Newbie: venison bologna in 5” casings..advice?

[hangmanli]

hey fellas,

This is my second attempt at using the new Bradley digital 4 shelf smoker.

I’ve got 4 thick 5” casings packed with venison & pork. Used the LEM package for 25 lbs (Bologna)

Have 2 hanging now just drying out for an hour at 120°. I will insert the Meat probes once I start the smoking process.

I’ve got another two of them sitting in the refrigerator. Those will go into the smoker when the first two are finished.

What should be my starting temperature in the Bradley for these 5” thick casings?

I’ve got the new turkey roaster in reserve ready to do the hot water bath at some point.

I am assuming because the thickness of these casings it’s going to take quite a while for the internal temperature to get up to 130°. Or is it 140°? I can’t quite remember.

At that point I’m going to transfer them over to the hot water bath. What should the finish internal temperature be on something like this?

Are there any special tips or considerations I should keep in mind for this smoking session?

Thanks in advance

 

[crazymoon]

HML, They look great, I'm sure an expert will answer your post ,you can always hit the search bar above for old posts concerning bologna.

 

[PerazziMx14]

Please remove

 

[whistech]

Congratulations on your first bologna. It looks like your casings are the "high barrier" plastic casings sold for bologna and if they are, you will not get any smoke flavor by cooking them in your smoker. If it were me, I would go ahead and get your roaster ready for the bologna and cook them in that. Just remember when using the roaster that you need to stir the water every once in a while to even out the temperature of the water.

 

[tallbm]

hey fellas,

This is my second attempt at using the new Bradley digital 4 shelf smoker.

I’ve got 4 thick 5” casings packed with venison & pork. Used the LEM package for 25 lbs (Bologna)

Have 2 hanging now just drying out for an hour at 120°. I will insert the Meat probes once I start the smoking process.

I’ve got another two of them sitting in the refrigerator. Those will go into the smoker when the first two are finished.

What should be my starting temperature in the Bradley for these 5” thick casings?

I’ve got the new turkey roaster in reserve ready to do the hot water bath at some point.

I am assuming because the thickness of these casings it’s going to take quite a while for the internal temperature to get up to 130°. Or is it 140°? I can’t quite remember.

At that point I’m going to transfer them over to the hot water bath. What should the finish internal temperature be on something like this?

Are there any special tips or considerations I should keep in mind for this smoking session?

Thanks in advance

Technically the USDA says you should take this Venison meat to 160F IT.
As long as there is no wild pork in the mix and you don't have any deer health/parasite problems in your area I think you could take it a little lower like you would with safe farm raised meat.

I believe most sausage made with store bought/farm raised meat would be taken to an IT of 152-154F.

If you DO have wild pork in that sausage mix I would highly recommend you take the IT to 165F to ensure you hit the 160F mark all over. I would also highly suggest you probe the crap out of the sausage to MAKE SURE you don't have any IT temps under 160F anywhere. Wild pigs get into all kinds of crap and you don't need to be picking up one of their parasites.

I find that when I take my wild game sausage to 165F that I have to bump my temps up to a top of 180F and sometimes I cheat and go 185F-190F at the very end to get over the last few degrees. Don't go over 180F for a long duration of time or you may melt/render the fat and have what is called "fat out" which is bad and makes dry crumbly sausage. The whole process of smoking sausage is geared around NOT melting the fat.

My smoker holds within 2 degrees at temps of 100-225F with no swings. Using a Bradley you may need to factor in temp swings/overshoots and how long the overshoot lasts. Just some food for thought there :)

I hope this info helps :)

 

[hangmanli]

No wild pork
Store bought pork which I ground twice

Natural venison (that I arrowed)

So 154 should be okay?

 

[whistech]

Be sure and let us know how it turns out. A sliced picture would be nice. We love pictures.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

No wild pork
Store bought pork which I ground twice

Natural venison (that I arrowed)

So 154 should be okay?

Make sure you got 154-155 in the middle of the chub.