Cold vs Hot Smoked Sausage

Adding flavor, without rendering the fat/moisture.

Picture kielbasa and things like salami for cold smoked. Hot smoked is just bbqed.

I love making and cold smoking sausage. Search for Mortons Tender Quick curing salt.

Its really tough to hit cold smoke temps in the summer, unless you are smoking in a working refrigerator. But in winter it is fun and easy to do.

We do it in a couple of cardboard boxes. One with a hot plate and a pie tin full of wood chips and a dryer exhaust hose running over to a second cardboard box with the sausage.

Good Stuff!

I've hot smoked plenty, but have yet to cold smoke - by all means put some cure in - Tenderquick like Cap mentioned or pink salt. I'd like to try cold smoking - I'm thinking of putting pans of ice in my main chamber and hanging the sausages in my vertical chamber and obviously a very small fire - may try with a small batch, do it at night, and see how it goes.

Smoothsmoke said:

I don't get it. You cold smoke at a certain temperature, ok. Do you cook to a specific meat internal temp? What is that temp? And once reached, you can eat it right away or do you have to cook it? Confused to say the least.

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No cooking involved in cold smoking, the specific temperature you need to hit (or rather maintain) is as low as possible. The aim is to impart a smoked flavour, not to cook - hence Capozzoli's comment that it's more difficult in summer. If the ambient temperature is much above that of a refridgerator you may be at risk of spoiling the produce. Of course, with some foods such as cheese it isn't a massive problem to sit at room temperature for a few hours, but it can be for meat / sausages etc.

Regarding immediate eating, again just work on the principle that the food is still essentially raw - so OK for cheese and some fresh fish, not OK for sausages. That said, in my experience it's always best to leave whatever you've smoked for a couple of days to allow the flavours to mellow. Obviously some air dried meats and sausages can be eaten raw, but certainly not straight after smoking unless they're already fully cured / dried - in which case (I guess) cold smoking wouldn't have a significant effect on flavour.

Hope this helps!

Sam

i'm reading up on it now. Cold smoking is less than 70F inside the chamber. For sausage only a couple hours.

Cold smoking is not something that can be done everywhere at any time of the year.

Perhaps I can clear up some confusion...or maybe add to it.

When I think of "smoked sausage", I think of Kielbasa and Anduille etc. I make both. They aren't really cold smoked in true sense but you do add a curing agent. I start them out at say 100 for an hour then add smoke and gradually increase temp in smoker over, say, a 4 or 5 hour period or longer. Max temp in smoker at end is maybe 170? You just want to bring the sausage up slowly to 150-160 internal.

If you just want to throw some brats on the smoker at a temp of say 225, then you don't need cure in them, your basically just cooking them with smoke but rendering some of the fat out at same time.

Cured and dried sausage is a whole new ball game. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/dining/17sala.html/

very simple
cured sausage (with cure 1) cold smoke or BBQ temps
fresh sausage (no cure 1 ) BBQ temps only