Need help with smoking Brats

[Charlene G]

Good Afternoon Everyone:

Today I smoked homemade brats in a vertical electric smoker with a side attachment for the hickory chips and lump charcoal. I need help with the sausage color and inconsistent cooking. I followed advice from this forum on soaking casing until they are silky soft prior to stuffing. I dried sausage prior to smoking. Brought smoker temp up slowly to 185 degrees F. It took 5 hours to get these to 150 deg F Bloomed them in an ice bath until temp dropped to 60 degrees. Tossed one on the grill. The taste is good. They just don't have that look coming out of the smoker. Did I overload that little smoker? 5 1/2 lbs of meat in the smoker. Each ring draped over a wooden rod and separated. Any thoughts???

 

[SmokyMose]

They look pretty good to me! Like your side attachment setup.
Don't worry so much about color. Taste is the test.
Like!

 

[SmokinEdge]

To hot to fast. Would be my guess. If those sausage don’t have cure #1, then they are about perfect color. With cure they would be red.

 

[indaswamp]

Did you use cure #1 in the sausages? And ho long did it take to get the INT above 140*F?

 

[indaswamp]

FYI, not overloaded in the smoker. You can successfully smoke 12.5# of sausages in that unit at one time. Just be sure you have 1" of space around each link..

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Good setup but ditch the lump. The added heat with the chips can cause inconsistent color on the chubs.

Like asked by others, did you use cure?

 

[Charlene G]

To hot to fast. Would be my guess. If those sausage don’t have cure #1, then they are about perfect color. With cure they would be red.

yes, there is cure in the mix. 3grams cure/1 kg meat.

 

[Charlene G]

Good setup but ditch the lump. The added heat with the chips can cause inconsistent color on the chubs.

Like asked by others, did you use cure?

only put 1 piece of lump charcoal. and yes, cure has been used.

 

[Charlene G]

FYI, not overloaded in the smoker. You can successfully smoke 12.5# of sausages in that unit at one time. Just be sure you have 1" of space around each link..

a buddy of mine called and said I overloaded that smoker. causes steam in the smoker even though the casing were sticky when they went in. makes sense...door was wet when i started increasing the heat.

 

[SmokinAl]

They look pretty darn good to me!
Al

 

[Charlene G]

day number 2 on smoking. Thank you Thank you for all the great input. Today I cut the amount in the smoker by 1/2. Dried the casings overnight...nice and sticky. Started smoking at 130 deg and went up to 160 deg in 5 hours. The casing are still too dark (in my opinion). Pulled the sausage at 145 degrees after holding for 30 min at that temp. Any suggestions on how to reduce that casing color? Yes there is cure in the mix. (i forgot to mention that earlier)