If your sausage is stuffed into 36 mm casing 1ВЅ hours is fine. About one hour of smoking time for 1вЂќ (25 mm) of sausage diameter is plenty. Hot smoking is performed with a dense smoke and smoke deposition is more intense at higher temperatures. In the past, cold smoking/drying continued for weeks as it was the preservation method. Preservation is accomplished by cooking and keeping the product in a refrigerator, and smoking today is just a flavoring step. In most cases smoking is done when the desired color is obtained. Wet casings or excessive levels of humidity in the smokehouse will create darker casings and impede the smoking process. Using softwood from evergreen trees will make casings much darker, even black due to the deposits of tar and resin that this wood contains. Large pieces of meat such as hams, bacon, and loins will require longer smoking times and should be smoked until the typical dark color is obtained. When smoking, the rule вЂќeasy goes a long wayвЂќ holds very much true.

Smoking a thin 1/2вЂќ piece of meat like jerky for 3 hours applying heavy smoke might make it bitter and non-palatable. A sausage will become nothing else but a piece of meat with a heavy smoky flavor. Long smoking with heavy smoke can overpower these subtle spice aromas. Keep in mind that sausages owe their characteristic flavors to the different spices they contain. Heavy smoke will increase the amount of smoke deposition. The type of wood will influence it as well, oak smokes in brown color, hickory smokes reddish-brown. The color will start changing from light brown to dark brown. The color depends mainly on the length of smoking. Hot smoked products are smoked in a matter of hours. Keep in mind that cold smoking continues for days, even weeks at a time with occasional breaks in between. As the smoking progresses the color will become light brown and then dark brown. Color of a Smoked SausageД¬old smoked products develop a yellow-gold color.

You may like it, but a commercial plant can not produce inferior products which will not be purchased by the consumer. The sausage will be most likely greasy on the outside. As we have explained above you have to smoke your sausage at above 170В° (77В° C) which will affect its texture and will produce an inferior color due to the lalk of nitrite. Smoking Sausages Without NitriteДЄ common question is: can I smoke meats without nitrite? Of course you can. Adding nitrite not only protects against pathogenic bacteria, it provides us with such benefits as a characteristic cured meat flavor, pink color that is liked and expected by the consumer, delays the rancidity of fats, delays meat color change due to light and oxygen. They cook meats with smoke which is not the same as the classical meat smoking method. Most of them barbecue or grill meats at high temperatures which kill all bacteria, including Clostridium botulinum. Many people say they donвЂ™t use nitrites when smoking meats. The combination of low temperature with evaporating moisture from the sausages and the absence of oxygen creates the right conditions for the growth of the Clostridium botulinum pathogen, the strongest poison known to man. Smoking is done at temperatures from 50В° F (10В° C) to 140В° F (60 вЊ) and depending on a particular smoker, the humidity levels and the amount of fresh air varies too. If every manufacturer adds nitrite to naturally smoked meats to protect the consumer, a hobbyist should do the same to protect his loved ones. Although cases of food poisoning by Clostridium botulinum are very rare, they have one thing in common: they are fatal. This is a must procedure when smoking meats below 170В° F (77В° C) smoke temperature. The step which differentiates smoked sausages from others is the addition of sodium nitrite (Cure #1). Most smoked products fit into this group. Those sausages are fully cooked following smoking. Spreadable fermented sausages (Mettwurst type) and slow fermented sausages (Hungarian salami) fit into this group. They may be dried at about 54В° F (12В° C) and after losing sufficient moisture they will not require refrigeration as long as kept at this temperature in a dark, lightly ventilated room at 65% humidity or less. These sausages are not cooked and must be refrigerated.

Smoked sausages are made of cured meat and can be further subdivided as:

Bar-s hot smoked sausage