Smoking sausage - tough skin

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GunNutz
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NW Ontario
Merry christmas folks.

I've made smoked polish sausage for a few years now (once a year for Christmas) with wild meat like deer and moose. I use salted hog casing and soak it overnight before washing it inside and out. Every year, I end up with sausage that tastes good (its a good recipe) but the casing is too hard and chewy after the smoking process. I usually smoke for about 6 hours and sometimes when its too cold outside, I have to finish in the oven at 170 degrees. Any ideas?:dancingbanana:
 
try soaking it only for an hour and don't worry about washing it out. i use hog casing as well and all i do is thaw it enough to get it apart, soak it in a bowl of water then stuff it. no problems with my casing being tough.
 
You are not going to believe the advice but here goes anyway.
You don't need more than a couple of hours of smoke.
Smoke it with dampers open to dry casing (so it will take smoke) then with 1/4 open until color you want is reached.Finish in hot water until internal temp of 160F is reached.Then in cold water water bath for 30 seconds to stop cooking and set fats.Hang 2 hrs to bloom.
Or if you are doing a bunch freeze after smoking and do the hot water cook when you are ready to use.After hot water roll arround hot frying pan or barby to give a little color.
Your sausage will turn out tender and juicy.
Or from frozen parboil in frying pan until 160 internal drain water and brown.

Rich
 
RR said:
You are not going to believe the advice but here goes anyway.
You don't need more than a couple of hours of smoke.
Smoke it with dampers open to dry casing (so it will take smoke) then with 1/4 open until color you want is reached.Finish in hot water until internal temp of 160F is reached.Then in cold water water bath for 30 seconds to stop cooking and set fats.Hang 2 hrs to bloom.
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That is similar to what we do but we cook with the water bath to internal 160F (we use a probe) and then hang overnight in front of a fan to bloom and dry.
The next day we cold smoke for an hour or two until the colour and taste are what we are looking for.
 
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Having only smoked sausage a cpl. times with a friend I have limited experience. This summer I hope to buy/make a smoker, so I purchased Rytek Kutas book "Great Sausage recipes and Meat Curing"

In his book he mentions that if you put your sausage in a hot smokehouse, instead of gradually raising the temperature you will end up with tougher casings.
 
In his book he mentions that if you put your sausage in a hot smokehouse, instead of gradually raising the temperature you will end up with tougher casings.
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welll ill be a sob:eek:..i would have said the opposite..
great info here all,keep it coming:)
 
well I can tell you that it was -20 outside and I heated up the smoker to about 40F before putting the sausages inside to dry. i gradually increased the temperature but could only get it up to 100F due to the cold outside temperature with my electric hotplate. thats why I finished it in the oven....

RR - tell me more about cooking in hot water....is it as simple as putting the sausage in a large vat of hot boiling water until the proper internal temperature is reached? what about fat leaching out?
 
Here is what we use:

49Sausage_4.JPG



It is important to keep the water well below boiling to prevent rendering out the fat. 160F - 180F internal will kill all "bugs" in the meat even trichinosis that may be found in bear meat.



Here is what they look like after being taken out of the smoker:

49sausage_6.JPG
 
As I keep reading, the book also mentions that by trying to speed up the whole smoking process by increasing temperature can cause the casing to toughen up also. It says by raising the temp, the sausage emits grease through the casing before the casing has time to dry out, giving you a greasy and tough casing.

According to Rytek, the internal temp must be 152F, and your smoker should never exceed 160F, this way the fats never turn into liquid, and remain fat which is needed as a binder.

Ahhh so much to learn, so little time lol. I hope I can get myself a smoker this spring so I can start experimenting.
 
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zebra26 said:
SO..
what is the recipe
and
what smokers are you using?
Grumbling tummies want to know.
Pleeeeeease.
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For the garlic sausage the best "recipe" I have found it to just buy THIS binder from Stuffers Supplies in Langley B.C. (they are great for mail order btw :) ) and add a bit more garlic and coarse ground pepper to suit our taste. We use deer/moose/elk/bear meat with the addition of 5%-10% ground pork. (We like it very lean!)

For a smoker I have an old metal-lined fridge with all plastic bits removed. As a heat source I use a propane burner hooked to a 20 pound bottle.
 
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