First Sausage in my MES30

[milkman55]

I picked Andouille sausage using Emeril's receipe and added 3/4 tsp of cure #1 since it didn't contain any. I pricked both sides of the casing to release any bloating tendency.

They are drying in the frig right now to smoke later today. I had done some beef sticks with collagen casings, but this is my first natural casing.

Going to start them out real low at 120f, but the MES is hard to produce smoke at low temps. Will use a softer wood like Apple this time to see if it will ignite at lower temps.

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• milkman55
• Jan 18, 2017

 

[crankybuzzard]

You may have a hard time getting smoke, even with apple. The MES chip tray likes a higher temp for smoke than we usually do sausages at.

The sausages look very good from here. How much total weight of meat for the 3/4 tsp of cure?

 

[milkman55]

3 lbs of pork. I was basing it off 1 tsp per 5 lbs.

Probably going to add the MES cold smoke attachment to smoke at lower temps. Just remove it when it's not needed. I like using a variety of wood chips which are very easily obtained at my local HEB.

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks good so far!

Al

 

[driedstick]

Looks great,,, I love my MES mailbox mod,, along with the ampts it works great. 

A full smoker is a happy smoker 

 

[milkman55]

OK, after six hours on the MES, the IT finally hit 155f. Pulled the sausage off to cool and then into the frig before I vacuum seal tomorrow.

I solved the low temp smoke issue with the MES by placing a load of apple in the hopper and then using my creme brûlée torch to light a few chips and dump them in the hopper. Lit the rest right up and got some good smoke even at 140f-160f where the MES has struggled to generate smoke.

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• milkman55
• Jan 19, 2017

 

[whistech]

Your Andouille looks delicious.    Great job.

 

[crankybuzzard]

Nice work on the sausage and a point for getting the smoke going!

 

[driedstick]

Them sure look good,, Nice job 

DS

 

[jokensmoken]

To get smoke in my MES at lower temps I added a 10 inch cast iron skillet just below the water pan. I light a few chunks of lump charcoal that I put in a cast iron skillet to which I add my wood chunks; the charcoal.helps keep the wood smoking...I've also simply lit the chunks with a propane tourch and put them in the skillet..Low temps seem maintainable but have found cracking the door of my smoker is necessary sometimes.
I know others that use a smoke tube with great success.

 

[tropics]

Nice job on the sausage

Richie

 

[disco]

Awsome andouille!

Disco