Summer Sausage Question

[CalSmoke]

Hello Folks.  First summer sausage attempt.  Facts:  Fibrous casings 4.5 x 20" soaked at least 2 hours in warm water.  Standard Beef/Pork mixture. DBS was preheated to 100 before adding the sausage.  Hung in DBS with Auber for 1 hour @ 100 to dry.      Increased to 110 and for 4 hours with smoke.  After 4 hours increased to 170 with Auber set to finish with an internal temp of 152.  Smoked an additional 3 hours or so after temp was increased to 170. 

Total time in smoker was about 14 hours.   Sausages were good and moist but had a thin crust on the outside when the casing was taken off.  It is edible but darker and a bit tougher, kind of like another casing.  Was that from too much smoke?  I read somewhere that the summer sausages needed more smoke since they were bigger than a kielbasa.

Any ideas folks?  I could post a pic if necessary, but you guru's might have the answer right off the top of your heads.

Thanks as always.

CalSmoke

[KyNola]

7 hours of smoke in a Bradley is a LOT of smoke.  I would think that is the answer to your dilemma.

[OU812]

Hello Folks.  First summer sausage attempt.  Facts:  Fibrous casings 4.5 x 20" soaked at least 2 hours in warm water.  Standard Beef/Pork mixture. DBS was preheated to 100 before adding the sausage.  Hung in DBS with Auber for 1 hour @ 100 to dry.      Increased to 110 and for 4 hours with smoke.  After 4 hours increased to 170 with Auber set to finish with an internal temp of 152.  Smoked an additional 3 hours or so after temp was increased to 170. 

Total time in smoker was about 14 hours.   Sausages were good and moist but had a thin crust on the outside when the casing was taken off.  It is edible but darker and a bit tougher, kind of like another casing.  Was that from too much smoke?  I read somewhere that the summer sausages needed more smoke since they were bigger than a kielbasa.

Any ideas folks?  I could post a pic if necessary, but you guru's might have the answer right off the top of your heads.

Thanks as always.

CalSmoke

The smoke time sounds right, my thoughts are you increased the temp to fast.

After the 110 I would bump it up 10 deg every hr till you get to your set point of 170 then hold till your IT is 152

[CalSmoke]

The temp issue of increasing too quickly sounds reasonable.  So in an effort of getting the summer sausage correct next time, how long do you smoke for on a summer sausage?  The PS Seasoning package says to put 2/3 pan of moistened sawdust on for smoking overnight @ 100 and then to place another 2/3 pan of moistened sawdust on in the morning and increase the temperature to 170.

Since I have never used a moistened pan of sawdust, when a recipe calls for sawdust in a pan, how does that relate to the Bradley in pucks or hours of smoke?   I'll try the Sausage again using your recommended parameters soon.

And since were on the question of Summer Sausage, what is the cheapest cut of beef that can be used?

As always, thanks,

CalSmoke

[OU812]

With the Bradley the smoke is more intense so you dont need as much as if using chips.

What I do is as you started with. ;D

I let the sausage come to room temp for an hr. then wipe it off with a paper towel.

Set the smoker to 120 F to warm up wile your sausage is warming up.

After the warm up place the sausage in the smoker and after its all in there turn the temp down to 100 and hold that for an hr or till the casings are dry to the touch, no smoke, 1 hr does it for me

What I do is turn on the smoke generator after I lower the cabnet temp, then AFTER the generator cycles put in the pucks, this gives you 1 hr before the smoke starts. 

After the hr dry time bump the temp to 110 and the smoke should be rolling, keep the vent at least half way open. I like 3 to 4 hr of Pecan on SS.

Now every hr bump the temp up 10 deg, I try to get all the smoke done by the time the cabnet temp is at 140.

Then hold your temp at 170 till the IT of your sausage hits 152 for at least 1 min then dump the sausage in a cooler full of ice water to stop the cooking.

After the sausage is down to 100 pull outta the ice bath and hang to bloom/dry for a couple hr.

When checking the temp in the bath make sure you dont get the cable of your probe wet or youll fry your probe.

After the bloom place in the fridge over night, I go 48 hr, to let the sausage and smoke blend.

Hope this makes sense.  ;D

[Tenpoint5]

With the Bradley the smoke is more intense so you dont need as much as if using chips.

What I do is as you started with. ;D

I let the sausage come to room temp for an hr. then wipe it off with a paper towel.

Set the smoker to 120 F to warm up wile your sausage is warming up.

After the warm up place the sausage in the smoker and after its all in there turn the temp down to 100 and hold that for an hr or till the casings are dry to the touch, no smoke, 1 hr does it for me

What I do is turn on the smoke generator after I lower the cabnet temp, then AFTER the generator cycles put in the pucks, this gives you 1 hr before the smoke starts. 

After the hr dry time bump the temp to 110 and the smoke should be rolling, keep the vent at least half way open. I like 3 to 4 hr of Pecan on SS.

Now every hr bump the temp up 10 deg, I try to get all the smoke done by the time the cabnet temp is at 140.

Then hold your temp at 170 till the IT of your sausage hits 152 for at least 1 min then dump the sausage in a cooler full of ice water to stop the cooking.

After the sausage is down to 100 pull outta the ice bath and hang to bloom/dry for a couple hr.

When checking the temp in the bath make sure you dont get the cable of your probe wet or youll fry your probe.

After the bloom place in the fridge over night, I go 48 hr, to let the sausage and smoke blend.

Hope this makes sense.  ;D

Ditto except I run 2-3 hours of Hickory

[NePaSmoKer]

Hello Folks.  First summer sausage attempt.  Facts:  Fibrous casings 4.5 x 20" soaked at least 2 hours in warm water.  Standard Beef/Pork mixture. DBS was preheated to 100 before adding the sausage.  Hung in DBS with Auber for 1 hour @ 100 to dry.      Increased to 110 and for 4 hours with smoke.  After 4 hours increased to 170 with Auber set to finish with an internal temp of 152.  Smoked an additional 3 hours or so after temp was increased to 170. 

Total time in smoker was about 14 hours.   Sausages were good and moist but had a thin crust on the outside when the casing was taken off.  It is edible but darker and a bit tougher, kind of like another casing.  Was that from too much smoke?  I read somewhere that the summer sausages needed more smoke since they were bigger than a kielbasa.

Any ideas folks?  I could post a pic if necessary, but you guru's might have the answer right off the top of your heads.

Thanks as always.

CalSmoke

The thin crust your talking about comes from protein lined casings. These type of casings can be either fibrous/protein or synthetic/protein lined.

Try to hang the SS at 130* for an hour or so. Then take the heat up in 10* increments to a final of 170* 7 hours of smoke for SS is pretty much.