Bear and pork butt Breakfast sausage. Can I smoke it?

Patsplace · February 26, 2011, 04:37:40 PM

Howdy folks,
I've got about a hundred breakfast sausages that taste great when smoked. I did three yesterday and then finished them off in the frying pan and they were delicious. After reading a fair bit, I'm wondering whether what I did is kind of dangerous. I smoked them at 150 for an hour and a half and then kicked the temp up to 175 fir another hour and they were done. I didn't use the internal meat temp. probe on these three as they were going to be eaten right away.

Is this about the right way to do it with a non-cured sausage?

Thanks,

Pat the new guy on the block.

EZ Smoker · February 26, 2011, 04:47:58 PM

I'm no expert, but I do cold smoke uncured meat, so let's see... uncured sausage comes out of the fridge and into the smoker at 150/175 for 2.5 hours, then finished off in a hot frying pan.

Okay, the question is whether they were in the danger zone too long before they hit the frying pan. I'd say that it's okay because you fried them up immediately. If you left them in that temp for 2.5 hours, then put them in the fridge to fry the next day, that might be a problem because bacteria would have time to spread.

Still, probably best to wait on a smarter member to pop in and answer more wisely.

Patsplace · February 26, 2011, 04:54:32 PM

Thanks,
What my plans are is to smoke the sausage and as soon as it's cool enough to vacuum pack it and freeze them up, two at a time. They will spend their life frozen until thawed and then fried. The smoke makes such a nice difference.

Pat

classicrockgriller · February 26, 2011, 05:06:45 PM

With out cure in the sausage with that low of cooking temps for that

long of a time and then back into the freezer ............. sounds like a

game of Russian Roulette. You may get by on the first five, but then

that 6th one may get ya.

Just because you freeze something, it doesn't mean you have killed

the bacteria. You have just slowed it down.

Patsplace · February 26, 2011, 05:41:06 PM

I've been doing some more reading and what I've come across is to take the smoker up to 225, start the smoke, toss the sausages in for an hour and then freeze them. They should be pretty well cooked in that time, have the smoke on them that I want, and won't have the low temperatures to create critters.

What ya' think.

Pat

classicrockgriller · February 26, 2011, 06:18:36 PM

Pat that is Hot Smokin.

Bring the IT to just over 140* and freeze it.

You are safe IMO if it goes to a finish cooking area

(grill, skillet) as soon as it is unfrozen.

Patsplace · February 26, 2011, 07:14:43 PM

Howdy classicrockgriller
Thanks very much for the info. It's much appreciated, all the more so because it's really specialized knowledge.

I'll keep ya' posted with the progress.

Thanks again,
Pat

Habanero Smoker · February 27, 2011, 01:56:53 AM

With sausage you need to worry about bacteria that is within the meat. With solid muscle your main concern is bacteria on the surface. So getting the surface above 140°F on a roast will work, but getting the surface of sausage to 140°F the internal temperature may only be 110°F. Also when bacteria are exposed to low temperatures that gradually increase, they become more tolerant to heat so the danger zone may be bumped up a few degrees.

I would say either method is or can be unsafe, and make the food prone for bacterial growth. Also though botulism is rare it is not the bacteria itself that is harmful but the toxic waste they produce as they grow. Cooking sausage at 225°F is safer and the lowest recommended temperature for fresh sausage, but after one hour I'm not sure it will be fully cooked so you should use a instant read thermometer and check several sausages to make sure that they are fully cooked or after one hour remove them from the smoke and finish fully cooking by using a high heat source such as a grill, pan or oven.

bundy · February 27, 2011, 05:10:26 AM

What's the magic number that all bacteria is DEAD ???

Habanero Smoker · February 27, 2011, 01:07:24 PM

Quote from: bundy on February 27, 2011, 05:10:26 AM
What's the magic number that all bacteria is DEAD ???

The link is to two articles that does an excellent job of explaining your question:
FOOD POISONING AND FOOD HYGIENE

Patsplace · March 05, 2011, 10:51:41 PM

Took me a bit of time to figure out how to post a picture of the Bear ham and sausage smoking. Here's a peek at the delicious results.

Here's hoping that I did it right.

Pat

Patsplace · March 06, 2011, 12:21:10 AM

I'm pretty happy with the smoking of the Ham and the breakfast sausages. The sausages will be fried before they're eaten and the hams have been brined and cured. The smoking was to just dry the hams out a bit more and improve the flavour, both of which seems to have happened.

When I said in the last post that I hoped I'd done it right, I was talking about getting the pictures to show.

Thanks for the input. Have a load of Sockeye Salmon in the brine as I type. It'll go on the smoke tomorrow night.
Pat