Help with cooking venison summer sausage

[brown274]

Hello All,

I had a deer processed last month and had the processor them make summer sausage. I get them back frozen, in 12" fibrous mahogany casings and they are Uncooked. The directions are bake in oven @ 200 for 2-3 hours until temp gets to 155. I did that and it turned out great, taste/texture was pretty much just like the pepperidge farms ones I am used to.

Now I would like to smoke one and see if I like it any better. I have a Cookshack smoker that will go from 100-250 degrees. I also have a sous vide unit. What would be the best way to smoke/cook them? Should I do them in the Cookshack for the whole time, or Cookshack, then sous vide, ect.....

What would you guys/gals do if you had a electric smoker, sous vide, and oven at your disposal? Would you use just one or all of them?

I also see on here to ice bath once at 152-155, is that needed? I do that with sous vide chicken but the processor summer sausage did not say to do it on the directions.

Thanks!

 

[crazymoon]

B274, Thaw before smoking and start in the smoker with the dampers wide open at 110* or so. Go an hour or more with  no smoke, start smoke and gradually increase temps by 10 degrees do not exceed 170. Cook to 152 or so and ice bath to prevent further cooking,remove at 110 and let bloom at room temp for a few hours. This is just a quickie  guide ,please go to the search bar above and look at all the venison SS recipes. 

 

[JckDanls 07]

B274, Thaw before smoking and start in the smoker with the dampers wide open at 110* or so. Go an hour or more with  no smoke, start smoke and gradually increase temps by 10 degrees do not exceed 170. Cook to 152 or so and ice bath to prevent further cooking,remove at 110 and let bloom at room temp for a few hours. This is just a quickie  guide ,please go to the search bar above and look at all the venison SS recipes. 

:yeahthat:

But I will also add... the cook shack will not produce smoke from chunks/chips/pellets at those low temps... you will need some kind of smoke generator ... Todd at http://www.amazenproducts.com/ (who is also a sponsor of this site) sells them... they can also be used for cold smoking ...

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Not to throw a wrench in the sprocket, you should find out if they used cure in the sausage.

The reason being is you need to get the ground meat from 40f-140f in less than four hours.

Typically when smoking sausage it is ideally smoked at pit temps below 180f to prevent fat out.

The process that CM mentions above takes sometime and one usually can't make that 4 hour rule work.

Call your processor to verify if they used cure. If not stick to the temps and times they list on the packaging.

 

[dward51]

Also when you call your processor, ask him if they use smoke permeable casings.  Not all casings will let smoke flavor in, but a lot do.  If they are not smoke permeable, no point in wasting fuel in the smoker.

I would also ask if they put any smoke flavoring in the meat mix when it is stuffed. If they do, it may come out overly smoky if you put another layer of smoke on it (or just adjust for that using a light flavored smoke for not as long a time).  Reason I said this is you posted the ones cooked in the oven tasted like store bought, which generally have some smoke flavoring.

 

[brown274]

I did not realize there were all those variables. Let me ask this now. If there directions are cook in oven at 200 for 3 hours, Am I better off doing that or using the sous vide unit? Will one turn out a better product than the other? Thanks!

 

[crazymoon]

B274, I'm sorry I neglected to mention the cure or lack of cure in your sausage.As DS2003 said it is a MUST! I would follow their directions and use the oven. Maybe invest in a grinder/stuffer and do your own VSS on the next deer !