Sausage half cooked using cure

[JDE]

Hello all! There is some great information on here and I have read for hours. I feel like a pro now LOL. The one question I cannot find is this........If I use a cure in my sausage, then smoke it for about 2-3 hours at 150-160, cool it off rapidly, dry it, shrink wrap and place in freezer..is this safe? This was all done within 4 hours but my sausage only reached about 125-130 degrees. The plan is to thaw and grill it when ready to eat. So in short, can you freeze half cooked sausage as long as it has a cure and as long as you cook it before you eat it? Thanks in advance.!!

 

[tallbm]

Hi there and welcome!

Your plan should work. It is what is done with store bought bacon. You basically are just cooking fresh sausage with cure in it :)

Just be sure to cook it all the way through :)

 

[chopsaw]

I started putting cure 1 in some of my fresh sausage . Bratwurst and Polish . I freeze , then thaw and grill . If I want to smoke I can or , thaw , smoke , then grill . I also smoke to a safe temp , freeze , thaw then grill .
So I know that's not a direct answer to what you asked , but options to get the same result .

 

[daveomak]

The answer is NO !!!!! Once you start warming any meat, the bacteria starts growing... Keeps growing while it cools down... until below 40... When you start cooking it again, the bacteria starts growing where it left off...

FWIW.... Once you start cooking any meats, continue the cooking process until the food borne pathogens are killed... Then you will know the meat is safe to eat.....

 

[dward51]

X2 on what Dave Omak said. It needed to be fully cooked/smoked to at least 152* internal once you started that process. You can then chill and freeze/refrigerate with finish grilling at some later date. Where did you get the idea to only take it to 125-130 internal?

 

[tropics]

I agree with the 2 Dave's
Richie

 

[JDE]

That is great information guys and I appreciate it. My intention was to get it to 152-160 but with the 4 hour window approaching, I took it off early so that I could cool it and freeze it all within a 4 hour window. Unfortunately, it only reached 125-130. So I didn't get the idea anywhere, it just happened. Rookie mistake!
The confusion and the difficult part is everyone says not to smoke on too high of temp because the fat melts and could rupture the sausage. I think this will come with practice and help from people like on this forum. So, just to be clear, the sausage is probably ruined even if I thaw and grill to a safe temp? I thought if you had cure, you would be ok?

 

[wild west]

Your mistake was assuming that the sausage needs to finish in the 4 hr window. With the proper amount of cure#1 added (1tsp/5lb meat) it is safe to smoke/cook at low temps for much longer. Ive never had sausage finish to 152* IT in the smoker in under 8 hrs and usually will finish in a water bath with a sous vide once i get the color i want on the sausage. Also 152* is not the magic number for safe consumption. Consult the pasteurization tables for minimum times that the IT must be held at for lower finish temps.

 

[DanMcG]

I'm on the fence here, If this is a properly cured sausage, time in the zone is not a big issue. thats why we use cure. Or am I missing something?

 

[dward51]

The 4 hour 140* "rule" is for fresh sausage and meats. They have no cure to help them bridge longer time periods and be safely cooked. Since he used cure, exceeding 4 hours would have not been a problem in the first place. With cure you are using the cure to keep the bacteria from growing instead of just heat like in a natural uncured sausage. So I'm sort of on the fence also as to should he toss what he has. In theory it should have been safe through the point he pulled it early. And if it is treated as "fresh" or uncurred sausage on the final cook to come, would it not still be safe? Part of me says "should be" but part of me is skeptical also (yeah, not much help here, I know).

I would probably thaw it in the fridge, and then grill to finish. I WOULD NOT continue to smoke it, but hot grill. Might no be the USDA correct answer, but I'm loath to throw out meat unless I'm certain something is wrong. Especially if I'm the one doing the eating. I would not use this for a gathering though.

And not to confuse thing even more, but in the store you will see the phrases "natural uncured" on sausage and meat packages. Usually that is just a term meaning they did not add "cure", but used celery juice which contains the exact same ingredient in cure #1, just in smaller quantities. It's a marketing trick where they charge you more for what some perceive as a healthier product. When the fact is nitrates & nitrates are naturally occurring compounds in a lot of food items. There is more in lettuce and other green veggies than sausage. The only difference is the "cure" comes from crushed plant matter vs cure that has been distilled out and mixed in a precise amount with a carrier such as salt (as the cure part is a very small percentage of the cure #1, so adding a carrier such as salt makes it much easier to measure). Not a thread hijack, but when discussing cure & the 4 hours rule this usually also comes up (the part about "uncurred" meats).

 

[chef jimmyj]

According to the USDA guidelines, it is recommended that partial cooking only be done when food will immediately be cooked to s safe IT...JJ

 

[indaswamp]

Once you get cure #1 to 130* it starts to breakdown into Nitric Oxide leaving the meat as a gas.

*edit to add:
Some of the NO2 reacts with the myoglobin in the meat the same way as the smoke forms a smoke ring; this is how the meat turns pink with cure #1.