smoking sausage

[wes18074]

 Hello everyone . I have a couple of questions to ask. I just started smoking meats and I want to smoke some venison sausage. I have an electric smoker that I use. What I need to know is what temp. should i set my smoker at, how much water to a put in the smoker and for how long do I smoke the sausage for. If you have any suggestions on the type of wood I should use that would be helpful to. thanks

 

[woodcutter]

Hang your sausage for a while before you smoke until the casings are dry. Smoke won't stick to wet casings. Start your smoker around 120--130 Then hang your sausage which will be about room temp from hanging. Your smoker temp will dip from having the door open and putting the sausage in. The goal is to have your smoker 20-30 degrees hotter than your sausage and keep raising your temp as needed to stay in that range. When your smoker temp gets to 165--175 leave it and wait until your sausage gets to 152. Then you can pull it out and put it in a cold water bath to stop the cooking. Then hang it back up to bloom and dry. Do not let your smoker get to 180 or the fat in the sausage will start to break down and you will have a "FAT OUT".

I hope this helps and good luck!

 

[wes18074]

Thank you for the help. It helped me out alot.
 

 

[mabrandt]

 The goal is to have your smoker 20-30 degrees hotter than your sausage and keep raising your temp as needed to stay in that range. When your smoker temp gets to 165--175 leave it and wait until your sausage gets to 152.

I'm getting ready to smoke some sausage this weekend for the first time and have read these posts with interest. Can someone tell me Why you slowly increase the temperature? Why can't you just set it at 165 and leave it until the sausage is at the desired temp after it has been dried. I know I can get my smoker to the 165-175 range, but I'm not sure much lower than that. I was planning on just hanging them in the fridge overnight to dry, and start smoking the next morning at 165 until IT was 152.

 

[DanMcG]

Good advice from Woodcutter, but let me add that your sausage should contain a cure if you plan on slow cooking/smoking them.

 

[woodcutter]

Going slow gets sausage smoked evenly and allows for a longer smoke period. It also helps prevent case hardening where the meat next to the casing is hard and the center is soft. It would be the same as putting a raw chicken in a 500 degree oven, the outside will done and the inside will be raw. Also the slow method prevents your sausages from condensing. Smoke doesn't stick to moisture so your casings will not take smoke evenly and be spotty.

If you load your smoker up with cold or room temperature sausage then start your smoker at 165 or your lowest setting, the meat acts like a heat sink. It will prevent your smoker from heating up right away. You can watch your smoker temp and meat temp rise slowly. Both temps normally rise slowly together, the smoker temp is normally 20-30 degrees hotter than the meat.

If your smoker temp exceeds 180 degrees the fat in the sausage will render and redistribute in the casing or leak out leaving crumbly sausage.

I hope this helps, I have better results with slower rising temps and longer smokes.