MES 40 hanging sausage

[jwsailor]

What do you use to hang sausage in a MES 40. This will be my first try at smoking sausage in my new(first time use) MES 40.  Made some smoked sausage and Andouille today and plan on smoking it in the morning. Not sure what to use for hanging it? Can I use wooden dowels?

 

[eman]

That's what most folks use , Some use stainless rods .

 

[les3176]

I use the top rack with stainless steel "S" hooks..Gonna build a more stable rack when the weather warms up.

 

[baboy]

 I made a sausage hanger from some oak rods, cut it so it fits on the top of the rack slides

 

[jwsailor]

wow, that is a nice rack Baboy. I looked for stainless steel rods but could not find any other than threaded rod. I have some 1/2 inch wood dowels now I will have to make a notched rack for them. Too much blowing rain to smoke today will have to let sausage hang in fridge until Saturday morning. Thanks for the help.

 

[mballi3011]

Like everyone else here said that stainless is the perferred hanging rack BUT..... You should be fine with your rack. I would recommend that you use hooks for your sausage and not put the sausage on the wooden rack. I just use some good and heavy hooks for my sausage and it works just fine for me.

 

 

[fpnmf]

I use a couple 1/4 inch dowels in mine

Craig

 

[jwsailor]

well I built a rach from oak  using Baboy's picture and have my sausage drying tonight. I will begin smoking in the morning. Thanks again everyone, oh yes and here is a picture of the rack.

 

[les3176]

Nice looking rack!! lol

 

[jwsailor]

Well, I started the smoker at 5:30 this morning it was up to 140degrees by 5:50 and I put the sausage in. Outside air temp 34degrees and 100% humidity(light fog) Chips did not seem to be making any smoke so I turned it up to 150deg and added some oak saw dust(from making the rack). Saw dust smoked good for a little while then quit. So iI opened the door and pulled the chip box, none opf the dry chips had burned. So I added more dust and used my propane torch to light the chips and dust, then reinserted the chip box and closed the door. Half hour later and it is still making good smoke. I can see that I may need a cold smoker to make the desired smoke for low temp sausage.

 

[fpnmf]

The amazen is an inexpensive tool.

Works great!!

I got about 9 pounds of andouille warming up now.

Going to use pecan for the smoke.

 Have a great day!!

 

[jwsailor]

well six hours later and they are looking good, but it has been a struggle to produce enough smoke at 150deg. Going to order an A-Maze-N  today.

 

[jwsailor]

ok, finished with my first smoked sausage and andouille. They look good, have them cooling now, can't wait to try them. Thanks to everyone for the help.  I ordered my A-Maze-N and five pounds of pecan. I have a stack of pecan wood that I use in my Char Griller offset wish there was an easy way to turn it into sawdust.

 

[fpnmf]

Looking  delicious!!

  Craig

 

[hkeiner]

[*]jwsailor ,[*] [*]The AMNS is great. I have one myself and use if for most of my smokes. By the way, if your MES 40 still has the unmodded small wood tray you should consider modding it (or replacing it with the larger wood tray retro kit) for the times you may still want to use the wood tray. Below is a link describing the mod I did on my MES 40 (i.e., remove the metal panel between the tray and the heating element). It is easy to do and well worth it. It smoke much quicker at lower temperatures than the stock small wood tray did. Just my thoughts....[*] [*]http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/fo...rade-kit-inspired-mod-with-q-view#post_578295[*] 

 

[jwsailor]

I checked with the people at Masterbuilt and was told that the retro kit was just for the MES30. They did tell me that I should not preheat the smoker before adding meat or chips in order to get a longer burn time on the heating element. They said that the smoker works best at 180 degrees or higher. I told them I was smoking sausage at 140 and they said that depending on the outside temp, the heating element may not stay on long enough to provide much smoke. That is exactly what happened each time the element came on it would start to produce smoke and then the thermostat would shut of the element. So I am looking at two things to rectify this: 1. I ordered an A-MAZE-N smoker (which should solve it) and 2. remove the shield below the chip box. Thanks for the help, by the way that afternoon I smoked a brisket at 225 degrees and had sufficeint smoke. I am so looking forward to receiving my A-MAZE-N. 

 

[ringodad]

Baboy's got the bomb! I built something on the same principle, but not nearly as nice. I built a wood frame with 1x2 trim that would slide in on the top rack supports. Across that I used dowels that just sat on the frame - no slots. It worked great, and I picked up an extra couple of inches to hang sausage with. No problem at all making sausages using the 2 1/2 x 20 casings.

 

[southensmoker]

I just went to the store and got a couple sticks of rebar and cut them to length.

 

[tjohnson]

Do a search for "Hot Mods" and you'll find lot's of mods for your MES.

Here's the link:  http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/87723/mes-hot-mods-related-mods-or-creations  

There's a series of pics with dimensions for these sausage racks in MES Hot Mods

Todd

 

[alton59]

I found that Butcher and Packer company sells hickory sawdust for 5.25 for 5 pounds plus shipping. I ordered the 5 pounds and when I received it, took it and ran it through an old blender on the chop and or blend cycle to get the right powder like consistency to burn in my amazn sawdust smoker.It took me about an hour to chop/blend through the 5 pounds. I think you can find old blenders at any resale shop these days. The sawdust that you get from butcher and packer is not as fine as the sawdust that amazn smoker company sells, but will work when chopped/blend in the blender.I also found that by using a combination of 1/3 cup wood pellets or less ( too much smoke), with your choice of wood chips, that my smoker will smoke like crazy and maintain a 165 degree temp. for smoking for about 1.5-2hrs. I did get the retrofit chip tray from masterbuilt, which is larger and sits lower on the heating element.........this took care of the non-smoking issues that my smoker previously had. I am not recommending that you or anyone reading this post  use wood pellets in your masterbuilt smoker or use a blender on sawdust, just something that I do at my own risk. If you do not have the retrofit chip tray, call masterbuilt, you will not regret it.