Dried sausage question

[Tom]

bacteria grows up to 142° or thereabouts.....warmer is better

[Jason Slocum]

Dry sausage isn’t cooked, so I think your too late. Smoked sausage is cooked as well. Dry sausage is air dried out. It’s safe from bacteria because it’s cured and there’s salt in the meat. It can be cold smoked for flavor but smoking doesn’t cook or heat it enough to kill bacteria or cook the meat. The best conditions for drying sausage is less than 60% humidity and less than 60 degree weather. Should take about 7-14 days to dry depending on how much the air is flowing.

Jason Slocum’s

[Big Ace]

Dry sausage isn’t cooked, so I think your too late. Smoked sausage is cooked as well. Dry sausage is air dried out. It’s safe from bacteria because it’s cured and there’s salt in the meat. It can be cold smoked for flavor but smoking doesn’t cook or heat it enough to kill bacteria or cook the meat. The best conditions for drying sausage is less than 60% humidity and less than 60 degree weather. Should take about 7-14 days to dry depending on how much the air is flowing.

Jason Slocum’s

Do you weigh out a link and decide how dry it needs to be depending on weight? Or do you use the feel method? The reason I ask is that I have some in the smokehouse now with ac and 2 fans. Last year I did it in the refrigerator.

[Jason Slocum]

Do you weigh out a link and decide how dry it needs to be depending on weight? Or do you use the feel method? The reason I ask is that I have some in the smokehouse now with ac and 2 fans. Last year I did it in the refrigerator.

I go by feel, don’t weigh anything. In general they will lose 50% of weight. In my experience the fridge dries it out too fast. You can always randomly pull a link and test it to see if it’s dry enough for your taste/preference. I like them a little more moist than my wife (where the recipe came from), but we usually agree on when to pull them and vacuum seal. You can always dry them out more, but you can’t go back. You can always open the packs and let them finish for a day or so in the fridge to dry out more.

Jason Slocum

[panhandlehunter]

Dry sausage isn’t cooked, so I think your too late. Smoked sausage is cooked as well. Dry sausage is air dried out. It’s safe from bacteria because it’s cured and there’s salt in the meat. It can be cold smoked for flavor but smoking doesn’t cook or heat it enough to kill bacteria or cook the meat. The best conditions for drying sausage is less than 60% humidity and less than 60 degree weather. Should take about 7-14 days to dry depending on how much the air is flowing.

Jason Slocum’s

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. I don’t cook my smoked sausage, cold smoke it and it is cured. I live on the coast and don’t have the ability to hit the right conditions to dry the traditional way. So a dehydrator it is.

[bpa556]

Should I do it warmer than 140?

I would. If it was whole muscle, I wouldn’t be particular about temp. Since it is a ground product (ostensibly not ground in your own kitchen), I’d dry it above 150.




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[Montec man]

I make it with my normal recipe 60 deer/40 pork, but add pink curing salt and water. It gets a couple hours of smoke and then hangs in a storage room in the garage with a window unit going for a couple weeks. If it grows a little white mold its fine, green mold bad!

[cva34]

My dehyd only goes to 140 .I put mine in oven and control 180 to 200 for about another hour with door cracked open..Thats what it takes mine to get in that 175 range internal temp I use; cure salt/tender quick/pink cure salt

[Jason Slocum]

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. I don’t cook my smoked sausage, cold smoke it and it is cured. I live on the coast and don’t have the ability to hit the right conditions to dry the traditional way. So a dehydrator it is.

Ever been to corpus? Yeah I’m familiar with humidity and warm temps too. I still don’t use my dehydrator.

[Aggiehunter08]

Dry sausage isn’t cooked, so I think your too late. Smoked sausage is cooked as well. Dry sausage is air dried out. It’s safe from bacteria because it’s cured and there’s salt in the meat. It can be cold smoked for flavor but smoking doesn’t cook or heat it enough to kill bacteria or cook the meat. The best conditions for drying sausage is less than 60% humidity and less than 60 degree weather. Should take about 7-14 days to dry depending on how much the air is flowing.

Jason Slocum’s

Agree 100% Good dry sausage is hard to beat.

[stryker93]

I’ve always thought dry sausage had to have cure. Am I wrong??

[Jason Slocum]

I’ve always thought dry sausage had to have cure. Am I wrong??

Yes. If it’s not smoked to temperature (cooked) it must have cure (sodium nitrate).

[sendit]

I don't know Jason Slocom from Adam Ant but he is spot on with his comments about dried sausage.

Sounds like we were taught by the same people.

[scotth89]

Buy a good quality sausage pull them out of the package and place them in individual paper bags. Throw in the bottom of the fridge for 30 days. That’s my easy method of dried sausage.

[BURTONboy]

I had smoked sausage made from a deer and pig I shot (I also added pork so it wouldn't be too lean. Wild pigs ain't got the fat on em that store bought pork has) is it too late to make some dried sausage?



I was think about opening a few packs and puttin em in my electric smoker, with the temp set at 140°. Is that too low? Will the sausage spoil? How long should I leave in the smoker? 4 hours? 6 hours?



Whatcha think?

To try and help answer your questions some, I will start with you really should have cure in the sausage if youre going to dry it. But, I do have friends in which their family makes dry sausage the cold smoke and let hang way and they dont use cure. Never have. And thats far more dangerous than putting it in a smoker/dehydrator. Now to that, I have a friend that runs a meat market and he told me he sets his smoker at 165, I believe it was, and lets the sausage in there until it reaches an internal temp of 165. But he does suggest using cure as well.

So bottom line I guess, cure is a good thing to have but I reckon it isn’t exactly necessary. Especially if you dry it in a good dry atmosphere for a short time and not over a week or so.


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