Sausage and Sous vide

[renoman]

Got myself a new toy. It's an Anova Sous Vide heating circulator to try my hand at sous vide cooking. While I was testing it out a thought crossed my mind. Could I finish my sausage with this thing? After smoking just vac seal the sausage and drop it in the Anova set at 155 and finish. Anyone see any problems here?

[tskeeter]

A hot water bath is a pretty common way of cooking sausage after they have been smoked.  Then, the sausage is allowed to dry and bloom for an hour or two until it reaches the color the sausage maker desires.  I'd probably do the hot water bath before packaging the sausage.  Not having the sausage jammed together will allow the sausage to heat more evenly and more quickly as the hot water circulates around the sausage.

[renoman]

tskeeter, I can't put the food right in the water with the Anova circulator. Apparently that is a no no. But being that it will hold the water temp to within one degree I thought I could just vac seal them and put them in without having to worry about them getting too hot and fatting out. I am just wondering if keeping them at 155 for a longer period of time would have any ill effect. Would not be able to put my probe in them to take their temp but they would never get over the temp of the water.

[mrmcdowe]

I use my home made sous vide setup all the time to finish my sausage. I set the water temp to 180 and insert a temp gauge in the actual sausage and away it goes.


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[Habanero Smoker]

As long as you vacuum seal you should be alright, so that food and grease will not mess up the circulator. If you are starting with cold sausage (not sausage that has been just taken out of the smoker), the only thing I can think of would be to place the sausage into the water while the water is still cold, and let the sausage temperature gradually rise.. If you can you should set the temperature to 152°F. That is a safe fully cooked temperature.

There is a special tape you can use for inserting you probe through a vacuum sealed bag without the bag loosing it's seal, or any leakage. I found that using that foam type of mounting tape works just as well. Place a piece of that tape on the outside of the bag, and insert the probe through the tape into one of your sausages. You have to be careful that the probe doesn't accidently go to far into the water.

[renoman]

If I set the temp to 152 do I still have to ice bath them when they are done?

[Habanero Smoker]

I've been poaching my sausage at 160°F and taking them out at 150°F, I've never ice bath them, and they come out alright. By cooking them in a water bath at 152°F I don't see any reason to use an ice bath.