Smoked Andouille - Cant reach 152 IT

[stewie-q]

Greetings once again.

I've been making fresh sausages for a few years now and wanted to try my hand at smoking. I'm using Rytek Kutas recipe.

I dried them for an 1.5 hours @ 130 in my 40" MES.
Boosted smoker temp to 160 and left it over night.

Fast forward to the morning:
Its now been 15 hours @ 160 and IT is 140.

I'll need to leave for Christmas festivities at 3 and am praying to all things holy, I'll have a few hours to bloom.

Does it typically take this long to reach 152 IT when smoking sausage? I know my Maverick digital probes are accurate. I just didn't expect it to take 20 hours to complete. They have a nice color and look as if they want to start wrinkling.

I'm prepping a turkey roaster to poach them to hopefully expedite this process.

Any insight or tips would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

 

[crazymoon]

SQ, My sausages in the 32 mm size take about 8 hours to reach 152*.If they are wrinkling then they maybe " fatting out" on you?? Was the damper open to let out moisture? Sorry can't help more.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Any IT between 140 and 155 will work for smoked cured sausage, so you are fine. If you wish to hit 150's, the smoker needs to be at 170. You can also finish in 165-170 water. As long as the smoker temp stays under 180, fat out will not be an issue...JJ

 

[stewie-q]

Thank you fellas. I pulled them out of the smoker @145 and into the ice bath. They are blooming now.

Thank you for putting my mind to ease!

 

[boykjo]

Was cure in his recipe?

Greetings once again.

I've been making fresh sausages for a few years now and wanted to try my hand at smoking. I'm using Rytek Kutas recipe.

I dried them for an 1.5 hours @ 130 in my 40" MES.
Boosted smoker temp to 160 and left it over night.

Fast forward to the morning:
Its now been 15 hours @ 160 and IT is 140.

I'll need to leave for Christmas festivities at 3 and am praying to all things holy, I'll have a few hours to bloom.

Does it typically take this long to reach 152 IT when smoking sausage? I know my Maverick digital probes are accurate. I just didn't expect it to take 20 hours to complete. They have a nice color and look as if they want to start wrinkling.

I'm prepping a turkey roaster to poach them to hopefully expedite this process.

Any insight or tips would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

 

[stewie-q]

Was cure in his recipe?

Absolutely

 

[stewie-q]

Was cure in his recipe?

How long does it take you to get your sausage up to temp? And what IT do you pull? 32mm casings.

 

[stewie-q]

 

[DanMcG]

Those look pretty good, I'm not sure of the weight of all the sausage but crowding the smoker will increase the time a lot.

 

[stewie-q]

Those look pretty good, I'm not sure of the weight of all the sausage but crowding the smoker will increase the time a lot.

I think it was definitely a bit crowded. Its the 40" MES and it was 15LBS of sausage.

 

[crazymoon]

SQ, They look good sir !

 

[chopsaw]

Looks great like they are , but if you want to take the wrinkles out , give them a dip
( 60 / 90 seconds ) in slow boiling water . They will plump back up .

 

[indaswamp]

Any IT between 140 and 155 will work for smoked cured sausage, so you are fine. If you wish to hit 150's, the smoker needs to be at 170. You can also finish in 165-170 water. As long as the smoker temp stays under 180, fat out will not be an issue...JJ

***
What JJ said.
I personally like andouille in 2" beef middle casing which can take up to 10~12 hours to reach 154* INT. I like to hold @ 120* for about 4 hours and really pour the smoke to it. Once the casing gets above 140*, the links don't take up smoke as readily So I try to keep the smoke house temp below 140 at the start. I then watch the INT and try to keep the smoke house temp 20~25* above INT. This usually means bumping up the temp 10* every hour or so. I do this until I get to 160* smokehouse temp and hold that temp for 2~3 hours. This is when the links will start to sweat (links approaching ~145*). Once the sweating slows, I will bump to 170~175 to push INT to 154*.

And as JJ said, do not go above 180* Smokehouse temp. or you will risk fat out, which is rendering the fat out of the sausage which is not good.

 

[indaswamp]

I think it was definitely a bit crowded. Its the 40" MES and it was 15LBS of sausage.

15# of sausage is the max. a 40"MES will hold and smoke it efficiently. I got very good results on my old 40"MES when I made 12.5# at a time, (which is 1/2 a 25# seasoning pack). You can spread the links out easier with 12.5# of links and get at least 1" of air gap between the links.

 

[oberst]

I often finish my sausages in the oven to speed the final process. I have a convection setting that runs a fan in the oven so the temp is uniform. However, I have found that some racks hit IT sooner as shown on my multi probe temp gauge so I pull them sooner when that occurs.

Also, a big change I’m making, using the USDA food safety guidelines DaveO posted, is to start timing when IT hits 140. The sausages may never get to 15x, but if they have been at a lower temp long enough to meet the guidelines they should still be just fine is how I read it. I don’t like cooking stuff longer than necessary.