Poaching loses smoke flavor

[tomgabison]

Smoked at 115 for about 7 hours and then poached at 160. Came out smoky and awesome. Thanks everyone. Pics of Jambalaya (Sausage only) and sausages.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Smoked at 115 for about 7 hours and then poached at 160. Came out smoky and awesome. Thanks everyone. Pics of Jambalaya (Sausage only) and sausages.View attachment 675638View attachment 675643

I can see that working out well. How was the texture of the casings?

 

[SmokinJimAZ]

When I do a smoked sausage I smoke it in a pellet smoker set at 180 degrees until the internal temperature of the sausage reaches 140. I then vacuum pack them and sous vide until the internal temperature reaches 150-155 depending on the type of sausage I'm doing. This way they will be perfectly cooked, not dried out, and you won't lose any smoke flavor.

 

[tomgabison]

Don't have the sous vide setup although am considering it. I would give the texture a 8/10 and smoke 8/10. Happy medium. I do think having the water up to temp helped a lot along with the 7 hour smoke.

 

[zwiller]

LOOKS FANTASTIC. 8/10 is about the best you can get before you go off into the deep end.

On the SV thing... Smoking stuff and SVing is kinda "dangerous" to me. Ruined a number of things. I do not have a good explanation but the effect is known but not as well known as it should be. I think you need to off gas smoked stuff a few days before SVing. The stuff that got ruined was WAY oversmoked and it had a nasty kinda fake smoke flavor.

 

[jimmyinsd]

I tried to SV finish a batch of dogs and was not happy with the final result, I would say washed out would best describe the final flavor. I have been thinking a long time on making a steam cabinet out of an old fridge at some point for finishing sausage, had heard that was how commercial places finish their products to prevent casings from getting tough. thought a hot plate with a pot of water and some sort of drain mechanism in the bottom might be a place to start?

 

[tomgabison]

I tried to SV finish a batch of dogs and was not happy with the final result, I would say washed out would best describe the final flavor. I have been thinking a long time on making a steam cabinet out of an old fridge at some point for finishing sausage, had heard that was how commercial places finish their products to prevent casings from getting tough. thought a hot plate with a pot of water and some sort of drain mechanism in the bottom might be a place to start?

I think steaming to finish would be the best bet.

 

[tomgabison]

You do lose some smoke flavor but the mouth feel makes it worth it. I cold smoked for 8 hours then poached and they came out really good. I made sure the water was already at 150 to ensure the least amount of time being poached. In theory you should lose the minimum possible amount of flavor.

 

[DougE]

Do you guys that smoke your sausage and then finish it by poaching notice any difference in the taste, smoke, overall quality or other characteristics vs. finishing them in the smokehouse? Im considering the poaching method if it saves me some time, but not wanting to sacrifice anything. Thanks.

I've done all the way in the smoker but have settled on smoking until I get the color I want, then finishing naked in sous vide set to 151° until the IT of the sausage gets there. Then a cold water bath and hang to bloom.

I think you do lose a little smoke flavor in the process of poaching, but I feel like the end product is better, overall.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Do you guys that smoke your sausage and then finish it by poaching notice any difference in the taste, smoke, overall quality or other characteristics vs. finishing them in the smokehouse? Im considering the poaching method if it saves me some time, but not wanting to sacrifice anything. Thanks.

You do lose some smoke of the surface for the poach. That said, I give that up for the major gain in natural casing texture. The water poach tenderizes the casing and gives a great snap or bite through.

 

[zwiller]

IIRC the "classic" or secret method is to smoke to proper IT or near it and later drop into boiling water (seconds) to improve the casings/get rid of shrinkage and this seems to align with OP findings with short poach. To me, there comes a point when smoking you are no longer smoking but cooking and you need to close venting. What temp? IDK but do think color is a good indicator. Do not claim to have it all figured out but between PID and closing the vent later in the smoke, my sausage smokes (usually SS or cervelat type stuff) run WAY better. Also, my stuff never goes in the smoker cold, but room temp if no ferment (overnight hang). Helps this as well. The issue we are struggle with is evaporative cooling. There's comes a point when the casing is drying and IT is not climbing due to the cooling. I think the ACTUAL problem is the fact we run far less product than the pros and this makes the issue even worse. They're running a TON of product which inherently keeps the humidity up and makes this mostly a non issue for them.

 

[jimmyinsd]

ive never tried running with water in the water pan in my mes40, might have to try that at some point to see if that makes a difference in the end result, I do end up closing the vent to trap humidity in the cook chamber once I am done applying smoke to the product, but I still end up with a tougher casing chew than I want when I finish in the smoker.

 

[zwiller]

ive never tried running with water in the water pan in my mes40

I have and it didn't do much at all in my MES30. That said, I do not think I closed the vent when I tried it... Maybe BOTH would work.