Sous vide confusion

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Bat119

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 26, 2019
36
9
On the border in Saskatchewan
I have some polish smokies in the smoker normally I would smoke until I reach 155* internal thought I would try the sous vide method according to the chart you need 1 hour at 140* to achieve pasteurization.

Should I smoke to the desired color, bag m up than sous vide at 140* for a couple hours?

I always question taking my sausage up to 155* since they will be finished on the BBQ or simmered before eating anyway.
Any thoughts on this ?
 
Personally, I would S.V. them then throw into an ice bath for an hour. After that I would cold smoke them for a few hours.
 
Do a search for "sous vide sausage" because I've seen several posts by chopsaw chopsaw on this very subject. I use SV for finishing cold smoked Summer sausage, but my bath temp is 154°. I would guess a lower temp would work provided you used the Baldwin tables for temp/times.
 
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I can see the SV for making summer sausage I done that in an oven water bath, I searched SV in the sausage forum I was under the impression some were using it to come up to pasteurizing temperature after smoking.
 
I have some polish smokies in the smoker normally I would smoke until I reach 155* internal thought I would try the sous vide method according to the chart you need 1 hour at 140* to achieve pasteurization.

Should I smoke to the desired color, bag m up than sous vide at 140* for a couple hours?

I always question taking my sausage up to 155* since they will be finished on the BBQ or simmered before eating anyway.
Any thoughts on this ?
I have been finishing my large sausages, bologna and Krakowska in SV for a long time, works very well, but recently I started finishing my hog cased sausages in SV and then cold water bath. By far I am more happy with this process than anything else I have done as far as softening the casing for perfect bite through and a light snap.

I smoke the sausage at 130-140* until I get the color I’m happy with, then into a 150* SV bath naked sausage No bag. This generally takes 30-40 minutes to come to 150* IT then into cold water bath, no ice, for about 30 minutes then they are towel dried and hung to bloom an hour or two. I’m very happy with these results, to the point that it’s now my new method to finish sausages.
 
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To me the higher temps are a texture thing. Firmer and more dense. I prefer 150T or higher. Might be a good shoot out. Do one batch at 140F and another at 150F and compare. No real right or wrong but a preference.
 
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To me the higher temps are a texture thing. Firmer and more dense. I prefer 150T or higher. Might be a good shoot out. Do one batch at 140F and another at 150F and compare. No real right or wrong but a preference.
Great point but, makes a difference if you will eat right away or freezing and say grilling or poaching later. Final IT at the consumption point matters more than finished smoke process temp, to me.
 
thirdeye thirdeye Thanks for the nod .

thought I would try the sous vide method according to the chart you need 1 hour at 140* to achieve pasteurization.
I use 140 for temp , and go by the time on the chart for the size of the casing . 140 works great in my opinion .

Should I smoke to the desired color, bag m up than sous vide at 140* for a couple hours?
You most likely have these done by now , but yes that works . However , if you have already par cooked them " a couple hours " is to long if it's a " smokie " size casing .

To me the higher temps are a texture thing. Firmer and more dense. I prefer 150T or higher. Might be a good shoot out. Do one batch at 140F and another at 150F and compare.
You know I like 140 for a SV only cook . Start to finish . Hit the time for the size casing , and no need to further cook to eat . I use this for lunch meat type sausage . Always comes out great .
If I'm doing hog casing sized smoked sausage , par cooked , I'll use a temp around 150 for an hour .
Then cool with ICE . Cold water by itself will not bring the temp down fast enough .
 
I have been cold smoking for about 3 to 4 hours, then SV ( no bag ) at 120 until the sausage reaches 120, then keep increasing the temp 10 degrees, until the sausage hits 152. Then ice bath and into the fridge overnight, then finally vac packed & frozen.
Al
 
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Thanks for the reply's I like the idea of starting at 120 and slowly raising to 150
I smoked this batch to internal 142* about six hours than into the sous vide at 145* (no bag) for 2 hours and cooled overnight in the fridge. The result was a firm texture a casing with good snap going to do some more research on this method so far I like it.
 
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Great point but, makes a difference if you will eat right away or freezing and say grilling or poaching later. Final IT at the consumption point matters more than finished smoke process temp, to me.
You'll probably block me now but I usually just nuke mine until warm to eat. :emoji_laughing:

I love using the SV for sausage but heads up there is some odd interaction with smoked stuff for me. I have not done smoked sausages and SV yet tho just fresh. Totally ruined some CB I smoked and bathed. daveomak daveomak warned me about it. Not really sure exactly what is going on but it was nasty. I recall Dave saying that it concentrates the smoke somehow. Maybe not noticeable on sausages?
 
You'll probably block me now but I usually just nuke mine until warm to eat. :emoji_laughing:
Not a chance. I personally wouldn’t cremate a sausage but I’m good with you cooking how you like ‘em. Lol


I love using the SV for sausage but heads up there is some odd interaction with smoked stuff for me. I have not done smoked sausages and SV yet tho just fresh. Totally ruined some CB I smoked and bathed. daveomak daveomak daveomak daveomak warned me about it. Not really sure exactly what is going on but it was nasty. I recall Dave saying that it concentrates the smoke somehow. Maybe not noticeable on sausages?
I usually bag them and get the water out with the submerging method, but the hog casing sausages that I’ve been doing have been braided British style and no good way to bag them and get the air out so I went in naked with them and had no bad effects with smoke at all.

Like these,
9478C8ED-318B-47F1-8352-204D7F75A04A.jpeg
 
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