Summer Sausage

[marauder11]

Just finished making a 25 pound batch. I am @#$%@#$ tired. Maybe not the best thing to try to get done in one night. I am wondering how long should i smoke these for. I know it will take a while to get to 156 "IT". i just don't want to give it too strong of a flavour.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi marauder11,

Welcome to the forum.

I generally will apply 1:40 - 2:00 hours of smoke. I apply the heavier smoke to hot and/or spicy sausages. I generally will take my sausage to an internal temperature of 150°F - 152°F.

If you haven't smoked sausage before read some of the recipes in this thread to gain some knowledge of the smoking technique. You want to first "dry" your sausage, then gradually increase the temperature during the smoking/cooking stage.

[Hopefull Romantic]

Hey there marauder11 and welcome to the forum. Lots of help here just for the asking.

Please post some pictures when you ar don.

HR

[ArnieM]

Hello marauder11 and welcome to the forum.  Sorry I can't give you any advice.  I haven't done sausage yet but I'm looking forward to it.  Ask more questions if you need to and please post back with your results.

[OU812]

Welcome to the fun marauder

The way I like to smoke summer sausage is to fire up the smoker to 180 F for an hr, wile the smoker is warming up I pull the sausage (that was made the night be for) out of the fridge and hang to come up to room temp. When the smoker is up to temp place the sausage in with the vent wide open and turn the temp down to 120 F for an hr with no smoke. You want the casings dry to the touch and not sweating. When the casings are dry start the smoke, I use 3 hr Pecan, after the smoke has started bump the temp up 10 F every hr and hold the temp no higher than 170F till the sausage IT hits 156 F. You will want to rotate the sausage front to back half way through as the back is hotter than the front. When the IT hits 156 F pull out and dump in a cooler full of ice water and keep in the ice water till the IT is no higher than 110 F. After the bath hang the sausage with a drip pan under them for an hr to bloom and dry.

Hope this made sense, let us know how things turn out.

[marauder11]

Hello and thanks for  replies. I let sausage sit over night. Casing was dry to touch when i started smoking. I smoke these for about 2.5 hours at 130. I am now in the process of getting temp up to the 156 mark.I am moving the temp up in 10 degree changes. I will try post pictures.

[Quarlow]

Hello Marauder and welcome to the forum. Just a reminder to keep that vent open at least half way.

[Roadking]

Welcome to the fun marauder

The way I like to smoke summer sausage is to fire up the smoker to 180 F for an hr, wile the smoker is warming up I pull the sausage (that was made the night be for) out of the fridge and hang to come up to room temp. When the smoker is up to temp place the sausage in with the vent wide open and turn the temp down to 120 F for an hr with no smoke. You want the casings dry to the touch and not sweating. When the casings are dry start the smoke, I use 3 hr Pecan, after the smoke has started bump the temp up 10 F every hr and hold the temp no higher than 170F till the sausage IT hits 156 F. You will want to rotate the sausage front to back half way through as the back is hotter than the front. When the IT hits 156 F pull out and dump in a cooler full of ice water and keep in the ice water till the IT is no higher than 110 F. After the bath hang the sausage with a drip pan under them for an hr to bloom and dry.

Hope this made sense, let us know how things turn out.

That's right on the money couldn't have explained it any better. I usually follow those steps with sausage that has cure #1 in it and I'm smoking them.

[Tenpoint5]

Welcome to the fun marauder

The way I like to smoke summer sausage is to fire up the smoker to 180 F for an hr, wile the smoker is warming up I pull the sausage (that was made the night be for) out of the fridge and hang to come up to room temp. When the smoker is up to temp place the sausage in with the vent wide open and turn the temp down to 120 F for an hr with no smoke. You want the casings dry to the touch and not sweating. When the casings are dry start the smoke, I use 3 hr Pecan, after the smoke has started bump the temp up 10 F every hr and hold the temp no higher than 170F till the sausage IT hits 156 F. You will want to rotate the sausage front to back half way through as the back is hotter than the front. When the IT hits 156 F pull out and dump in a cooler full of ice water and keep in the ice water till the IT is no higher than 110 F. After the bath hang the sausage with a drip pan under them for an hr to bloom and dry.

Hope this made sense, let us know how things turn out.

I do the same except I use Hickory and Ice bath until IT of 100

[marauder11]

well i did the first 15 pounds and it turned out ok. I don't know if i will smoke the next  as long but it taste ok looks good. I removed the casing and vac sealed them in about 1 pound packs. i will try to put pic of next 1o pounds on.

[marauder11]

Here is the first summer i have ever made

[HawkeyeSmokes]

You could have fooled me about that being your 1st try. Looks great!!!  ;D

[drano]

Wow,
I've made a few batches, but my first wasn't that good!
Awesome job marauder11!
I grind/stuff one day and smoke the next.  Three 3 lb sticks take about 10 hours for 152 IT for me.  So next time I'm using smaller casings so hopefully they will get done quicker.  I did snack sticks last winter and got spoiled w/ how fast they got up to 152. 

get smokin
drano

[marauder11]

These took along time to get up to 152 "IT". What temp do you put your smoker at. I had mine at 160 for the  longest time and then i started raising it up 10 degrees till i got to 180 for about the last hour.

[Quarlow]

Sweet, Marauder those summers look terrific.