Summer Sausage finished Sous Vide

[Midgetracer31]

Has anyone smoked their Summers in the smoker then finished in SousVide bath? If so did you vac bag them or immerse directly? Water temp used? Approx cooking time in water bath?
Also if you have soaked your casings to use and not use them up are they still good to let dry back out?

[craigrice]

Midgetracer31 yes I have finished summer sausage and snack sticks in a water bath at 175 after they hit a stall without any problems and put them in without bagging and I have had good results

[Jonathon]

Midgetracer31 Only thing I will point out is that if you are using a sous vide curculator then I would vac bag it just to prevent any particles from getting stuck in the intake filter of your circulator. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t take Parksider advice and go without a bag, then someone pointed that out and I think I knew that subconsciously… or something like that!

All in all though finishing up in water MUCH better.

[craigrice]

Jonathon in all fairness I don’t have a sous vide I use a large pan on the stove I should have mentioned that and I use a thermometer to watch the temp

[clubchuck]

I use a home built steamer to ferment and cook, it works great.
Its nothing more then a 50 gallon water tank with an Emerson water heating element at the bottom. The lid opening on top matches the inside dimension of my smoker. With 4" to 5" of water to cover the element at the bottom and the sausage hanging above I have perfect conditions with temperature control.

[PapaSop]

clubchuck
That’s interesting. Shoot us a pic of that.

[clubchuck]

[PapaSop]

clubchuck
That’s pretty cool. Kudos.

[Jonathon]

clubchuck You could get half a pig in that thing man!

[Joe Hell]

clubchuck That is one bad a*s setup!

[rjsenk]

I did 30# of summer sausage last year finishing them in my Sous Vide and they turned out amazing. I also finished my snack sticks the same way. I vacuum sealed them first then put them in 154-degree water for about an hour. I didn’t want to bring the temperature higher than the normal smoker finish internal temp so that the fat wouldn’t render.