Hello,
I currently have my first batch of smoked sausage in the BDS !! I have been waiting to get my 900W element installed, and the PID hooked up and figured out.
I am cooking/smoking some Summer Sausage and want to know if I should be dunking them into a cold/ice water bath for cooling, once they reach temperature. If not, do I just let them hang in the smoker to cool (30 degrees ambient right now), or remove them and lay them on cooling racks in the kitchen, or what?
For that matter, is a cold/ice water bath suggested for all smoked sausages for cooling and setting up the fat? If not, when or for what sausages is a cold water bath recommended?
Thanks for the help!!
AkBillyBow
If you are bringing them up to temp in the smoker I would cold water bath all sausages. Don't let them get much past 155 or the fat will start dripping and you will have dry shriveled sausages.
I concur
Quote from: renoman on January 10, 2015, 01:52:58 PM
If you are bringing them up to temp in the smoker I would cold water bath all sausages. Don't let them get much past 155 or the fat will start dripping and you will have dry shriveled sausages.
I don't mean to nitpick here, but I read here on the forum to not ice bath collagen cased sausage as it will break down the proteins and separate the casings from the sausage. I can't speak from experience because I only ice bath my summer sausage and trail bologna that I stuff into fibrous casings. My snack sticks in collagen and kielbasa in hog casings, I hang to cool. Hopefully one of the very knowledgable members will give us some more reliable info than my memory.
if using a water bath to speed up the temp rise that can happen but to cool down to 100 deg I have had no problems with collagen casings drying out
here's my 2 cents for what's worth....I have always put my sausages, trail bologna and snack sticks in a cold bath to get them below 100* and stop the cooking then hang for an hour or so. I never had problems with casings. Just my thoughts and there's smarter people here than me though...good luck
Quote from: manfromplaid on January 11, 2015, 07:12:39 AM
if using a water bath to speed up the temp rise that can happen but to cool down to 100 deg I have had no problems with collagen casings drying out
Well seems that I got my hot water and my ice water mixed up. Thanks for clearing it up for me, I will try the ice bath on next batch of snack sticks.
All,
Thanks for your replies!! I had to make a decision on what to do before anyone replied, so I read a couple more posts and did what I thought was right. I cooked the Summer Sausage in the smoker until it had an IT of 135. Then I put it into a hot water bath until the IT was 156/157. I pull the sausage, and put it into a cold water bath until IT dropped to 100.
The sausage turned out great!! It was much better than I expected!! I only did a half batch (15#) and wished that I would have done the whole batch!!
Thanks for all of your help!!
We need pictures or the sausage doesn't exist.
:) I figured someone would ask to see pictures. I do not see a way to upload directly from my computer and into my post. So I am guessing I will need to start an online account for my photo storage, and link them to my posts. Is this correct? If so, what site do most users prefer?
Thanks....AkBillyBow
Or is it because I am a "Newbie", that I cannot upload pictures directly into my posts?
Thanks.....AkBillyBow
most people I believe use photo bucket. I have been here awhile and it still frustrates me getting pics into my post soooooooooooooo you don't see many posts from me any more. Good luck
A lot of us use photo bucket. Check out orion's post about 3 above this one. He has a link to photo bucket and some directions on how to add pics.
Yes, pictures are great and make the threads so much more interesting to read. I know photobucket can be a little frustrating to use however once you get the hang of it you can have pictures in your post in a few seconds. It just takes a little practice. Don't give up!
Here are some pictures I posted on facebook. Hopefully this will work.
(https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=948804811798434&set=a.948804791798436.1073741831.100000067731485&type=1&theater)
(https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=948805085131740&set=a.948804791798436.1073741831.100000067731485&type=1&theater)
(https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=948805288465053&set=a.948804791798436.1073741831.100000067731485&type=1&theater)
(https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=948805408465041&set=a.948804791798436.1073741831.100000067731485&type=1&theater)
Hmmm....pictures didn't post. :(
nope, it didn't work
I found that photo bucket quit hosting so I changed video companies. We did this batch in the late fall of 2019.
Here are a few ideas for a water bath. Many use turkey roasters but you need to watch the sides of the roaster as they get quite hot. You need to use some sort of stirring system and temperature control. I use a digital temperature control for accurate control. I also use one of them on my smoker. Here is one of the systems that I have developed for my sausage. You can hang summer sausages vertically with rods or use the basket to just dump frankfurters into. I just cut the bottom of the basket off and use it to keep the sausage form coming in contact with the bottom. I also have a stainless tank that I do longer summer sausage casings in. I did learn that it worked better to use individual tubes for each water stone and pump port. I use vacuum tubing for the tube. It seems to strand up to the heat well.
First stuffing the sausage. This was last falls project 150#
https://vimeo.com/378649594
Now hanging in the smoker. 1 hour drying time then 2 hours of heavy smoke then to water bath. This is the smoke we get after two hour of heavy smoke
https://vimeo.com/378661718
https://vimeo.com/244155963
first here is my round tank with the air stirring system working. Just click on the video.
https://vimeo.com/244289220
Here is a still picture also.
and now my rectangular tank for the long casings.
https://vimeo.com/378658865
Finished sausage is moist and completely cured and not over heated.