Sausage temp

[watchdog56]

I make venison sausage in my 6 rack digital all the time. I have a PID to keep temps in control. I usually start out with 1 hour at 130 then 2 hours at 140,2 hours at 150 then bump it up to 170 until IT hits 150-155. My question is- is there a reason I could not start at like 140 for an hour then bump it to 170 right away until done?

[oldsmoker]

I think you will grease them out.

[Habanero Smoker]

The main reason to start at a low temperature such as 130°F is to dry the outside of the casings so that the sausage will develop a nice brown mahogany color. During that first hour, smoke is not applied. When the smoke is being applied it is best to keep the temperature at 140°F to get the best smoke flavor. After the smoke is applied, it can be bumped to 170°F.

If you go to this site:

Cooking Sausage

The authors of that site state that when applying smoke, during that time you can slowly increase the temperature to 160°F; but he gives no guidelines of rising the temperature during that time. My feeling is, if you only applying smoke for two hours; is it worth going out every 30 minutes of so to increase the temperature by about 5 degrees.

PS
I forgot to mention that drying the casings also improve the smoke flavor.

[watchdog56]

Thanks for the info, sounds like I should keep doing what I have been doing. Just wondering if I could speed it up at all. When making summer sausage I have used the water method after temp got to 135 on sausage.

[manfromplaid]

just to toss my 2 cents into this.. when I make summer sausage I have found that time is on your side to get a proper result. using the water bath method speeds things up and I have had great results doing it that way. increasing the heat at the beginning and a higher heat sooner I have also tried. higher heat always ended up as a fat out. in the future I will always plan for the extra time needed to go low and slow. every time I cut a new sausage I don't want to frown and think I could have done a better job.. I make about  15 lbs at a time and I want to be happy with my results. those are my thoughts and a couple extra hours on smoke day are a small price to pay..