Cooking stall in my smoker HELP

[congo]

I have a question to ask about cooking stalling out while i;m smoking summer sauage and sticks

No matter what I do I cant get the internal temp to 160

somwhere around 140 - 150 is as high as i can get it to go

stick and summer sauage in the smoker for 11 -12 hrs

I have 3 different thermometers for smoker temp and 3 different meat thermometer and they all pretty much agree with each other
I believe the meat protein is good. I’ve been using Pepper Stick mix and Cranberry Flavored mix. Sure Cure, Sure Jell, Citric Acid
Also following the cook schedule very close. Meat is very tacky prior to stuffing also

[JohnG5]

congo Do you have a way to cook in water in a vac bag to get to temp?

From Meatgistics University: https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing/2
“FINISHING IN WATER
The last one I want to bring up is pulling your meat out of the smoker and finishing it up in water. I have been doing some testing here on this method and I think it has a lot of promise. So far I have found that the best results are when you smoke it to 130-140° and then move it to water that is a steady 170°. Usually, the 130-160° range takes 3 or more hours, depending on your relative humidity, from 140° your sausage should be up to temp in one hour. Surprisingly putting it in a vacuum bag does not seem to make a noticeable difference in the quality of the meat or the amount of smoke flavor. I am still going to recommend you vacuum bag it for an extra level of safety but plenty of people are doing it without them. One note, if you DO use a vacuum bag and you want to see what the temperature is, make a small cut in the up near the seal, insert your thermometer and then you don’t need a new vac bag if it needs to be cooked longer.”

[congo]

Will a large roaster over work?

[congo]

Kinda sounds like the way to go. Once you hit 160deg internal would you ice bath?
Do you have to repack after the cook in the water? I’m very interested in this process. Sounds like it will take the summer sausage and sticks to the next level.
Thanks JohnG5!

[PapaSop]

congo said in Cooking stall in my smoker HELP:

Will a large roaster over work?

A roaster will work. I use a Sous Vide circulator. Turkey cooker will also work. Personally, I don’t vac seal, never had an issue.

[cdavis]

congo I use a roaster to finish mine when the smoker stalls. I don’t vac seal mine and never had a problem.

[congo]

Thanks for helping me out. Can’t wait to try this method out
Hopefully this weekend

[twilliams]

congo some info needed, what smoker do you have? What is your smoke/cook schedule (exactly)? And what is your meat block as well as ratio? (Water amount included)

[mrobisr]

congo said in Cooking stall in my smoker HELP:

Thanks for helping me out. Can’t wait to try this method out
Hopefully this weekend

I had the same problem and the water bath as mentioned above was my only choice to finish, so I tried it and now I only go to the 130’s in my smoker and finish in a water bath every time and it is absolutely the best way.

[congo]

twilliams
HI TW,
I have an electric Smoke Hollow. It’s indoors with a ambient temperature of 60 deg.
Cook schedule of:
120 1 hr flu wide open
135 1 hr w/smoke flu ½ open
150 1 ½ hr w/smoke flu ½ open, water in the pan
160 ½ hr w/smoke flu ½ open, water in the pan
180 wo/smoke flu 1/8 open, water in the pan. Looking for 160 internal.

Meat: 8lb Venison process plant added pork fat to the venison 4lb ground pork

Water: fill a quart jar with ice to the top and fill with water twice. Exactly how much water is a guess because the jar is at least half full of ice after using the water.
I don’t dump the ice in while mixing.

[congo]

mrobisr
HI,
Do you an water agitator in the roaster oven?
Lid on or off?
175deg water? How long in the water roughly to achive 160 internal?

[Jamieson22]

congo So I don’t use a roaster, I use an Anova Sous Vide in a cooler that can hold 25lb of snack sticks/summer sausage. I set the water temp to be the IT target temp I am after. Zero risk of overshooting temp. Generally only needs to be in water about an hour, though depends what the start temp of sausage was.

[congo]

Hi Jamieson,
What temp do you smoke to? 1 hr sound awesome.

[Grimpuppy]

I set my sous vide at 170 in a cooler. The longest I have had a batch take to hit 160 when taken out of the smoker at 130 is 20 minutes. Small 10 pound batches are done in 10-15 minutes.

[Jamieson22]

congo I have only done a few times and usually it is when I am losing daylight for my smoke so often IT has been 140-145. I see many that plan to do sous vide pull it at 130F or so. Honestly main thing is making sure you get the smoke exposure you are after.

What I like is while my middle summer sausage I probed may be 145F, the rest may be between 130 and 155F depending on where they were in smoker. So sous vide is a nice way to guarantee they all land at target temp.

[lkrfletcher]

congo - This is a typical problem. For whatever the reason, it seems to always happen. I finished mine in sous vide bath like the others in the community. Sounds weird I know, but I was so satisfied doing this that it has become my norm. If you have the means, I would highly recommend this procedure. Waiting for hours and hours in the smoker while your casings dry out and harden did work for me. Like Papasop - I do not bag them and never had an issue.

[bmartin1000]

Thermoworks makes a waterproof probe and special tape for sous vide. No water in the vaccum bag. Works great for finishing sausages.

[akdave]

I now use the 170 degree water bath for all my summer sausage and snack sticks as it insures a consistently cooked product and saves a lot of time and ensures a better appearance of the finished product, no burnt, shriveled ends etc. I now use the 1 1/2" diameter casings for my summer sausage as it gets to 140 degrees in 1/2 less time then 3" diameter casing I used to use and it also is the perfect size when sliced for crackers on cheese trays. The only other way I know of to reduce cooking times is to add moisture to the smoker with a pan of water with sponges floating on top to increase the moisture which increase the heat transfer but this does not nearly reduce the time that the water bath does so I use this method for whole smoked meats. I use a deep stainless steel steam table pan on my propane burner to do the water bath and have very little trouble regulating the water temp and can get 25 lb of snack sticks or summer sausage in one batch and when it reaches temp I dump the hot water out and add ice and cold water to stop the cooking process and then dry the finished product on a clean large bath towel.

Dave

[mrobisr]

congo said in Cooking stall in my smoker HELP:

mrobisr
HI,
Do you an water agitator in the roaster oven?
Lid on or off?
175deg water? How long in the water roughly to achive 160 internal?

I use a s/s pot on and induction top w/o lid set on 176f
hog casings take about10-15 minutes
summer sauage 20-30 minutes

[JohnG5]

congo Yes Ice bath immediately after for about an hour.