rgreenberg2000
Well-known member
This may be useful to others, I know I looked for this kind of cook when I was deciding if I should get the smokebox with my 700. So, Friday and Saturday were sausage making days (made up the wurst on Friday, smoked them up on Saturday.) I got a batch of summer sausage made up in large casings, kielbasa, and spanish chorizo (the last two in regular hog casings for links.) Since I had planned an overnight brisket cook for Friday night, Saturday was the perfect day to test out the smokebox for sausage.
In the am, my brisket was running at 225F, and the box thermometers were 155F (top) and 125F (bottom.) This looked like it would work great, as I wanted to start the summer sausage pretty low since it's a thicker sausage. I put it in on the bottom shelf for about four hours, moved it up to the middle shelf for 2 hours, then finished it at 190F in the oven since I couldn't get that temp in the box without raising the main chamber temp (which I didn't want to do.) Once the summer sausage came off, I loaded in the kielbasa on the bottom and middle shelves. Every hour, I swapped those two shelves, for about four hours. I then finished those links inside, again, not wanting to change the main pit temp. For the last round, I loaded up the chorizo in the box, but the brisket was done by this time. After three hours in the box, I moved the chorizo to the main chamber at 180F to finish.
The result? It worked great! One of the keys to good sausage (and there are a few more) is to really focus on keeping the cooking temp below 180/190 so that the fat stays in the sausage. Also, starting at a lower temp helps to dry the casing properly before raising the temp to finish the sausage. I felt like I was definitely able to use the different zones in the box to my advantage, and provide my sausages with the proper temp adjustments that they needed to get smoked up while keeping the fat and texture that I want.
It was a fun day! If anyone has any questions, let me know.... Here are a couple of pics of the result (didn't get a chorizo pic.....it was late.)
In the am, my brisket was running at 225F, and the box thermometers were 155F (top) and 125F (bottom.) This looked like it would work great, as I wanted to start the summer sausage pretty low since it's a thicker sausage. I put it in on the bottom shelf for about four hours, moved it up to the middle shelf for 2 hours, then finished it at 190F in the oven since I couldn't get that temp in the box without raising the main chamber temp (which I didn't want to do.) Once the summer sausage came off, I loaded in the kielbasa on the bottom and middle shelves. Every hour, I swapped those two shelves, for about four hours. I then finished those links inside, again, not wanting to change the main pit temp. For the last round, I loaded up the chorizo in the box, but the brisket was done by this time. After three hours in the box, I moved the chorizo to the main chamber at 180F to finish.
The result? It worked great! One of the keys to good sausage (and there are a few more) is to really focus on keeping the cooking temp below 180/190 so that the fat stays in the sausage. Also, starting at a lower temp helps to dry the casing properly before raising the temp to finish the sausage. I felt like I was definitely able to use the different zones in the box to my advantage, and provide my sausages with the proper temp adjustments that they needed to get smoked up while keeping the fat and texture that I want.
It was a fun day! If anyone has any questions, let me know.... Here are a couple of pics of the result (didn't get a chorizo pic.....it was late.)