This past weekend I made up about 10lbs of venison brats. After mixing, and getting ready to case them, I realized I didn't look far enough in the recipe to add cure to smoke it (stupid mistake). I was only going to smoke them for a short period of time to get some color on them, and add some smoke flavor. However not cook it to the 152 internal. I was planning on fully cooking them when I was ready to eat them. Can I still smoke them without the cure for a few hours on low temps? It will be in the "danger zone" for a bit, but is that ok if I fully cook them through when they're ready to eat?
I'm going to give my opinion on this, but don't take it as fact. BBally or somebody else could give a more accurate answer to this one.
I would say, without the cure, as long as your total time is less than 4 hours you'd be OK, but that would include the total time above 40˚, from the time it crosses that line in or out of the smoker, until you take it out, and including the time it takes to go back below 40˚ again while packaging & freezing. To shorten that time, you could put it right in the freezer from the smoker. Then once it gets below 40˚---then package it & freeze it. Then just make sure you take it to 152 fast when you make it (I prefer 160˚ myself).
Bear
That's my best "GUESS", because I'm just using my thought here, and not any known information.