Andouille (mild setback) question

[chillcoolcold]

I have made fresh Italian sausage for years –grind, mix, stuff, vacuum pack and freeze. Now I have all this nice andouille and I was going to hang it in my offset smoker and smoke it for a couple of hours Until I read "DONT DO IT" if you did not add a cure to it cause of potential bacteria (botulism) - no problem I can seal and freeze right now, just wont have smoke flavor. Any other suggestions?

[Meat Burner]

Looks good bro. I don't know why you couldn't smoke the sausage for a couple of hours and then freeze it like the fresh links. We will be making sausage again real soon so I am interested in other suggestions. Good luck!

[mmmmeat]

first off never done sausage... but the potential "danger" i see would be if only for a couple hours... the temp wouldnt raise up much more than to the bacteria breeding zone... if however ya took and fully cooked the meat to temp, then froze it afterwards there would be no problem as ya killed off the potential bacteria... maybe???

[MOS95B]

Hopefully Kevin will stumble in here soon. He gave me some sausages a while back, including andouille. He knows his stuff!!

[bigabyte]

The warning you read about was for cold smoking sausage, where the sausage hangs for potentially days or weeks at temps that could be around room temperature in some cases.

What you are trying to do is fine. It is no more dangerous than cooking a butt that way. You are cooking and smoking at the same time. Smoke it at 225-250 to an internal temp of 140* and it is food safe.

[chillcoolcold]

I couldn't resist actually started before I read this!!!

Thanks

here is some Food pron

[bluetang]

As far as I know, you should use cure when smoking sausage at lower temps. Otherwise it it considered a "fresh" sausage, and intended to be cooked faster and hotter than one might do in the smoker (low and slow). When smoking sausage you are putting the meat in the perfect environment to create food poisoning, ie- 40*F to 140*F, low acid, lack of oxygen, high moisture, good nutrients. That is why nitrite (cure) is used when cooking at lower temps as it will retard any botulism during the cook at lower temps.

[bigabyte]

You are also cooking it in there, right? You're not just doing a cold smoke? If you are cold smoking it...why? How are you planning to cook it later? All recipes calling for Andouille sausage presume it is a precooked sausage.

Just curious since I couldn't tell from the pics. That thermo reading looks kinda low...but I can't read what exactly it is at.

[chillcoolcold]

Originally Posted by bigabyte

You are also cooking it in there, right? You're not just doing a cold smoke? If you are cold smoking it...why? How are you planning to cook it later? All recipes calling for Andouille sausage presume it is a precooked sausage.

Just curious since I couldn't tell from the pics. That thermo reading looks kinda low...but I can't read what exactly it is at.

The smoker is now at 210F the meat is 120F about 45min into the smoke

[bigabyte]

Perfect!

[chillcoolcold]

Originally Posted by bluetang

As far as I know, you should use cure when smoking sausage at lower temps. Otherwise it it considered a "fresh" sausage, and intended to be cooked faster and hotter than one might do in the smoker (low and slow). When smoking sausage you are putting the meat in the perfect environment to create food poisoning, ie- 40*F to 140*F, low acid, lack of oxygen, high moisture, good nutrients. That is why nitrite (cure) is used when cooking at lower temps as it will retard any botulism during the cook at lower temps.

I will definetly get some cure next time and read up on lower temp smoking I saw your pics looks like you have done this once or twice...

Thanks