Is This Safe To Eat ??

[Panthur]

Hi guys. So I made a small batch of pork sausage with correct amount of cure #1 yesterday around 5 pm and thought I would smoke a few strings. Started smoker at 8 pm and put sausage in directly from fridge. Set for 2 hours of smoke ( 830-1030 pm ) @ 100 degrees . Fell asleep watching tv, woke up at 1:15 am and took warm sausage off of smoker. ( smoker would have shut off around 11:30pm I figure ). So, it was 8 pm to 1:15 am @ 70 - 100 degrees. I immediately vac packed and put in deepfreeze before 1:30am. So, is this a throw away ? Or am I safe from the cure ??  Thanks. :-\

[iceman]

If the sausage never made it over 100 f it was in the "danger zone" way to long to be safe. I'd be safe and start a new batch and toss that one.

[rajzer]

Might be OK, but I too would write it off.  Why the heck did you set your smoker at only 100?

[NePaSmoKer]

Toss it. Cure is not a kill all.

[pmmpete]

A question:  When meat spoils, is the problem that it contains harmful bacteria, or that bacteria have created harmful toxins?  You can presumably kill the bacteria in spoiled meat by bringing the meat to an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  While freezing meat is not the recommended method of killing bacteria, freezing the meat can't be healthy for any bacteria.  But if the problem is toxins in the meat, heating and/or freezing won't help.

[Panthur]

If you are cold smoking sausage don't you cure it and then smoke it at around 80 - 100 degrees for a few hours ?  The plan was to cold smoke and freeze to be cooked at a later date. I planned to remove it after about 2 1/2 hours though, instead of the 5 1/2 hrs it was on there. Does the cure not allow you to have the meat in the " danger zone " longer so that you can cold smoke sausage, bacon, etc... ??  Thanks.

[Mr Walleye]

If you are cold smoking sausage don't you cure it and then smoke it at around 80 - 100 degrees for a few hours ?  The plan was to cold smoke and freeze to be cooked at a later date. I planned to remove it after about 2 1/2 hours though, instead of the 5 1/2 hrs it was on there. Does the cure not allow you to have the meat in the " danger zone " longer so that you can cold smoke sausage, bacon, etc... ??  Thanks.

That's my thoughts on this. It's not uncommon to hold sausage at 90 degrees for up to 20 hours using only Cure #1 to develop the tang flavor. Although I usually bring the sausage up to temp after this period as well. There are several recipes like this from reliable sources including Rytek's book. I've personally done it for periods up to 20 hours.

I think it's just fine. This of course is assuming the correct amount of Cure #1 was using in it.

Mike

[njxbow]

if you added the right amount of cure it will be fine as long as you treat it as raw sausage, meaning you have to fully cook it before eating any. i usually cold smoke my cured venison sausages this way for 4 to six hours at 100 degrees before freezing them. but i still fully cook them before eating. 

[pmmpete]

A question:  When meat spoils, is the problem that it contains harmful bacteria, or that bacteria have created harmful toxins?  You can presumably kill the bacteria in spoiled meat by bringing the meat to an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  While freezing meat is not the recommended method of killing bacteria, freezing the meat can't be healthy for any bacteria.  But if the problem is toxins in the meat, heating and/or freezing won't help.

I did a little checking around, and it appears that there are various bacteria which cause food poisoning, including staphylococcus aureus, campylobacter, listeria monocytogenes, clostridium perfringens, clostridium botulinum, and Escherichia coli 0157 (E. coli).  Some of these bacteria form toxins, and these toxins aren't destroyed by normal cooking.  In particular, when clostridium botulinum spores reproduce in an airtight environment such as a sausage, they create botulin, which is a poison.  Fortunately, the addition of the correct amount of sodium nitrite (Instacure #1 or Prague Powder #1) to sausage will prevent the formation of botulin.

[GusRobin]

My motto is "when in doubt throw it out". It just isn't worth the grief to me.

[York]

I agree with Gus.

I've thrown out plenty of stuff when I had a doubt.

[Mr Walleye]

Like I indicated above there are many recipes from reliable sources using Cure #1 and holding them for more than 20 hours to develope the "tang" flavor.

Here's a couple of samples...
Len Poli's German Farmer Style Summer Sausage
Marianski Brothers Lebanon Bologna

Panthur's sausage will be just fine.

Mike