Homemade Sausage Making

Anyone use a sous vide to finish sausage after smoking. I know some poach after smoking directly in water but I was wondering if after smoking placing the smoked sausage in a zip lock bag and then use a sous vide to finish without directly going into water. Then placing the same zip lock bag into ice cold water to drop the temp. I figure this would not only be good for natural casings but also for collegen casing sausage like snack sticks. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I use sous vide to finish whole muscles like Sweetheart Hams and Boneless Turkey Breast roll on a regular basis, and it works like a charm.
Not sure how it would work on cased sausages. If you use a baggy it will more than likely float and if vac sealed it may flatten the uncooked chubs. Also the chubs will be moist and greasy and will still have to be rinsed and air dried .
However I would not hesitate to try on a sample batch...you never know until you try!

I use a sous vide circulator to poach my sausages and it works great.
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?p=32383#32383

However, I don't understand why there is a need to bag the sausages? When we poach we don't bag them. Natural casings poach very well, some collagen don't. Snack sticks are a thin sausage that we normally bring up to temp in the smoker, with no need to poach. And we eat them when they are semi dry, so if there is a reason that you can't finish them in your smoker, an oven would be a better choice. Using a sous vide circulator is handy as you can use different size containers and you will not overheat the sausages like you can when using a stove and trying to maintain the correct temp.

Hi
I start poaching sausage using anova without packing them in vacuum. So far so good , no problems , les work .I use 50 lb meat lug for poach 5-12 lb sausage.

martin wrote:Hi
I start poaching sausage using anova without packing them in vacuum. So far so good , no problems , les work .I use 50 lb meat lug for poach 5-12 lb sausage.

I only thought to place to sausages in a bag so the sous vide unit would not be damaged (I have the Chefsteps Joule). How hard was the Anove to get clean after poaching the sausages.

I just rinse off the impeller with hot water, takes 10-15 seconds.

Yep like redzed said , after poaching just rinese in tap water, before i had same concern like you John , but trust redzed and now happy with poaching sausage without any vacuuming or packing in ziplock.

Thanks to all for all your replies and help.

redzed,
Approximately one month ago I found your post about sous vide technics and here I am - Anova device in my arsenal now. I finished Canadian bacon yesterday by "sous vide" it at 152F for 5 hours and will try it today after keeping it in my fridge for 24 hours. I have a question for you though: how do you calculate required temperature and time for cooking your sausages and other meats? What criteria do you use for your calculations? I understand this should be calculated based on weight and thickness of the sausage/meat but am not completely sure. Your respond will be much appreciated. Thank you.

Boris-

Redzed does not do sous vide (vac sealed) on sausage but he does use a Anova sous vide circulator to poach. An internal temp is taken to see when finished.



There is some info on souse vide used to cook a cured loin here: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

At 152° for 5 hours Your C. Bacon will be quite tender.

Bob K, Thank you very much for your reply.
"An internal temp is taken to see when finished" - this is definitely makes sense. Mistakenly, I was under impression that there is a way to poach sausages using "sous vide" method and with sausages vac sealed during the process. O, well....
"At 152° for 5 hours Your C. Bacon will be quite tender" - do you mean that 5 hours was not enough and k.bacon will be under cooked?

Well you still can seal them in a bag and poach....when you think you have reached your target temp stick temp probe through bag and check, even if you have to return to water bath.

bolepa wrote:"At 152° for 5 hours Your C. Bacon will be quite tender" - do you mean that 5 hours was not enough and k.bacon will be under cooked?

NO it will be fine, but you probably can use a lower temp and less time depending on the texture you prefer. Read through the other string posted above.

I am admittedly new to the game, but this weekend I poached my first sausage.
it was a 6lb 24"x4" round cooked salami style lunch meat. Sous vide at 156f for 5 hours, ice bath to stop the cooking and cooled overnight. I tried some this morning and am happy to say our grocery store lunch meat days are over!

I say go for it! just follow internal temps for safety.

Bob K, As usual - thank you very much for your advice!