Finish temps?

[Matth]

Used a Hi Mtn German kit for my maiden voyage...

My goal is a country-styled fry sausage ring.  The instructions say finish it at 156 degrees.

My question is if I'm going to cook this as a fry sausage before eating, why do I need to fully cook it in the smoker?  Is that really necessary?  My hunch is that Hi Mtn is trying to protect themselves from liability by dummy-proofing their instructions.

We followed instructions to a point: 
1) 120 for an hour, no smoke - thinking it's to dry the sausage and to take the chill out so it better takes smoke.
2) 160 for 30 to 120 minutes of smoke.
3) We pulled it after 90 minutes at a meat temp of 130, reasoning that since we were going to cook it anyway, we didn't need to get to 156.

We think it turned out just fine.

Thoughts/comments?

[Habanero Smoker]

Almost all smoked sausage is fully cooked. Why? I'm not sure, but it make it easy heat and serve, or serve right out of the refrigerator without reheating. I don't see any problem in what you are doing, if you handle it as raw sausage, and cook it at a later date.

If you have "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas; somewhere in that book he explains why it is important to dry the sausage, prior to adding the smoke. He states that it is to help develop color. If you don't dry the sausage you will still get the smoke flavor. I also came across it on the Wedliny Domowe Site, and books authored by that site's owners.