- Mar 15, 2011
- 3
- 10
Hello I am new to this forum and apologize if this is in the wrong section or has been asked before. I just finished a trial batch of smoked kielbasa , which i based on a recipe my Dad and Grandmother used to make. Dad used an old fridge which he placed on cinder blocks and built a fire of apple. He did have a heat shield so the flames did not get into the smoke chamber. I Built a similar one and smoked today. The internal temp of the meat reached 160 actually it was 180 degrees. My mom remembers that the casing would "shrivel" for lack of a better term and that is when they knew it was done. The taste of the kielbasa was good but the smoke did not color the inside 1/4'-/3/8' of the meat in the center. The fire was about 30 inches below my smoke chamber. I did rotate the kielbasa half way through, and it smoked for about 4.5 hours. I do not remember having the inside of dad's lighter then the outside. Did i do something wrong? how can i get smoke to penetrate to the center? lower heat for longer time? Thanks for your help