Smoking the Perfect Sausage
Follow our Tips & Tricks
So you've mixed your meat with your Backwoods Seasonings and stuffed your casings, here is everything you need to start smoking your own sausages!
Drying the Sausage
You can achieve the drying by placing the sausage in your smokehouse with the damper open at about 140-150° for one hour
Top 5 Reasons for Drying Sausage:
- Drying the sausage brings all the sausages to about the same temperature for an even smoke color.
- Drying conditions the surface of the sausage to ready it to accept smoke
- Drying causes a "skin" to form on the outside surface of the sausage.
- Drying gives the collagen casing strength to hold up during cooking.
- Drying also attaches the casing to the sausage so as to avoid forming a fat layer between the sausage and the casing.
Smoking the Sausage
Smoking can be achieved by placing a pan of sawdust/chips in the smoker on the burner. The sawdust/chips must be soaked in water at least one hour. Soak in half the volume of water that you have sawdust/chips. (4 cups sawdust/2 cups water) Heat the smoker to approximately 170⁰ to ignite the sawdust/chips to achieve smoke. Close the damper to half open at this point.
Cooking the Sausage
As the sawdust/chips burn, the water will evaporate and a dry heat will set in. The dry smoke will set the smoke in the sausage. After most of the sawdust/chips have burned, remove the pan from the smoker and let the pan cool for 5-10 minutes. After this time, fill the pan half full of water and return to the burner. Close the damper and turn the temperature to approximately 180-190⁰, this will cause a high humidity to cook the sausage. High humidity will cook the sausage very quickly as well as tenderize the casings; especially natural casings. High humidity also helps to cook the sausage without drying it out too much. Cook sausage until the internal temperature of 165⁰ is reached.
Cooling After Smoking
Proper cooling is important for the safety of the product as well as the desired look of the finished product. Remove the sausage from the smoker and place in cold water to stop the cooking process. The cold water will start the sausage cooling and keep the casing tender. After cooling in the water bath place the sausage in the refrigerator. If the product will not be consumed within 2 weeks, properly wrap and put in the freezer.
A little time and patience can give excellent results.
Need More Information About Sausage Making?
Still deciding which Casings to use for your sausage? Download our handy chart on Choosing the Perfect Casing .
Need more information on Casings and why to use them? Learn more about Sausage Casings here.
Make Homemade Sausage Learn How to Make Your Own Sausage
Need help troubleshooting problems with Casings? View Troubleshooting Casings here.
