Often we see posts about nice successful smokes and good/great outcomes but this one is a post about some failure hahaha.
This past week I made 40 pounds of my TX hotlink sausage in cellulose casings for skinless sausages.
Everything went perfectly until I put them in the smoker.
I had the smoker on 275F to sterilize the hanging rods and such and when I went to turn it off I turned down the temp to 110F on my HeaterMeter PID and immediately flipped off the power.
WELL, little did I know that the HeaterMeter needs the screen to change to lock in the newly entered set temp of 110F. So I entered in 110F and then immediately hit the power switch on the PID to have it all off and ready to turn on when it was cooled off and I brought the sausages out.
So after a while it is cool and i come and hang the sausage on the rods and put in the meat probes, turn it all on and walk away.
1 hour later my timer goes off for me to increase the temp and start the smoke and I notice... the smoker has been running at 275F which was the last temp I had it at before changing to 110F. OH NO!!!!
Yep the sausages have fat out. HOWEVER, they are not breaking and falling apart on me. I think they will be fine for me to enjoy and consume but they won't be the great quality they should have been. There is plenty of fat jelly on the outside of them when I removed them from the casings.
At the point I noticed they were in the smoker at 275F for 1 hour I just lowered the temp to 165F because there was no need to try and ramp up now, the damage had been done BUT maybe I could stop the bleeding.
I applied smoke and let them hit 151F Internal Temp and pulled and ice water bathed them.
Plenty of fat out but again not a completely ruined sausage. Just figured I would share with everyone that even after years of doing these things, it can still go wrong :D
This past week I made 40 pounds of my TX hotlink sausage in cellulose casings for skinless sausages.
Everything went perfectly until I put them in the smoker.
I had the smoker on 275F to sterilize the hanging rods and such and when I went to turn it off I turned down the temp to 110F on my HeaterMeter PID and immediately flipped off the power.
WELL, little did I know that the HeaterMeter needs the screen to change to lock in the newly entered set temp of 110F. So I entered in 110F and then immediately hit the power switch on the PID to have it all off and ready to turn on when it was cooled off and I brought the sausages out.
So after a while it is cool and i come and hang the sausage on the rods and put in the meat probes, turn it all on and walk away.
1 hour later my timer goes off for me to increase the temp and start the smoke and I notice... the smoker has been running at 275F which was the last temp I had it at before changing to 110F. OH NO!!!!
Yep the sausages have fat out. HOWEVER, they are not breaking and falling apart on me. I think they will be fine for me to enjoy and consume but they won't be the great quality they should have been. There is plenty of fat jelly on the outside of them when I removed them from the casings.
At the point I noticed they were in the smoker at 275F for 1 hour I just lowered the temp to 165F because there was no need to try and ramp up now, the damage had been done BUT maybe I could stop the bleeding.
I applied smoke and let them hit 151F Internal Temp and pulled and ice water bathed them.
Plenty of fat out but again not a completely ruined sausage. Just figured I would share with everyone that even after years of doing these things, it can still go wrong :D
