Water-bath after smoking

JDNC · October 14, 2009, 02:49:36 AM

Well I'm going to continue this method for at least the next two or three batches. Hab's advised he thought that the texture was maybe different unless the meat was emulsified. I will say.. the only sausage I've tried this way is salami in 3 1/2 fiberous casings and it was not emulsified but was ground twice using a 3/16 plate. I found the texture fine but would like to try this method with coarse ground sausage also. It's strange to me that there is not more using this method unless there is some problem that hasn't been addressed. If not..why in the world would someone wait several hours to bring IT's up, when they could be reached in only minutes? I could probably smoke two loads in a day with this method! The last linked sausage I smoked took forever (hrs) to bring IT's from 145* to 152* with a smoker temp of 165* which I finally raised to 170*. Thanks guys for the input..hope there's more.

JD

dirt1008 · January 01, 2014, 12:01:39 PM

Bringing this back from the dead. Have more people started using this method? If so, care to share your experiences or set up? I'm really interested in this

pikeman_95 · January 01, 2014, 01:17:57 PM

I use my water bath all the time. I use if for Franks and Summer sausage with out any issues. I do not worry about the IT in the smoker I just make sure that it has the smoke level that I am looking for. I then place it in my rack which fits in my tank. My rack will hold 90 pounds of summer sausage.

Now summer sausage in the rack and ready for the hot water bath. My rack will only hold 90 pounds so that is why we each only did 45 pounds.

Bath at 165 and up to core temp. of 155F.

First the German frankfurters. The pork that I purchased was trimmed rather lean this time which makes my wife happy as she does not like a lot of fat in the sausage.

And now the summer sausage.

Notice that the fat near the edges show no sign of fat out. The sausage is moist and not edge dried. Do not let your bath get over 170 and make sure that there is some way to circulate or stir the water

hutcho · January 01, 2014, 03:08:33 PM

Since this has been dug back up I might as well throw my questions out there. Is that water bath a homemade tub? I was curious if anyone uses the big turkey fryer pot with decent results? I would like to try this when I get around to making some sausage but not sure just how to go about it yet.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Saber 4 · January 01, 2014, 03:14:50 PM

That is another sweet setup you've come up with Kirby and those sausages look great.

pikeman_95 · January 01, 2014, 05:01:53 PM

My tank is home made. I had a sheet metal shop shear and break the parts. I welded them together and added the drain. The tank sits on a three burner stove. I have a PID temp controller on the way. I am going to control the burners with the PID. I will use a solenoid valve which will be hooked up to the controller and control the main propane line. I plumb a bypass around the solenoid with a needle valve installed in that bypass. This way I can set a low fire mode and a high fire mode. We have a shop in town that has large aluminum stock pots for sale. I checked the prices and they are
32 QT 49.00 12" tall
40 QT 59.00 13" tall
52 QT 69.00 15" tall
60 QT 79.00 16" tall
80 QT 89.00 16 tall
100 QT 99.00 17" tall

He also has heavy cast burners $34.00
When they are put on that burner they will heat fast and be more stable then some of the lighter turkey fryers.

dirt1008 · January 01, 2014, 06:04:33 PM

What kind of time does it take to get to the IT you want with 90lbs of meat? I'm looking at buying an immersion circulator (http://anovaculinary.com) but it says a maximum of six gallons. I'm worried about how many sausages (2"x19") I could get in a container, how much room I need around them to get proper circulation, and if this way is really that much faster.

pikeman_95 · January 01, 2014, 06:31:25 PM

When I first drop the sausage frame full of sausage in the tank I will see about a 10 F drop but with the three large burners I can recover the water temp in about 10 minutes. I try very hard to keep the water around 160-165F It usually takes around 30-40 minutes in the tank to get the 90 pounds of sausage from a little over 115F[out of the smoker] to 155 F I then hold it a 155 for around 10 minutes. I will turn off the heat as the sausage gets close to 155 and will add a little cold water to hold the water temp at 160-165. Having my PID controller hooked up to the propane supply will help me keep from over heating the water. I will do a few test runs with the system before I gamble that much meat in the tank. My sausage frame keeps the sausage from laying on top of each other and they only touch on their sides. My pumps crank out lots of water so circulation is not an issue. I made the pumps out of motors from a couple of crapped out vacuum sealers. The pumps consist of some stainless shafts hooked to some large model boat props. inside the tubes that you see on the tank. We served sausage and crackers for hors-d'oeuvres on New Years eve and our guest loved it. Here is a short video of the tank running.

http://s943.photobucket.com/user/pikeman_95/media/SAUSAGE%20CURING%20TANK/100_7335.mp4.html

Kirby

watchdog56 · January 02, 2014, 05:38:26 AM

I have used a roaster that you can set the water temp to 175 and higher. I set it for 175 and stir the water then take a temp reading. It will take an hour or more to gt to this temp. When water hits 160 I put the sausage in after it is done with the smoke stage. I have done summer and sticks. What I don't like about the stick is it seems the casings peel away. Not sure if I am doing it wrong or not. Would like to do my sticks this way but just don't like the casings peeling back. For summer sausage it works great. Usually do a 10# batch and it takes about 20 minutes to get to temp.

pikeman_95 · January 02, 2014, 12:01:24 PM

I have not tried this yet but I think it would work. Get a small thermometer and insert it in one meat stick the package the thermometer and the meat sticks in a vacuum seal bag and put the whole thing in your roaster. you will need to weight it down but you should be able to read the temperature and the sticks will get the affect of being in water but they will never touch the water. I don't know if anyone has tried this but I would be cereous if it worked.
Kirby

Bigbirdoffroad · January 02, 2014, 01:27:31 PM

Kirby,

My guess would be that the sticks on the outer part of the package would cook faster than the ones in the center of the package. It might cause the outer sticks to fat out before the inner ones were up to temp. Just a guess.

pikeman_95 · January 02, 2014, 01:40:30 PM

I would lay them out flat so that there was no outside. If you take the rolls of vacuum sealer material you could make the bag as long as you wanted to make them. Then when you lay them flat on the table as you vacuum they should be just be a flat sheet of meat sticks. They would not be bunched up. If your water does not exceed 160 you will not suffer fat out. The key to success with this process would be to make sure you have water circulation. Turkey roasters can make very hot water next to the walls that are very hot. This is why my water tank has some killer water circulation. I have seen a video where the company made hot dogs by showering them with hot smoke water. They travel through a chamber with a continuous shower of hot smoke water.
Kirby

renoman · January 02, 2014, 01:44:59 PM

Quote from: dirt1008 on January 01, 2014, 06:04:33 PM
What kind of time does it take to get to the IT you want with 90lbs of meat? I'm looking at buying an immersion circulator (http://anovaculinary.com) but it says a maximum of six gallons. I'm worried about how many sausages (2"x19") I could get in a container, how much room I need around them to get proper circulation, and if this way is really that much faster.

Hey dirt, I am starting to think that with the immersion circulator it would be better to get a tall pot like container instead of a low basin type container. That way the chubs would stand up instead of laying on top of each other. I have an old wine juice pail (5gals) that I am going to try on my next batch of sausages.

pikeman_95 · January 02, 2014, 05:42:09 PM

This is where I am headed for smaller batches. They just delivered my PID and this is the system I am going to control with it. I have both the 100 QT pot [17" tall] and I have the burner. I just need to get it together. I think you could put dowels across the top to hang the sausage from. I will put one of my pumps on the side to spin the water.

and a heavy burner.

renoman · January 02, 2014, 06:24:22 PM

Quote from: pikeman_95 on January 02, 2014, 05:42:09 PM
This is where I am headed for smaller batches. They just delivered my PID and this is the system I am going to control with it. I have both the 100 QT pot [17" tall] and I have the burner. I just need to get it together. I think you could put dowels across the top to hang the sausage from. I will put one of my pumps on the side to spin the water.

and a heavy burner.

Hey! Turkey fryer pot! I have one at the lake. Great Idea.