A couple questions from a semi-experienced sausage maker

[hvhunter]

Good morning, Happy New Year and Happy Friday to all.  This will be my fifth year of smoking venison summer sausage, and I have two questions, as I am always looking for improvement. One question is about ramp temps, and the other about the the feasibility of doing a pre heat / bring the sausage up to room temp the night before in the cabinet.

Bradley Original Smoker, dual heating elements, Aubins dual probe pid controller. Venison 70%, jowl 30%, Eldon's summer sausage.

1) Ramp Temp:  What I have been doing the past couple years, is preheating the cab to 250, loading up with 15 lbs of
                       sausage, ramping up the temp as follows: 135 - 2 hrs w smoke, 145 - 2 hrs with smoke, 155 2 hrs, 165
                       -2 hrs, then 175 until IT 152.

                       As I am about to do this tomorrow morning, I was looking at my notes, and I came across this from
                       http://www.susanminor.org/forum/threads/auber-plug-play-pids-single-dual-probes.672/

                          When doing sausage, you can start at 130°F until the meat is 110°F, then ramp to 150°F until
                          the meat is 130°F and then 170°F until the meat reaches 152°F. Then you can have it hold
                          155°F for 30 minutes to let the temp of the sausage even out but not over cook it.
                     
                        Any opinions on doing it that way, vs the way I have been doing it in year pasts? Any other
                        suggestions.

2) Bringing the sausage up to room temp:  I will be stuffing my 2" casing after work, then plan to start the process
                        at 6am tomorrow. It will be in the teens overnight. Instead of me having these sitting in my fridge
                        overnight, I want to just put them the smoker when I'm done, set the temp to 35, then let it rip in
                        morning at 135.  This will save me the hassle tomm morning as I have enough on plate to do right
                        from the get go. Then I started thinking, could I slowly bring them up to room temp over night?  Say
                        2 hrs @ 40, 2hrs @ 50, 2hrs @ 60, 2hrs @ 80,  then start the process at 135.  Anyone do this?
                        Suggestions?  Recommendations?

Thanks in advance for reading and all the replies.
                               
   

[watchdog56]

I usually preheat my cabinet to 150 then turn down. 250 seems pretty high, I would be worried about a fat out even though it would not be for that long of time at that temp. I also gradually increase temp. Maybe someone who has more experience will be by.