Advice on a "non-standard" setup

[AGinKS]

Ok, first: I'm a noobie so please bear with me.

Second, I've built a cold smoker (and a hot smoker and a grill) to smoke mainly hams, pork and sausage (non-fermented). The fire box is 10' away from where the meat hangs. There is a pipe that runs from the fire box to the smoker (2 cylindrical hog feeders I got free from a friend). I installed racks and rods to be able to hang and smoke what I want. Question is: While I'm not worried too much about hams and bacon, I'm mortified about the sausage's. I'm being given polish sausage to do by a friend and I'm worried about messing it up. Any pointers??

[GusRobin]

Some experts will be around to help you soon. In the meantime, your set up sounds interesting. How about posting some pics?

[AGinKS]

I'll try to get some pics tomorrow. If not, please bear with me as it's raining from now till who knows when!

[Habanero Smoker]

Is you friend giving you uncooked polish sausage that he had stuffed himself? Is so, did he add any cure (Cure #1 or Instacure #1 or Prague Powder #1 or Morton Tender Quick)? If he didn't then it is not safe to cook them at a low temperature. A cabinet temperature of 225°F or higher is recommended. This method is generally used to cook fresh sausage that is meant to be eaten immediately.

If he did add a cure, then you can smoke/cook it at a low temperature until the internal temperature is 150°F - 152°F. Monitor closely you don't want it to go over 150°F - 152°F. If you bring the temperature to high the sausage will "fat out" - meaning you will loose a lot of fat and your sausage will become dry and crumbly. NePas should be around soon to give you some pointers. In the meantime here is a link to how I smoke sausage; scroll down the recipe until you come to the Smoking sections:
Chaurice - Hot Creole Sausage

If he is giving you fully cooked polish sausage, then you can safely hot smoke above 150°F - 170°F for a period of time to apply smoke, but don't let the internal temperature get above 152°. Take it out of the smoker and let it bloom (air dry) for a couple of hours. It should darken, then package and treat as uncured sausage.

[AGinKS]

Habanero,
As many hogs as he'll be processing (he has at least 12), I imagine it might be both. He's not processing all at once, but throughout winter (Nov - March). He's a 5th generation butcher and is familiar with curing - although I don't know which he uses (but I'll ask). I don't think it'll be pre-cooked, so I'm thinking I'll most likely be needing to really look at the 225 F/immediate eating or the 150-152/monitor closely/get with NePas variety.

I reeeeeaally appreciate your input and your recipe! As a huge fan of "meat with heat" I'm looking forward to trying out the Chaurice. I've heard of it growing up in east Texas, but haven't had any.

Since it looks like it's going to rain all week, I'll try to explain my setup (which I based on designs from the book, "Meat Smoking and Smokehouse Design by Stanley, Adam and Robert Marianski):
1. The 3'X3' firebox is 10 feet away from the cold smoker, connected by a 6" buried pipe
2. The cold smoker is 2 54" diameter hog feeders and is 70" tall
3. I have a thermo-hydrometer on it as well a thermostat (b/c I got it first)
4. Has rods to hang the meat on or I can hang a whole hog or two halves
5. The smoke is spread by gravel at the bottom
6. Whole thing is capped and has a little "chimney" that has a damper
---
Next to this is a hot smoker that was an old 36" diameter tank. It's heated by the grill area which i can cover and the smoke is carried over by a 4" pipe. This is where I have done my briskets, but I've done some modifications to be able to hang meat in there too.

In the end, it may be fairly tricky keeping the temp at 150-152 in the cold smoker, but I've not tried that for any length of time. I know that humidity levels play an important role and I'm in Kansas where it's fairly dry (winter the humidity averages about 40-50%). I've read that the sausages themselves will raise the humidity level, but I think I need to put a bowl of water at the bottom inside.

My friend and I also want to do do hams and bacon (especially bacon  ;D ), but I that is a whole 'nother topic!!

[Habanero Smoker]

If he is an experienced butcher/sausage maker, and he is asking you to smoke the sausage then he is probably adding a cure; but I would still ask to make sure. If it is cured I would use low temperatures and hot smoke it (keeping the cooking temperature within the range of 100°F - 180°F). Gradually increasing the temperature as you smoke/cook help for even cooking of the sausage and prevents the casings from getting tough. The 150°F - 152°F temperatures I referred to are the final internal temperature of the sausage, not the cabinet temperature.

I have the book "Meat Smoking and Smokehouse Design", and I believe I know which smoker design you are referring to. I would love to see a picture of it.

In my area this time of year and through winter the relative humidity averages 25% - 40% during the day time hours.

P.S.
I just quickly looked through Meat Smoking and Smokehouse Design", and they have two Polish Sausage recipes; one for cold smoking and one for hot smoking. Follow their smoking directions, and you can't go wrong. In my book version the recipes are located in Chapter 9, on pages 105 - 107.

[AGinKS]

Habanero,
Again - thanks. I asked and he is "only bringing over cured" sausages. We started to get into a discussion about that, but he had to go. I appreciate you clarifying about the (internal) temp of 150/152 of sausage, not being the smoker temp.

I post pics as soon as I can.

Sounds like your average humidity is a little lower than mine. Do you think I should add the water bowl? Or just monitor and add if needed? It's just that based on what I've read, I'm really concerned about the casings.

Oh, and thanks for reminding me about those recipe's in the book! That book is what gave me the inspiration to get into cold smoking (and belief that I can do it).

[Habanero Smoker]

Great, it sounds like you are well on your way. Are you going to follow the hot smoking directions in "Meat Smoking and Smokehouse Design"?

Most commercial sausage makers will finish cooking their sausage with steam, after the smoke has been applied. I don't worry about the cabinet humidity when I am making fully cooked sausages. At the beginning you need to get the outside casings "dry" prior to applying smoke, and in Marianski's book he doesn't mention anything about humidity levels while smoking/cooking his Polish sausage.