Walk temp up in Sous Vide?

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jbo_c

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Nov 23, 2020
177
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When y’all SV sausage, do you still walk your temp up as you would in a smoker? Or do you just set it and forget it? Along the same lines, do you get the water to temp first or put the sausage in cold water and let it come up to temp with the water?

Seems like putting the sausage in cold water might sort of mimic the effect of walking the temp up in stages.

Jbo
 
I’ll be watching what others say. I only SV my hot smoked sausage, so I pre heat the bath to 151* my sausage is generally 120-130* IT when I go in, so I’m not in water long maybe 30-40 min.
 
When I use one, I bring my sticks up to 140* or so in the smoker and let dry (I like mine wrinkly). I then set my sous vide to 160*f, drop in the product (inside a zip lock bag if possible) and remove as soon as sausage reaches 155*f. Summer like sausage same thing only I don't let dry in the smoker. I don't like leaving sausage in a bath any longer then necessary.
 

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Well, in light of lack of responses, here’s what I did.

Put cold smoked sausages into tap water temp, about 65F.
Set SV to 120.
30 minutes after hitting 120F, bumped to 130.
30 minutes after hitting 130F, bumped to 140F.
Started timer for pasteurization when hit 140F.
15 minutes after hitting 140F, bumped to 145F.
Removed when timer went off for pasteurization, cooled in water bath, and hung to bloom.

This definitely worked well. Lost moisture on the magnitude of drops in a 2 pound sausage.

So this is a little faster ramp up than you might on a smoker. Possible you could start in cold and go directly to final temp, but obviously not confirmed based on this run.

Jbo
 
JBOC, Sorry for the late response. I smoke my summer sausage for 3-4 hours to get the smoke flavor I want. I don't check the IT as it doesn't matter. I have my SV tub preheated to 140*and then vac seal and submerge the sticks for 4 hours( going by Doug Baldwins chart for safety on a 2.5 inch thick stick). I leave the temp right at 140*They are perfect every time.
 
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OK, so no ramp up for you.

Do you further dry the SS after sous vide? I’ve historically taken my SS to 152 for texture. I’m sort of working down in temps to see where the texture changes to something I prefer less and I’ll stop.

This particular one(HiMountian traditional salami kit) is supposed to be fully cooked, then left out to dry and lose 25% of weight, so the texture should tighten up some anyway.

Jbo
 
Also, do you use ECA in your SS in that schedule?

Thanks.

Jbo
 
JBOC, I use a cup of powdered buttermilk for every 10 pounds on mix. Your salami sounds more like some kind of dry cure to finish ? Try an Umai or similar product if you want to dry cure salamis IMHO. I remove my sticks from the vac packaging and let hang in a cool cellar ,then refrigerate. you could ice bath while still sealed to cool off. The 140 * has pasteurized the product making it safe and the texture is excellent. I have been using PS Seasoning Thuringer #484 with the buttermilk and a jar of Mt Olive jalapenos /10 pounds .Stuffed in 61 mm fibrous casings.
 
I don't finish summer sausage with SV . I go start to finish in the smoker .
I smoke my summer sausage for 3-4 hours to get the smoke flavor I want. I don't check the IT as it doesn't matter. I have my SV tub preheated to 140*and then vac seal and submerge the sticks for 4 hours( going by Doug Baldwins chart for safety on a 2.5 inch thick stick). I leave the temp right at 140#They are perfect every time.
I will do lunch meat type chubs start to finish in the SV , and when I do I use the same temp as CM of 140 and go by the chart for time in the bath compared to the size of the casing .
Cotto salami start to finish in 80mm water proof casings for 6 hours .
Cool asap in ice , then into the fridge .
20181202_103103.jpg
 
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I don’t have that fine of control in my smoker, so I cold smoke, then finish SV.

I need to decide between adding PID to my smoker or making a curing chamber. Not ready to do both right now and happy with the cooks I’ve gotten using the SV, so leaning toward a drying/curing chamber.

Jbo
 
I don’t have that fine of control in my smoker, so I cold smoke, then finish SV.

I need to decide between adding PID to my smoker or making a curing chamber. Not ready to do both right now and happy with the cooks I’ve gotten using the SV, so leaning toward a drying/curing chamber.
You will like the pid control if you go that direction, very accurate. indswamp is very knowledgeable with them and I would link him to this thread but don't know how. :D indaswamp indaswamp
 
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Interestingly, I did three different sausages today this same way. First two gave up almost no moisture in the bag- only drops, as noted above. Third one gave up over a quarter cup per bag.

Moisture add to all was same ratio, and ironically, this was the only one that used a binder(c-bind).

The liquid seemed to be water, didn’t feel oily/fatty. So maybe just moisture, not fat-out? If it is fat-out, not sure why given the process was the same and I’m confident with the bind I achieved before stuffing. Pics below.

Jbo
 

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And now that I think about it, there were a few smaller links of this same batch included in an earlier cook that released no liquid in the bag.

Only differences were:
21mm collagen casings vs 32mm natural hog

Jbo
 
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Definitely fat-out. Had a link for breakfast this morning. Almost has to have been something in the temp ramp up. I had a patty from the left-over mince yesterday and it was perfect.

Saying process was the same as above is not really true. I only did a two step ramp. Sausage into cold water. SV set to 130F. After an hour, up to 145F to sterilization.

This is a tried recipe other than adding a little c-bind, which obviously should have had the opposite effect.

Jbo
 
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I finished sous vide with one of my batches and what I did was set the temp to 135 or so while I was sealing and then upped it to 155 when they were all in and gave them an hour once the water hit temp, they turned out pretty good and I didn't get much fat out but I also used a binder which I think can help a lot. I think they were around 130-140 when I started tossing them in the water.

My latest batch I swapped out the water for play sand in the MES pan and it seemed to cook a lot more evenly and faster to the point where I didn't need to sous vide.
 
Apparently the 15 degree jump for one of my batches was too much. As noted above, I took some of mine up in 10 degree increments and they did fine - no fat out.

Another run of the same batch of meat, I did a 15 degree change and had fat-out.

The only difference besides the ramp up was link diameter/material. The successful one was 21mm collagen and the fat-out was with 32mm hog.

The meat was all out of the same 3# batch.

What else might I be missing?

Jbo
 
I just had a fat-out on my andouille sausage (hot smoked) and decided to go 100% SV in the future. The andouille looked beautiful at the end of the smoke but got ruined by the time it made it to temp.

Glad this thread was here. Learned a lot. Changing my sausage ways going forward.
 

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