What Causes Summer Sausage To Be Drier Around Edge?

[thirdeye]

A buddy liked my recent Cervelat so I helped him with his own batch using a more traditional summer sausage recipe. The smoke times and sous vide times were essentially the same as I've been using, but on this batch a rind has formed and maybe 1/8" is drier. What causes this?

 

[thirdeye]

Bump.

 

[chopsaw]

What causes this?

Did you use your smoker , or something different ?
I always said it was to long of a hang time . I never really had it with SS size stuff , but hog casings were getting tough . Not really dry .

I'm thinking to much air flow , but if you used your smoker , that's probably not it . Just my 2 cents to answer your " Bump "

 

[chopsaw]

Another thought . What casings did you use ? Did they stick ?

 

[indaswamp]

It is called dry rim. It is caused by too fast evaporation off the surface of the sausage. Evaporation is happening faster than moisture can diffuse from the center to the surface. What was his smoke conditions like? high airflow? higher temp? Dry air?

 

[chopsaw]

What was his smoke conditions like? high airflow? higher temp? Dry air?

I'm with you on all that . If he did it at his buddies house , pellet grill comes to mind .

 

[thirdeye]

I'm thinking to much air flow , but if you used your smoker , that's probably not it .

I actually took my Big Chief along thinking it would be easy to duplicate my results.

Another thought . What casings did you use ? Did they stick ?

The 2-1/2" fibrous. No sticking as we did a 20 minute ice bath.

it is called dry rim. It is caused by too fast evaporation off the surface of the sausage. Evaporation is happening faster than moisture can diffuse from the center to the surface. What was his smoke conditions like? high airflow? higher temp? Dry air?

Would the fast evaporation occur when a smoker is used for the entire process? For sous vide, they were not directly in the bath, but in a zipper bag.

Good airflow, we had the lid blocked up on the Big Chief. We have dry air. Cool/warm smoke, the sausage was less than 100° when it went into a sous vide bath. The casings were not pre-stuck, we did that by hand... maybe too few holes?

And the one chub rested about 3 days in the fridge. I've never had them dry out.

 

[SmokinEdge]

A buddy liked my recent Cervelat so I helped him with his own batch using a more traditional summer sausage recipe. The smoke times and sous vide times were essentially the same as I've been using, but on this batch a rind has formed and maybe 1/8" is drier. What causes this?

Heat at the surface, would be my guess. Fat out but just starting because it starts around the surface first. I don’t SV any higher than 150* for this very reason. 170* is too high in SV and will fat out the surface area. Temp in the SV should be your final IT. I see lots of people using 170* for finish, like you may do in the smoker, but these are two different types of heat. Dry heat vs thermal transfer. I don’t even worry about IT in the smoker any more. I smoke at 130-140* with smoke until the color I want is achieved, then SV at 150* until IT is 150* I’m doing this naked on the sausage, then cold water bath. My natural casings are very tender but still snap.

 

[chopsaw]

Good airflow, we had the lid blocked up on the Big Chief.

My air flow comment was based on the thought of too much flow , drying out the surface .

 

[thirdeye]

Heat at the surface, would be my guess. Fat out but just starting because it starts around the surface first. I don’t SV any higher than 150* for this very reason. 170* is too high in SV and will fat out the surface area. Temp in the SV should be your final IT. I see lots of people using 170* for finish, like you may do in the smoker, but these are two different types of heat. Dry heat vs thermal transfer. I don’t even worry about IT in the smoker any more. I smoke at 130-140* with smoke until the color I want is achieved, then SV at 150* until IT is 150* I’m doing this naked on the sausage, then cold water bath. My natural casings are very tender but still snap.

Yes, The Walton's videos for a SV finish call for 170° bath temp, but watching the internal.

Good point...... we had the SV temp at 154°F, -BUT- I was following the pasteurization times, not just waiting for the internal to hit 154°. That said, I've done several batches with the 3-hour sous vide times. Could it be the combination of long SV times, and several days rest? Something tell me this is a technique failure because we had good protein extraction and a really good icy bath.

My air flow comment was based on the thought of too much flow , drying out the surface .

I would have thought our lower smoker temps eliminated any chance of drying, and the fibrous casings behave differently than natural casings. Hmmmm.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Good point...... we had the SV temp at 154°F, -BUT- I was following the pasteurization times, not just waiting for the internal to hit 154°. That said, I've done several batches with the 3-hour sous vide times. Could it be the combination of long SV times, and several days rest? Something tell me this is a technique failure because we had good protein extraction and a really good icy bath.

I really think because the dry crumble was just the ring on the outside that it is due to fat out. I’ve played with this a bit and can say that the meat can play a roll in this.
When I do sausage from store purchased pork (usually Smithfield brand) I don’t have much issues with fat out even if I get a bit careless, but my fresh pork that I butcher myself, I have to watch like a hawk the temps. The fat will melt on me much easier than the store meat. Huge difference. So I’m guessing the freshness can play a roll and maybe breed. The pork I process myself are duroc crosses. I have to respect that fat when smoking.

 

[chopsaw]

I would have thought our lower smoker temps eliminated any chance of drying,

I agree , but I'm not talking temps . I'm saying if for some reason you had a higher rate of air flow through the smoker it might cause this . Just a thought .

Could it be the combination of long SV times, and several days rest?

Resting / holding in the fridge can cause the outside to harden . I wrap mine in pink paper and hold in a 36 degree fridge to further dry . If I leave it in the casing , I cut an end off . In the casing , no cut the outside gets hard .

 

[indaswamp]

I actually took my Big Chief along thinking it would be easy to duplicate my results.


The 2-1/2" fibrous. No sticking as we did a 20 minute ice bath.


Would the fast evaporation occur when a smoker is used for the entire process? For sous vide, they were not directly in the bath, but in a zipper bag.

Good airflow, we had the lid blocked up on the Big Chief. We have dry air. Cool/warm smoke, the sausage was less than 100° when it went into a sous vide bath. The casings were not pre-stuck, we did that by hand... maybe too few holes?

And the one chub rested about 3 days in the fridge. I've never had them dry out.

What was the ambient temp. and relative humidity? If the ambient air is dry, then that will definitely dry out the sausages.

I would have thought our lower smoker temps eliminated any chance of drying, and the fibrous casings behave differently than natural casings. Hmmmm.

See above statement. Also, SE may have a point with fat out.

 

[indaswamp]

Ideally, you want the humidity in the smoke chamber to be >70% when cold smoking or the casings could dry out.

 

[indaswamp]

I really think because the dry crumble was just the ring on the outside that it is due to fat out. I’ve played with this a bit and can say that the meat can play a roll in this.
When I do sausage from store purchased pork (usually Smithfield brand) I don’t have much issues with fat out even if I get a bit careless, but my fresh pork that I butcher myself, I have to watch like a hawk the temps. The fat will melt on me much easier than the store meat. Huge difference. So I’m guessing the freshness can play a roll and maybe breed. The pork I process myself are duroc crosses. I have to respect that fat when smoking.

I think diet of the pig is the biggest factor. I don't know if it is too much grain or too much protien in the last 3 months before slaughter- but it can throw the sat./unsat. fat ratio out of whack and lead to poor fat integrity for sausages and salami.

 

[SmokinEdge]

A buddy liked my recent Cervelat so I helped him with his own batch using a more traditional summer sausage recipe. The smoke times and sous vide times were essentially the same as I've been using, but on this batch a rind has formed and maybe 1/8" is drier. What causes this?

If it’s dry then it’s dry, that’s air flow in lower ambient relative humidity at work (Wyoming) if it’s crumbly/dry then it’s fat out.
Dry is to me, tough and chewy, leather like.

 

[thirdeye]

Resting / holding in the fridge can cause the outside to harden . I wrap mine in pink paper and hold in a 36 degree fridge to further dry . If I leave it in the casing , I cut an end off . In the casing , no cut the outside gets hard .

I confirmed that my buddy had it in the fridge, still in the casing. So do you prefer to remove the casing all together, and wrap in paper? Or does cutting the ends off have the same result?

What was the ambient temp. and relative humidity? If the ambient air is dry, then that will definitely dry out the sausages.

High 20°'s to low 30°'s and I just checked the RH as the day is similar and it's 72%.

If it’s dry then it’s dry, that’s air flow in lower ambient relative humidity at work (Wyoming) if it’s crumbly/dry then it’s fat out.
Dry is to me, tough and chewy, leather like.

Yes, tough, chewy, and leather like describes it perfectly. In fact on the piece I had for sampling.... I set it face down on a cutting board and could slice of the rind. The adjacent product was fine.
========
Thanks everyone for all of the suggestions. It appears from all of your descriptions the drying happened from holding in the fridge. Here is a snip from a summer sausage video where the guy describes a hard ring as well. His example refers to aging it but using fans to circulate air:

 

[chopsaw]

I confirmed that my buddy had it in the fridge, still in the casing. So do you prefer to remove the casing all together, and wrap in paper? Or does cutting the ends off have the same result?

How long was it in there , and was it in a plastic bag ?
Think about it like this . Most of us will dry meat or poultry and put it in the fridge over night uncovered to dry the surface . If this was his house fridge and the door was opened and closed through out the day , that increases the effect because it causes the fan to run .


I've done a bunch of different ways on this .
Started with a conversation with a meat cutter . He told me to help it keep longer in the fridge , to wrap it in pink butcher paper .
So the one I want to use I peel the casing and wrap in paper . I just hold it in the fridge to use .

If I'm just letting it rest and it's going to the freezer . I cut those chubs to around 6 " lengths ( casing on ) . I'll hold those in a plastic bag for a day or 2 . The plastic traps any moisture and can help the rim if it got hard or dry .

If I want to further dry the sausage , I peel it and wrap in pink paper and just leave it alone . Sometimes for a month or more .
Now that's in a 36 degree fridge that I use for this stuff .

 

[SmokinEdge]

Yes, tough, chewy, and leather like describes it perfectly. In fact on the piece I had for sampling.... I set it face down on a cutting board and could slice of the rind. The adjacent product was fine.
========
Thanks everyone for all of the suggestions. It appears from all of your descriptions the drying happened from holding in the fridge. Here is a snip from a summer sausage video where the guy describes a hard ring as well. His example refers to aging it but using fans to circulate air:

I’m just south of you @thirdeye. RH in my house right now is 18%. We always have to mindful of how fast sausage and meats can dry with low humidity, and a refrigerator freezes moisture out of the air anyways but when you have low humidity to begin with, I run a water pan in my big smoker for long smokes because of case hardening, which is what we are talking about here.

 

[chopsaw]

Yes, tough, chewy, and leather like describes it perfectly. In fact on the piece I had for sampling.... I set it face down on a cutting board and could slice of the rind. The adjacent product was fine.

Coming back to give you a better answer than the one in post 18 . I've got my mind on further drying .

My opinion would be if it's hard on the outside put the whole chub in a plastic bag or wrap and hold in the fridge a couple days to rehydrate the outside .

If you want to shrink it up some , cut them in half and put in a paper bag .

The butcher paper thing is another mindset .