Ideas on smoking bulk Italian sausage

[Brickman]

I make my chili with ground meat and bulk Italian hot sausage. Recently substituted smoked chuck roast pulled for the ground beef, very good. I now want to try smoking the 2 pounds of bulk sausage and an looking for suggestions. In a chili cook off next weekend and want to give this a try. Any help would be appreciated

 

[indaswamp]

Is the bulk italian sausage a fresh sausage? If so, I would recommend adding the appropriate amount of cure #1 and mixing that in very well. Hold the meat in fridge for 24 hours to let the cure distribute. Then form into either a loaf or caseless links and place on grate. smoke 140*F for 3 hours then slowly bump up the heat to INT of 145-150*F....

 

[TNJAKE]

Form it into a loaf and throw it on the smoker. Crumble it into your chili afterwards

 

[thirdeye]

Welcome aboard.

How does the Italian flavor go over with the judges? The only competition chili tip I can offer would be to smoke your sausage (or ground meat) in a shallow pan with some your chili seasonings on top, instead of using them all in the two spice dumps. This really wakes up the spices. It's similar to toasting spices in a skillet before using them


Now, the sausage (or whatever ground meat) is not fully cooked, but forms a bark on top, and some of the edges are cooked. When the meat does go into the chili pot, add all the drippings too.

 

[kilo charlie]

I prefer lining a sheet pan or two with foil and pulling bits of sausage apart and spreading them across the pan then letting it ride in the smoker

 

[boykjo]

You could hot smoke the bulk Italian sausage like a meatloaf in small pans and add it to the chili. Below is a great way to smoke it. You can also catch the drippings and add to the chili too. To hot smoke you need to run the smoker between 190 and 225. The meat need to go from 40-140 in 4 hrs. with raw fresh ground meat take it to 160. after 160 the meat will not take on any more smoke flavor and it will be fully cooked. When you cut open the sides of the pan you could cut in 1" slices to get more surface area open to smoke

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/meatloaf.305983/

Boykjo

 

[thirdeye]

You could hot smoke the bulk Italian sausage like a meatloaf in small pans and add it to the chili. Below is a great way to smoke it. You can also catch the drippings and add to the chili too. To hot smoke you need to run the smoker between 190 and 225. The meat need to go from 40-140 in 4 hrs. with raw fresh ground meat take it to 160. after 160 the meat will not take on any more smoke flavor and it will be fully cooked. When you cut open the sides of the pan you could cut in 1" slices to get more surface area open to smoke

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/meatloaf.305983/

Boykjo

Actually it's the smoke ring that stops forming around 140°F. You can smoke meat until it's not fit to eat.

 

[boykjo]

Actually it's the smoke ring that stops forming around 140°F. You can smoke meat until it's not fit to eat.

Actually the smoke ring stops forming at 170. You can cook anything till its not eatable.

Boykjo

 

[DougE]

How does the Italian flavor go over with the judges?

I thought that myself. I have added Bob Evans hot breakfast sausage to chili and it turned out pretty good. Ground chorizo would probably be a better choice, but I have yet to try it. Maybe one of the pots I fix this winter will get a dose of it.

 

[Brickman]

Thanks for all of the great ideas. I'm thinking hot smoke either in a loaf or broken into smaller pieces. Definitely add the drippings to the chili. I have been using the hot Italian in my chili for quite a while now, it has been a hit.

 

[thirdeye]

Actually the smoke ring stops forming at 170. You can cook anything till its not eatable.

Boykjo

My point on over-smoking is just that, you can build smoke flavor way beyond the flavor of what we envision good barbecue to be. Or as some pitmasters would say.... "less is more better".

Now, with all due respect, I think we're debating the finer points of smoke ring formation, and the resulting color based on cooking technique and surface temperatures. Myoglobin begins to turn brown at around 140° degrees, and will be brown beyond 160°. However... if enough nitric oxide gets to the surface of the meat when it's still below 140° it will lock in a pinker smoke ring for the duration of the cook. Some food scientists have gone as far as freezing meat and used low pit temps to keep the meat under 140° for longer times. I tend to go from fridge-to-pit on some meats just for the eye appeal.

This is a brisket from about 20 years ago when I would let meat sit out on the counter for a couple of hours, and before I had a cooker with a thermometer or took internal temps. Worcestershire sauce was part of my slather and celery seed was in the mix too. It was also before people cut the point into cubes and called them burnt ends.

For one of my classes I doctored a brisket with Tender Quick and celery seed, then wrapped it in foil and cooked it in the oven. So no wood, no fire, no smoke.