Freeze smoked sausage before cooking?

[Tejasmoke]

The real problem is that 120~ish final temp. This is where bacteria, if they exist, is multiplying at light speed, then through the cool down continue to multiply, and potentially creat toxin, which you cannot cook out of the product. This is the biggest thing people don’t get. If the bacteria are able to make toxins, those toxins cant be taken out of the meat.

I think I need to do some more studying on all of this. Before I started smoking my own sausage I did a lot of reading on the subject, mainly on this site and Marianski's books. At this point I've been at it for about 5 years and have made hundreds of pounds of sausage and snack sticks, but after reading some of the replies to my original post I feel like I must have missed some things during my studies. I appreciate all of y'alls help!

 

[SmokinEdge]

I think I need to do some more studying on all of this. Before I started smoking my own sausage I did a lot of reading on the subject, mainly on this site and Marianski's books. At this point I've been at it for about 5 years and have made hundreds of pounds of sausage and snack sticks, but after reading some of the replies to my original post I feel like I must have missed some things during my studies. I appreciate all of y'alls help!

It all centers around the food safety rule of meat temperature. That is 40-140 in 4 hours or less. With cure #1 and salt I believe you can stretch the time a bit, but you cannot cook meat into the middle of that range to say 120F the stop. Because the bacteria, if present, will be growing in number from the beginning and then to the end of cooling. It’s just not a good practice. Cold smoking is fine, for weeks even, but warm or hot smoking once started needs to finish at a safe IT.

 

[Tejasmoke]

It all centers around the food safety rule of meat temperature. That is 40-140 in 4 hours or less. With cure #1 and salt I believe you can stretch the time a bit, but you cannot cook meat into the middle of that range to say 120F the stop. Because the bacteria, if present, will be growing in number from the beginning and then to the end of cooling. It’s just not a good practice. Cold smoking is fine, for weeks even, but warm or hot smoking once started needs to finish at a safe IT.

This is what concerns me now. I'm done with my original question. I usually go in the smokehouse for about an hour at 100° with no smoke to dry the casings and form a pelicle. Then I apply smoke and bring the smokehouse temp. up to about 140° and do my best to keep it there for 3 hours. At that point I let the smokehouse temp. drop while I start poaching the sausage in 165°-170° water. Depending on how many pounds I made, it might take a couple of hours to get it all poached because I typically only poach 5 or 6 links at a time. So, at this point some of it could have been in the danger zone for about 6 hours. Then again, I would think that people that finish in the smokehouse would be looking at about the same time frame. I think I need to make some adjustments.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I finish all my sausages naked in a Sous Vide bath now. So any where from 3-5 hours in smoke then into SV for finish, which is only about 45 minutes with 35mm casings. I finish my 5” bologna and Krakowska sausage the same but different timing.

Your process seems fine. Just don’t freeze the sausage after only getting to 120* IT. That’s not safe nor good practice. Once you go hot, then just finish the heat to safe temperature. Then cool and freeze.

 

[indaswamp]

Cold smoking is fine, for weeks even, but warm or hot smoking once started needs to finish at a safe IT.

*with true cold smoking defined as temp. below 71*F (though some eastern European countries bump that upper temp. to around 80*F).

weeks is fine with whole muscles and those commuted products utilizing safety hurdles like salami. There is a limit to how long you can cold smoke a smoke sausage...even at those temps. and I would imagine it is less than what the degree/hours formula suggests because the salt is less and the pH is higher......

 

[DougE]

Even with cure, I try to get my sausages smoked and finished to 151~152° within 6 or 8 hours max.