Water bath for poaching in oven???

[pjplovedog]

Hi all,
I have a sausage recipe that calls for a poach at 165 degrees after stuffing.  I don't have a sous vide or a turkey roaster.  I have an oven that can be set as low as 150.  Can I put large roasting pans full of water into the oven and set the temp at 165 and then when it gets up to  temp put the sausages in the water to poach that way until they come up to temp?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Paula!

[GusRobin]

I will let a thermal transfer expert answer but my unexpert opinion is that if the sausage is temp sensitive it could cause problems.
An oven can have temp swings of + - 20 degrees. So your water may see temps of 145 to 185. But that said, nothing is learned if you don't experiment.

[Grouperman941]

I did this for my first batch of kielbasa. It worked fine. I used a Calphalon roaster and filled it 3/4 of the way. I actually set the oven at 160 at the same time I set up the smoker so I could watch it. It came up to temp quickly and was very stable (I kept a thermometer in the water the whole time). When I put in the meat, it recovered pretty quickly also. This was like 4 hours later, so the pan, water, and oven were pretty much 160.

I don't think this is ideal, but it can definitely work.

[pmmpete]

The advantage of using a water bath to bring sausage to an internal temperature of 155 degrees to kill all microbes is that you can produce that internal temperature much more quickly than you can in a smoker, and you can control the temperature precisely so you won't cook the fat out of the sausages, which will start happening at temperatures above 160 degrees.  You can heat the water bath in a large pot, a turkey roaster, or in an oven.  Put one thermometer probe in the water bath and the other thermometer probe in the center of a sausage, and keep stirring the water so you heat all of the sausages the same, and don't overheat the sausages along the bottom or sides of the pot.  Even if the oven temperature swings up and down, the water temperature will rise steadily and regularly, so don't worry about swings in the oven temperature.

[Salmonsmoker]

Even though the oven temp. may swing 20 degrees F above and below the set point, water takes more calories of energy to heat than air does, and it's thermal mass holds heat better than air. It takes longer to heat up and longer to cool down than air. Although there may be big swings in the air temp., there will be small variations in the H2O temp. The larger the H2O mass, the smaller the variation.

[pjplovedog]

Thanks all for the replies.  I am going to proceed with that plan, I have a heavy roasting pan that heats evenly and holds temp well, so I think it is a safe bet.  I'll keep it at 160.  These will be pork sausages, so that should be safe if the IT gets to 160, right? 
I haven't tried to poach before, so I want to be sure I don't ruin the batch. 
:)
You all are so helpful. 
8)

[pmmpete]

The USDA and the Food Safety Inspection Service have published schedules of the temperatures and times required to kill the microbes which can cause food poisoning.  For example, these schedules show that bringing sausages to 145 degrees for 4 minutes will kill microbes just as effectively as bringing them to 155 degrees for 23 seconds.  These schedules are available at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/fr/95033f-a.htm and http://askfsis.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/4648/ .  This means that you can kill all dangerous microbes at temperatures which are below the temperatures at which you risk ruining your sausages by cooking the fat out of them.  Because sausages at different places in a water bath will heat up at different speeds, you need to hold the sausages at these internal temperatures for longer than the minimum listed in these schedules. For example, when the thermometer in the center of one of your sausages reaches 150 degrees, you could cut off the heat to your water bath.  The internal temperature of your sausages will continue to rise as heat migrates to the center of your sausages.  If you hold the internal temperature at 155 degrees of more for ten minutes, all your sausages will probably be safe.  Then you can dump the sausages in cold water to stop the heating process.

[pjplovedog]

PMMPETE-
That is helpful, thank you.  I will look at that resource.  I don't want to risk ruining that batch with temps that are too hot. 
I'll be doing the batch this coming weekend.  I'll try to remember to take photos.  :)

[pikeman_95]

This is an old post but you can get the idea. You do not need to use such a large system but the air stirring is the best way I have found.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=34923.msg404901#msg404901

KC

[drano]

pjplovedog,
I use a roaster oven, but I think you have a good plan for an oven too. 
The water temp will drop a bit as soon as you throw in the sausage, so I start the water about 5 deg hotter than my planned bath temp. 
And have some boiling water available in another pan so you can pour it in if your temp drops too much.  Doesn't take much boiling water to add 5 deg to a roaster. 
Good luck.