smoking sausage in mes40

[franko]

I have a new mes40 which i have used a couple of times along with an amnps (they compliment one another beautifully). I would like to smoke some breakfast sausage with this smoker. I have been using a sausage-maker 20lb electric for sausage, but it requires a lot more effort to keep the smoke coming than does the amnps.

My question is this: I always finish the last 20 -  25 degrees by placing boiling water directly on the heating element and steaming the sausage after smoking (saves a lot of time). The mes40 has the chip box and chip box cover over the top of the heating element and I am wondering how to keep the steam coming.

I would appreciate any ideas anyone might have.

Thanks

 

[chef jimmyj]

If you are smoking Un-Cured Breakfast Sausage, you should be Hot Smoking it at 225*F to an IT of165*F. So I am not sure why you would Steam it as well but...

You can try removing the Chip tray and placing a small pan of water in it's place. This is a Cast Iron box that one of our members used as a mod to try to get a longer smoke time out of a MES. I believe it fits and can be filled with water to generate steam...JJ

 

[franko]

JJ  -  Thanks for the idea about removing the chip tray. I have a cast iron chip box that may be small enough for this. I will try it tomorrow morning.

The breakfast sausage I am making will be fully cured with sodium nitrite. I got the idea of using steam for the last 20 - 25 degrees from a video put out by sausagemaker.com. It allows you to bring the temperature of the sausage up to the full 152 degrees (from around 125 or 130) in about 20 or 30 minutes when it would take two or more hours using just direct heat because the smoker should not be turned up above 170 to keep fat from melting out of the sausage.

 I love this forum. Folks are so willing to help and I have learned more about curing, brining and smoking in the last 2 months than I learned in the last 50 years.

Thanks again for the tip.

Frank

 

[chef jimmyj]

Glad to have you here too Frank, post some pics of the sausage and a recipe...JJ

 

[daveomak]

Frank, morning... Since you are using the AMNPS, look at the mods I did to my MES 30....  I like the way they work... Dave

All the chip stuff removed...



rotating air inlet with 3/4" vent hole....