Andoulle & Thuringer

[JZ]

Making some of these from the Rhulman recipe in Charcuterie. The first pic is the meat all ground up and mixed with fat. This is a coarse grind and I will split the batch to make 1/2 into Andoulle and 1/2 into Thuiringer. The Thuringer gets reground through the fine plate after adding spices, etc.

This is the Andoulle all stuffed and hanging to dry before the smoke.

Here it is after the smoke and 2 hrs. of bloom time.

I was surprised to see how much fat had dripped off the sausage and ended up in the vtray and the puck bowl. There was probably 1/2" depth of fat in the bowl and it was oozing out of the pinprick holes I made for the air pockets. When I took the sausage and hung it to bloom fat actually squirted out of some of the pinprick holes. I was thinking there was something seriously wrong. I dried the sausage at room temp for 1 1/2 hrs before going into the smoker with a preheated box at 130. Held 130 for 2 hrs then bump to 145 for 2 hrs then bump to 160 for 1 hr then into a hot bath at 160*. It looked like I had a very serious fat out but the box temp never got above 160*.
After an overnight rest in the fridge I cut into the sausage this morning. It was slightly mushy and I am convinced that I put too much fat into the meat mix. The taste however was very good.

Now I am concerned because I have the Thuringer sitting in the fridge for a rest before stuffing and I think there is waaay too much fat in it.


Anybody got any ideas about what I can do, if anything, to reduce the fat in the Thuringer before I stuff it. ???

[NePaSmoKer]

Yumm


Wanna trade for some swamp gator  ;D

[JZ]

Sure. ;)

Not sure if you read my comments about the fat so maybe you will change your mind. Perhaps adding some swamp gator to the mix would help. :)

Rick have you got any ideas as to what I can do to save my Thuringer? ???

[Keymaster]

It looks ok, Not sure what you can do to the thuringer but add more protein to the mix to bring the fat level down. It doesnt really look to fatty. Did you keep the meat really cold when you ground it to make sure the fat did not smear?

[JZ]

In a word ..... yes. The meat was thawed in the fridge and placed into the freezer to firm up before grinding. After grinding the meat it was put back into the freezer while I cut and ground the fat (the fat was frozen when ground). Then got the meat from the freezer and mixed it with the fat by hand. Then reground the mix through the large plate before mixing the spices in by hand and the mix went into the fridge overnight before stuffing in the morning.

[Mr Walleye]

JZ

I didn't see how big of a batch you had in at one time. The reason I ask is I have had problems when pushing the capacity limits on any smoker. What happens is there isn't adequate room around the sausage for heat circulation and the lower portions of the sausage can start to render fat from the cabinet temp being hotter there.

Another question is where where you monitoring the temperature in the cabinet?

Mike

[NePaSmoKer]

Sure. ;)

Not sure if you read my comments about the fat so maybe you will change your mind. Perhaps adding some swamp gator to the mix would help. :)

Rick have you got any ideas as to what I can do to save my Thuringer? ???

I'm thinking its your temps. To hot to fast, that's why you had a fat-out. And what Mike said to.

On my Auber temp probe i hang it mid to low so the bottom doesn't  cook faster than the tops

[JZ]

Sorry guys I was over at my neighbors for his 70th birthday.

I only smoked a 4lb batch and had the temp probe hanging just above the bottom of the lowest sausage. The temp readings on the PID were very close to those showing on the Bradley door therm. I have dual fans installed and both of them were on for the whole time the meat was in the smoker. I also have the Blankie on the smoker. I was thinking it might have something to do with the outside temps since it was about -6*C when I was smoking but the 2 therms showed a max temp of 160* and the sausage was oozing some fat even when the temp was only at 130 for 2 hrs. I am at a loss with this.

For the Thuringer maybe I should start at 100 for 2hrs then bump to 110 for 2 hrs then to 120 for 2 hrs then into a hot water bath to finish. I'm getting gun shy. :-\

[NePaSmoKer]

JZ

How is your vent open?

Reason i ask is the dark trail marks look like what we call black rain, which is caused by to much moisture not being vented out.

I took my vent adjust completely off and run full open all the time.

[Sailor]

JZ, Sausage smoking is a learning experience for sure.  I agree with Rick that you may have taken the temp up too fast in the cabinet.  If you have the dual PID you might want to experiment to see how your cabinet reacts.  Try placing the cabinet probe below the meet and meat probe above the meat to see how the cabinet temp is acting.  I think you will find that until the meat starts to warm up you will see at least a 10 degree swing from top to bottom.  Once the meat is taking heat the temps should be pretty equal.  I find my best results is to place the cabinet temp probe just below the meat and let the meat probe just tangle below the vent.  If I am going to poach the sausage I will dry at 130 for 1 hr then bump it to 140 for the smoke.  After the smoke I take it in to the 160 degree bath.  Got to watch it pretty close because the bath is going to cook it very fast and will melt the fat and build pressure inside the casing.  You will shoot fat across the kitchen if you poke a hole in the casing.  Don't ask how I know this.

When finishing sausage in the smoker it is very important to slowly increase the temp.  I bump 10 degrees every 2 hrs and never take the cabinet temp above 175.  If you were fatting out while smoking then your cabinet temp is way high.  You should not get fat out at 160 degrees if you bump slowly. 

Personally I like to finish my sausage in the smoker and not use the bath.  Just a personal opinion.  I have had serious fat outs in the cabinet but it was because of operator error of forgetting about what was in the smoker  :o

[JZ]

How is your vent open?

Reason i ask is the dark trail marks look like what we call black rain, which is caused by to much moisture not being vented out.

I took my vent adjust completely off and run full open all the time.

Rick, when I read your response I thought you hit the nail on the head. I normally run mine full open all the time too. But this time I closed the vent during the preheat because it was so cold. But when I checked the vent this morning it was wide open. So I must have opened it when I put the sausage in and moved the temp probe. As a precaution I will remove the vent adjuster (already done on my DBS).

Sailor, I had the temp probe near the bottom of the lowest sausage and the readings on the OBS door were very close to what the PID was showing. Next time I am going to put the maverick in too one on top and one below the sausage and see if I am getting a big difference. I agree that with the amount of fat that was in the puck bowl that the temps must have been too high, yet all the temp probes indicated otherwise. I preheated to 130 and held that for 2 hrs then bump to 145 for 2 hrs then bump to 160 for one hr then in to the bath at 160*. Hopefully I don't get the same problem with the Thuringer.