Smoking Sausage: Cold Smoke and Freeze or Fully Cook?

[DenimChicken]

Looking to try my hand at making some sausage for the second time. First time I cooked on too high of heat and didn’t add enough fat, resulting in dry sausage.

For large batches to be consumed later, is there a general consensus on cold smoking for and hour or two and then freezing (to be fully cooked later prior to eating) vs. smoking fully up to temp then freezing? I plan on adding cure to the meat prior to smoking.

I’ve perused the internet and found all kinds of wildly different answers. Interested in best practices and lessons learned from the crew here.

 

[Gone4Days]

I fully smoke/cook my sausages to 158° IT. Make sure smoking temps aren’t too high or your fat will drip out leaving dry sausage. Add a binder (powdered milk works nice) to hold in moisture). How much fat did you add? I use 20% pork fat for all smoked sausages.

When sausage is done immediately into an ice bath for about 15 minutes. My last batch of smoked kielbasa :

 

[DenimChicken]

That looks great. Are you doing a fine or coarse grind on that?

I did 20%, but succeeded in rendering almost all of the fat out of the sausage by cooking to high and too fast.

I want to do some Italian to use in various dishes. You still recommend fully bringing to temp, then freezing for use later?

 

[jmez]

Never let temp get above 180. That is when the fat begins to render. Smoked sausage isn't a quick process. For smoked sausage I fully cook then freeze.

I wouldn't smoke Italian sausage.

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[Gone4Days]

That looks great. Are you doing a fine or coarse grind on that?

I did 20%, but succeeded in rendering almost all of the fat out of the sausage by cooking to high and too fast.

I want to do some Italian to use in various dishes. You still recommend fully bringing to temp, then freezing for use later?

Twice grind. 1st coarse then 2nd grind fine. 175° is max temp I smoke sausage at.

 

[yfarm]

Three varieties of sausage made and sold by processors around here
Fresh sausage requires fully cooking before eating, must be refrigerated or frozen
Smoked sausage which is cooked during the process and is warmed before eating, is what is sold in barbeque joints and grocery stores in this state. Requires cold storage.
Dry sausage, have never seen outside of Texas, asked processors in NM and Wy to make and are not familiar with it. Is ready to eat without warming, is stored without refrigeration, some meat markets hang it from racks or the ceiling. Curious about how it is made.

Dry Sausage – Bellville Meat Market

www.bellvillemeatmarket.com

 

[Clarktar]

I do an Italian in bulk form. Fine grind with fat at same time then I hand mix all my spices and package up into 1ish pound portions.

Great for spaghetti, lasagna, mix with straight grind for meatloaf, my wife makes a few sounds with it etc.


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[DenimChicken]

I do an Italian in bulk form. Fine grind with fat at same time then I hand mix all my spices and package up into 1ish pound portions.

Great for spaghetti, lasagna, mix with straight grind for meatloaf, my wife makes a few sounds with it etc.


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I did similar and it turned out the best out of the breakfast sausage, cased Italian and summer sausage I made.

 

[Tmac]

I want to do some Italian to use in various dishes. You still recommend fully bringing to temp, then freezing for use later?

For my Italian sausage, I make it as fresh loose sausage. No cure, no casing, no cooking and no smoking. Basically grind like I would hamburger and immediately into the freezer it goes. If I was going to smoke it, I’d use casings and cure, and cook it to 150-156 internal or so.

 

[butcherboy]

For smoked/cooked sausage it needs to reach an internal temp of 160 and I would recommend adding some nitrate to it. Fresh sausage just freeze. You will still
Need to freeze the smoked sausage for long term storage. I always coarse grind then fine grind everything. For snack sticks, summer sausage, hot dogs, etc you need to emulsify the meat by either grinding 3-4 times or run it through a bowl chopper. If you want a coarser smoked sausage then just grind once coarse and once fine but a binder may need to be added. A dry sausage is hung in a humidity controlled cabinet and just left for weeks or months. Peel the molded casing off and then slice to eat. It will have a definite “twang” flavor to it. If you like that flavor in a snack stick or summer sausage then add encapsulated citric acid after the final grind.

 

[DenimChicken]

For my Italian sausage, I make it as fresh loose sausage. No cure, no casing, no cooking and no smoking. Basically grind like I would hamburger and immediately into the freezer it goes. If I was going to smoke it, I’d use casings and cure, and cook it to 150-156 internal or so.

I straight ground this time. I made it in casing last time I then I realized I never eat a cased Italian sausage. I did straight grind with no cure as you mentioned.

For smoked/cooked sausage it needs to reach an internal temp of 160 and I would recommend adding some nitrate to it. Fresh sausage just freeze. You will still
Need to freeze the smoked sausage for long term storage. I always coarse grind then fine grind everything. For snack sticks, summer sausage, hot dogs, etc you need to emulsify the meat by either grinding 3-4 times or run it through a bowl chopper. If you want a coarser smoked sausage then just grind once coarse and once fine but a binder may need to be added. A dry sausage is hung in a humidity controlled cabinet and just left for weeks or months. Peel the molded casing off and then slice to eat. It will have a definite “twang” flavor to it. If you like that flavor in a snack stick or summer sausage then add encapsulated citric acid after the final grind.

I appreciate your advice as always. I will smoke the cased sausage to 160 and then freeze. I always add cure to my cased sausages. I don't plan on dry curing anything. Plan was always to add cure and cook to 160 eventually; I just went to deep on Google and found some guys who were cold smoking for a little while, then freezing before thawing and grilling to 160. It will be much easier and safer to just smoke to 160 (at a reasonable temp this time).

 

[danwolf]

I make jalepeno cheese bratwursts with a homemade seasoning and cure. I don't always smoke them. But when I do I get internal temp up to 160F.

 

[spur60]

I smoke my summer sausage and sticks on my pellet grill. It's not the most ideal way to smoke because the ends will get hotter faster, but makes use of the tools I have at hand.
Just made 25 pounds of summer sausage (pictured) and 15 pounds of sticks (not pictured) last week.
For the summer sausage, grind venison with coarse plate once, grind pork/beef fat with course plate once, mix all by hand, then grind once more on course. Same method for sticks, but second grind uses medium plate.
For this batch, It was 20 pounds of venison, 2.5 pounds of pork butt, and 2.5 pounds of brisket trim I'd saved.
Smoked until it hit 155-160 in a few different spots then ice bath to get it down below 100 degrees. slice into chunks and vac sealed. the ends that are a little more done I toss in the fridge and we eat those up right away.

 

[Whisky]

I much prefer fresh, cold smoked sausage.

 

[Don Qui Puncher]

I sous vide my last batch to get to temp then ice bath let sit in fridge over night and cold smoked the next day and it came out great, I was getting hot spots in my smoker and it required way to much babysitting and tried the sous vide way and it came out good

 

[Roadrunner1]

If I'm cold smoking I will not let temp reach over 70F then I cure them in the garage for a few weeks, and they are ready to eat. If I'm hot smoking then I make sure internal temp reaches 156 F and they are ready to eat.