Help! Sausage Only at 133° after 16 hrs

[menace21]

ive been having sausage on since 8 am Sunday and it’s still not done. Any suggestions?

 

[menace21]

ive been having sausage on since 8 am Sunday and it’s still not done. Any suggestions?View attachment 342577

Smoker temp has been at 170-180 for the last 8 hours. Checked it with 3 different thermos

 

[menace21]

So I ended up moving half to my oven and half to my mes40 and the summer sausage to a hot water bath and they all climbed pretty quickly. I wonder why it wouldn’t climb in my big smoker even though I kept a 170-180 temp.

 

[johnnyb54]

I’m a novice at smoking sausage but I do have a question. Where did you take the smoker temp (bottom, top, middle)? That’s a lot of meat in that smoker, was the meat at room temp when you started smoking or were they straight out of the refrigerator? While I love the braiding of your sausage I would think the braid would impact the smoke and temp. I’m sure a more knowledgeable person will chime in with their thoughts. As a side note when I smoke sausage I put them in a smoker at 120 - 130 deg. for 3 - 4 hrs. or until I get the color I want. After I get the color I want I put the sausage (kielbasa, summer sausage and similar) in a Sous Vide bath at 160 until the internal temp reaches 160. This not only cuts the cooking time by hours it also keeps the sausages nice and plump.

 

[crazzycajun]

Did you have a water pan in the smoker? Any idea what the humidity was in the smoker somtimes moisture will give an evaporative cooling effect.

 

[boykjo]

Your having a stall. looking at the larger load in the smoker a stall can occur. Sausages should be spaced evenly at least 1 inch apart and try not to over load the smoker. I used to do 60 lb batches. I reduced to 30 lb batches and did more seperation and had eliminated stalls.

here is a pic of my smoker overloaded with no separation. A stall in the making

Heres my smoker loaded properly with separation. cook time will be greatly reduced and the sausage will cook evenly.

Peel off some foil strips about 4 inches long out of the foil box and drape over on the rebar for easy clean up and to protect the casing from dis coloring from the steel....

You may have to bump up the temps to 200 to get by the stall. You'll get a little fat out but a little is ok

Hope this helps

Boykjo

 

[daveomak]

Below is a useful tool.. It describes pasteurizing emulsified meat products.. time and temperature based, to make them safe to eat..
133 deg. F, held for 44 minutes, makes it safe at a 5 log reduction for Salmonella.. Personally, I hold my sticks and sausage for a few hours longer than the table suggests... Just to be on the safe side in the event my thermometer is off a few degrees..... I usually shoot for an IT of 138 ish for several hours... No fat out... Moist meat..


FSIS Guidance on Safe Cooking of Non-Intact Meat Chops, Roasts, and Steaks April 2009

Temp °F / Time for 5.0 log Reduction

Unit Time

130..........86 min.

131 ..........69 min.

132......... 55 min.

133.......... 44 min.

134.......... 35 min.

135.......... 28 min.

136 ..........22 min.

137 ..........18 min.

138 ..........14 min.

139.......... 11 min.

140 ...........9 min.

141........... 7 min.

142 ...........6 min.

143 ...........5 min.

144 ...........4 min.

145 ...........3 min.

146 .........130 sec.

147......... 103 sec.

148 ...........82 sec.

149 ...........65 sec.

150........... 52 sec.

151........... 41 sec.

152........... 33 sec.

153 ...........26 sec.

154 ...........21 sec.

155 ...........17 sec.

156 ...........14 sec.

157 ...........11 sec.

158 .............0 sec.

159 .............0 sec.

160 .............0 sec.

The required lethalities are achieved instantly when the internal temperature of a cooked meat product reaches 158 °F or above. Humidity must be considered when using this Time/Temperature table.

This Time/Temperature table is based on Thermal Death Curve for Salmonella in Beef Emulsions in tubes (Derived from Goodfellow & Brown1, 1978) Regulatory Curve obtained from Jerry Carosella, Deputy Director, Microbiology Division, Science and Technology. All times that were a fraction of a minute or second was rounded up to the next whole number (e.g., 16.2 seconds for 155 °F was round up to 17 seconds).

________________________ 1. Goodfellow, S. J. and W. L. Brown. 1978. Fate of Salmonella Inoculated into Beef for Cooking. Journal of Food Protection. 41:598-605.

 

[menace21]

I have done over 50 lbs in this smoker without a hitch before. This is the first time I’ve linked it this way. Never again. No water pan for first hour. Water pan for the next 6 hours then again without. Temp probes about mid way in smoker. My bacon on the bottom maintained the exact temp as the sausage at the top. Could the outside temperature be the culprit? It was colder weather than I normally smoke in and my smoker is not really insulated.

 

[daveomak]

It could be the low humidity sucking the moisture out of the meat causing the low temps....

 

[menace21]

Your having a stall. looking at the larger load in the smoker a stall can occur. Sausages should be spaced evenly at least 1 inch apart and try not to over load the smoker. I used to do 60 lb batches. I reduced to 30 lb batches and did more seperation and had eliminated stalls.

here is a pic of my smoker overloaded with no separation. A stall in the making

View attachment 342638

Heres my smoker loaded properly with separation. cook time will be greatly reduced and the sausage will cook evenly.

View attachment 342639

Peel off some foil strips about 4 inches long out of the foil box and drape over on the rebar for easy clean up and to protect the casing from dis coloring from the steel....

You may have to bump up the temps to 200 to get by the stall. You'll get a little fat out but a little is ok

Hope this helps

Boykjo

At what point after bumping it up to 200 should i drop it back down? Or should i just finish it at this temp?

 

[worktogthr]

I have another suggestion that may help out overall as far as time is concerned. I am assuming the sausage is not getting actual smoke the entire time. Once they are smoked to your desired time or color, consider finishing in a warm water bath (under 165 degrees) or with a Sous Vide if you have one. Cuts the time way down. I used to smoke sausage for 3-4 hours and cut the smoke and leave them in their and like you describe it would take all day...Now I smoke for 3-4 hours and finish either in a water bath or via Sous Vide.

 

[menace21]

I have another suggestion that may help out overall as far as time is concerned. I am assuming the sausage is not getting actual smoke the entire time. Once they are smoked to your desired time or color, consider finishing in a warm water bath (under 165 degrees) or with a Sous Vide if you have one. Cuts the time way down. I used to smoke sausage for 3-4 hours and cut the smoke and leave them in their and like you describe it would take all day...Now I smoke for 3-4 hours and finish either in a water bath or via Sous Vide.

So how would i do that with 50 lbs of sausage? I have done this amount before completely in the smoker

and never had this problem.

 

[boykjo]

At what point after bumping it up to 200 should i drop it back down? Or should i just finish it at this temp?

I would adjust smoker temp 200 and try to finish. Keep an eye on fat out. 20 extra degrees should get you past a stall pretty quick. For best results hang sausages evenly with separation.

 

[menace21]

I would adjust smoker temp 200 and try to finish. Keep an eye on fat out. 20 extra degrees should get you past a stall pretty quick. For best results hang sausages evenly with separation.

Yeah I definitely will be changing the way I link and hang them next time.

 

[worktogthr]

So how would i do that with 50 lbs of sausage? I have done this amount before completely in the smokerView attachment 342888 and never had this problem.View attachment 342889

I have done it with large batches before by refridgerating the partially cooked sausages and doing it a 10 pound batch at a time. Since the sausage is cured, the danger zone rules shouldn't apply. I do realize with a big batch this is probably not the ideal method haha unless you want to run your sous vide in your bath tub. But for a 5-10 pound batch it works great.

 

[oberst]

I always finish my sausage in our convection oven. With the convection fan running the oven cooks very evenly, way more evenly than my MES. Let’s say I smoke and cook sausage for 8 hours and like you I’m at 133 degrees. I’ll preheat the oven and finish the sausage to whatever temp is called for, probably within a half hour. Talk about saving time and dramatically increasing consistency!