailor. If my smokes are taking only 2-3 hours (I smoke them on my Treager, without issue, at 180), is it going to hurt not having the cure?