New Toy - Cold and Hot Smoking Sausages

[TheHojo]

I had the guys over at Royale Fab build this rack for cold and hot smoking sausages on my direct heat cooker - the top grate get removed and this goes in its place. Has 7 different rod placement holders I can configure based on what I am smoking







If I run a cold smoke maze or a couple smoking tubes at the bottom - with either pellets or dust - what kind of temps should I be able to achieve - goal is to cold smoke cured sausages for 4-5 hours , then bump up heat to get them to 150 degrees - then shock em in an ice water bath

Any suggestions or ideas would be great - just getting into the sausage making game.

Should also be able to hang ribs and chickens and treat it like a drum -

 

[Itsdone]

I would suggest a very, very small bed of charcoal and wood chunks instead of pellets. Pellets are great for burning hot and clean, but low and slow burn they give an acrid smell/taste to food, especially cold smoked meats/cheese.
/.02

 

[TheHojo]

I would suggest a very, very small bed of charcoal and wood chunks instead of pellets. Pellets are great for burning hot and clean, but low and slow burn they give an acrid smell/taste to food, especially cold smoked meats/cheese.
/.02

Thank you - will have to give that a try - will be a learning cure that’s for sure

 

[thirdeye]

Very cool set-up. That should work great for cold smoking as it appears to have plenty of draft. the pellet tubes generate a little heat, but during the cold smoke stage I'm more concerned with draft and smoke quality. You can always add some coals later when you start the cooking part of the cook. Here is an example of what I'm talking about.

If you are new to using a pellet tube, one mod I like uses a U-bolt which slows down the rate of burn a little bit.

Here are the finished Canadian bacon style cured loins in the photo above. I cold smoked these for 7 or 8 hours, then into the fridge overnight, then another round of smoke the next day. You might even be able to do shoulder hams depending on the height of the chamber

You can also cure and smoke chicken or turkey breasts.

I wonder if your rack would accommodate skewers?

These are Oklahoma Joe hanging skewers and are pretty slick. The bottom piece is reversible so it can cradle a chicken or a prime rib.

 

[Itsdone]

Also, to keep temps down, add a water pan to reduce radiant heat.

 

[TheHojo]

Thank you Thirdeye - you gave me a ton to think about - now we just need the heat dome to go away - tough to think about cooking with a forecast of heat indexes of 105-115 the next 7-10 days

 

[thirdeye]

Thank you Thirdeye - you gave me a ton to think about - now we just need the heat dome to go away - tough to think about cooking with a forecast of heat indexes of 105-115 the next 7-10 days

Heheheee, sorry, but that rack should be very versatile. Just curious.... what is the distance from your cross bar to the charcoal grate?Once you make a list of things you want to hang, the next step is making hooks with different length shanks, or longer offsets. This way you can keep whatever in the perfect heat zone.

 

[TheHojo]

The top grate to the bottom of the cooker is 25 inches - so top grate to fire basket is probably 24

Hanging rods are about 3 inches above top grate

So would say 26-27 inches above the heat source

 

[thirdeye]

That will be a perfect height for all sorts of things.

BTW, here is the link to the skewer people. Toward the bottom of the page are the dimensions of the skewers themselves.

https://www.tomasiusa.com/skewers/

 

[TheHojo]

I like that skewer idea - just need them to put more days each weekend so I can try all these ideas out !

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

goal is to cold smoke cured sausages for 4-5 hours , then bump up heat to get them to 150 degrees - then shock em in an ice water bath

I do this in my WSM 18 using a snake with chips and small chunks for smoke. At first the snake is 2 coals wide and as I want temps to climb the snake increases width and height. Works pretty well. Can control the burn rate and temps with the air intake.

 

[TheHojo]

I do this in my WSM 18 using a snake with chips and small chunks for smoke. At first the snake is 2 coals wide and as I want temps to climb the snake increases width and height. Works pretty well. Can control the burn rate and temps with the air intake.

What kind of temps are you generating with that set up ? Thank you

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

What kind of temps are you generating with that set up ? Thank you

If all goes well, I start around 110 for a couple hours and then slowly climb above 160 till IT of the sausage hits 152. Into the ice bath.

 

[TheHojo]

That sounds like a great set up for sure !