From Costco to the smoker!

[KonaRich]

The last Costco run (about once every 2 months) netted lots of smokable sausage and blocks of cheese! I now have 24 Hot Links and 12 Polish in the cold smoker, as well as 2 blocks of sharp cheddar. That should last us a good long while. Other than 2 links for dinner tonight, the rest gets bagged, tagged, and frozen.

Easiest thing in the world! Load my 12 inch pellet tube full, fire it up and put it in my mailbox with a lava rock under the front, load the sausage and cheese in the smoker and don't plug it in. it stays in the low 80's all the time the smoke flows...5 hours for this run.

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

The last Costco run (about once every 2 months) netted lots of smokable sausage and blocks of cheese! I now have 24 Hot Links and 12 Polish in the cold smoker, as well as 2 blocks of sharp cheddar. That should last us a good long while. Other than 2 links for dinner tonight, the rest gets bagged, tagged, and frozen.

Easiest thing in the world! Load my 12 inch pellet tube full, fire it up and put it in my mailbox with a lava rock under the front, load the sausage and cheese in the smoker and don't plug it in. it stays in the low 80's all the time the smoke flows...5 hours for this run.

Sounds mighty tasty! Love me some sausage and cheese!

Post up a pic or two when you can… As we say around here, pics or it didn’t happen!

And I am assuming the sausage has some form of cure… cold smoking in the 80* range for 5 hours?!

 

[KonaRich]

Sounds mighty tasty! Love me some sausage and cheese!

Post up a pic or two when you can… As we say around here, pics or it didn’t happen!

And I am assuming the sausage has some form of cure… cold smoking in the 80* range for 5 hours?!

I just went out to see if a pic of the smoking food would work...nope, I see nothing but smoke through the window and very foggy bits of sausage ends. :D It's smoking really good, with about 4 hours to go! Then 2 get cooked on the grill for good eating with a side of beans. We'll eat outside today, enjoying the Pacific surf crashing, as a southern swell is happening. See and hear it!

The sausages are all fully cooked, but not cured. Reputable sources tell me that cold smoking them in the 80 degree range for 5 hours poses no threat. When I make my own sausages, I'll use cure.

I was forced to cold smoke using a mesquite-oak blend, because that's all I have now. It's not the ideal wood, but the mesquite shouldn't be too overpowering in a cold smoke rather than a hot smoke.

Since I only use pellets for the smoke and not the cooking heat (when doing low and slow smoking), a 20 lb bag lasts a LONG time. It's impractical to keep many different 20 lb bags of different woods, using them infrequently (use my smoker 1-2 times/month), a few ounces at a time.

As I dimly recall, I smoked a Costco 2-pack of St. Louis style ribs with those same pelets maybe 3 months ago. They tasted great on the bone then, and great off the bone and frozen since then. Still have 2 dinners worth of them left!

So, everything is going to be mesquite-oak smoked, for, maybe, the next year or so. :D Then, I'll buy a 20 lb bag of something else. I'll get a LOT of cold or hot smokes out of that!!