Temperature Stall when smoke cooking
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Temperature Stall when smoke cooking
It seems that EVERY time I use my smoker, my product IMT stalls out / reaches a plateau at about 135°. It can take several more hours of cooking to get to temperature, resulting in a very dehydrated sausage.
This happens with summer sausage, bologna, snack sticks, turkeys, pulled pork, and loins, Etc. It gets very frustrating as one can`t plan a meal around this problem.
I have tried wrapping the larger cased sausages in foil and this seems to help, as it only requires another three of four hours to finish cooking. I have also used the poaching method for the Canadian bacon with success, but the sausages seem to get fatted out way too easily.
What are other options or suggestions as a work-around for this problem?
This happens with summer sausage, bologna, snack sticks, turkeys, pulled pork, and loins, Etc. It gets very frustrating as one can`t plan a meal around this problem.
I have tried wrapping the larger cased sausages in foil and this seems to help, as it only requires another three of four hours to finish cooking. I have also used the poaching method for the Canadian bacon with success, but the sausages seem to get fatted out way too easily.
What are other options or suggestions as a work-around for this problem?
This will explain why meat stalls. It happens to everyone. I have done pork that stalled 4 hours but once you get through the stall stage off it goes again.
http://www.genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/stallbbq.html
http://www.genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/stallbbq.html
Hi Guys I also had the problem of temperature stall with my first three smoke house set-ups. This is one of the reasons that I purchased the set-up that the sausage maker
sells. The problems seem to mostly occur when the smoker had a full load or was loaded to capacity. The sausage makers set-up allowed me to control smoke and cooking temperatures more accurately. I guess that now that I have a natural gas burner I am able to control the finishing temperatures more accurately. This set-up also helped eliminate the problem of overcooked meat at the finish. John
sells. The problems seem to mostly occur when the smoker had a full load or was loaded to capacity. The sausage makers set-up allowed me to control smoke and cooking temperatures more accurately. I guess that now that I have a natural gas burner I am able to control the finishing temperatures more accurately. This set-up also helped eliminate the problem of overcooked meat at the finish. John
two_MN_kids,
I think you said in some previous post that you had a Bradley smoker. Have you tried installing the fan modification. From what I've heard it speeds up the cooking time and works as a convection oven of sorts. I think the only way around wrinkly sausage links is to steam them or poach after smoking or add moisture to raise humidity in your smoke cabinet after smoking.
Aaron
I think you said in some previous post that you had a Bradley smoker. Have you tried installing the fan modification. From what I've heard it speeds up the cooking time and works as a convection oven of sorts. I think the only way around wrinkly sausage links is to steam them or poach after smoking or add moisture to raise humidity in your smoke cabinet after smoking.
Aaron
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Thanks for the replies, fella`s. The majority of sausages I have made have been bulk packaged fresh stuff. I never had anything to benchmark cooking times against, except grilling and kitchen fare. Those go fairly quickly and perhaps that has something to do with my expectations.
Several years ago I asked a local butcher / sausage maker for a tour of his facilities. When we were at his smokehouse I asked him how long a summer sausage required to smoke cook. His reply was "About four hours".
Thanks for the link DEVO. I knew something I didn`t understand was happening. I found this link also, which says the same thing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-gol ... 87719.html
My Bradley is only two years old, so I`m still learning my way through it. My purchase was influenced by the book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Ruhlman & Polcyn.
John, it was a difficult choice between that and one by TSM.
Aaron, thanks for the information. I am researching the fan modification.
As an additional note; I smoked 10# of summer sausage Monday. I started them at 120°F, increased the temperature by 10° every 20 minutes, to 160°F and applied smoke for 3 hours after the first 90 minutes. They reached 130° IMT in about 5 hours and only moved another 5° in two additional hours. I pulled the three smallest ones for a poaching bath @ 165°F and foil wrapped the two longer ones.
The three in the bath finished in about 30 minutes @ 160°F but showed some fatting in a few areas. The two still in the smoker required an additional four hours (total of 11 hours) to reach 156°F. As it was only 28°F outside, I set up a cooling rack and had them below 100° in less than one hour. They bloomed inside for another two hours before an overnight nap in the refrigerator.
I have so much to learn!
Several years ago I asked a local butcher / sausage maker for a tour of his facilities. When we were at his smokehouse I asked him how long a summer sausage required to smoke cook. His reply was "About four hours".
Thanks for the link DEVO. I knew something I didn`t understand was happening. I found this link also, which says the same thing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-gol ... 87719.html
My Bradley is only two years old, so I`m still learning my way through it. My purchase was influenced by the book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Ruhlman & Polcyn.
John, it was a difficult choice between that and one by TSM.
Aaron, thanks for the information. I am researching the fan modification.
As an additional note; I smoked 10# of summer sausage Monday. I started them at 120°F, increased the temperature by 10° every 20 minutes, to 160°F and applied smoke for 3 hours after the first 90 minutes. They reached 130° IMT in about 5 hours and only moved another 5° in two additional hours. I pulled the three smallest ones for a poaching bath @ 165°F and foil wrapped the two longer ones.
The three in the bath finished in about 30 minutes @ 160°F but showed some fatting in a few areas. The two still in the smoker required an additional four hours (total of 11 hours) to reach 156°F. As it was only 28°F outside, I set up a cooling rack and had them below 100° in less than one hour. They bloomed inside for another two hours before an overnight nap in the refrigerator.
I have so much to learn!
-
- Frequent User
- Posts: 186
- Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2012 14:25
- Location: Blaine, MN