The Best Sausage Smoking Equipment and Techniques

Smoked sausages are now a mainstay at most BBQ restaurants, and you can replicate the flavor at home using store-bought home-made sausages.

We’ll go over how to smoke sausages using a smoker vs a grill, as well as what sort of fuel to use for your smoke source.

Smoke sausage at home: what you’ll need

It’s better to use a dedicated smoker for smoking sausages at home, but if you don’t have one, you can set your grill up to be a makeshift smoker.

Smoker vs. Grill

When smoking meats, it’s usually ideal to utilize a dedicated smoker if you have the chance. In a pinch, you can convert your grill into a smoker.

The method for rigging a barbecue to smoke meat varies depending on the kind of grill.

• If you have a charcoal barbecue, you can smoke sausages using the snake technique.
• Set up your gas grill for indirect cooking if you have one.

Regardless of what you have, if you want to smoke a lot of meat, we will always suggest a smoker in the long run.

Smoking sausages takes up a lot of room, and most grills only have one main cooking rack. Smokers, on the other hand, often contain numerous racks to accommodate a large amount of meat during a single extended cooking period.

Because of its many racks and simple fuel management, upright smokers are ideal for smoking sausage. We suggest the

Electric

Electric smokers are powered by a wall outlet. Vertical electric smokers are ideal for smoking sausages because they feature precise temperature control, which is essential for smoking cured foods.

Built-in wood chip chambers in electric smokers add smoke while cooking.

Pellets

Pellet smokers are becoming more popular, and for good reason. They provide effortless set-it-and-forget operation as well as a fuel that also serves as a smoke source.

Vertical pellet smokers are ideal for smoking sausages. Separate pellet hoppers are filled without heat loss and supplied into the burn chamber via an auger. The pellets burn at the temperature required and emit smoke.

Pellets are available in a range of wood types to get the proper smoky taste, and you may combine a heavier wood, such as hickory, with a lighter fruit wood, such as apple, to create unique flavor combinations for your meat.

Sausage types for smoking

Smoked sausages come in a variety of flavors.

• Some are entirely cooked throughout the smoking process. This is referred to as hot smoking.
• Some smoked sausages that ferment during the curing process are not hot enough to kill microorganisms. This is known as cold smoking.

Bacteria are prevented from multiplying by the fermentation process rather than by heat and internal temperature. Smoking is only done to enhance depth of taste in this case.

Any freshly ground sausage that is not cured is suitable for hot smoking.

Follow the guidelines on the cure box for any ratio and temperature control while curing or fermenting sausage for smoking.

How to smoke sausages at home

Now we’ll show you how to hot smoke your sausage. This technique is used to both cook and flavor the meat with smoke.

1. Set your smoker to 250°F

Whatever smoking technique you choose, you want your smoker to steadily achieve and maintain a temperature of 250F.

If you have a charcoal smoker, fire lump charcoal using a chimney starter and pour it into the fuel chamber of your stove when it is light grey and beginning to ash. Once the temperature has stabilized at 250°F, set your preferred wood on the hot coals to start the smoke.

Set the thermostat to 250°F if you’re using a gas or electric smoker. When the temperature has stabilized, it is time to apply the wood chips.

2. Get your fuel going

Place your wood of choice on the lighted coals to begin the smoke rolling in a charcoal smoker after the temperature reaches a constant 250F. Depending on the size of your fuel chamber, you may utilize wood pieces or split logs.

Load your choice of wood into the wood chip chamber for gas or electric, and the heating element will start them smoking. Follow the instructions on your package of wood chips, as some need up to thirty minutes of soak time.

Moist wood chips smolder more and survive longer than dry wood chips, while dry chips produce less smoke and provide cleaner burning.

3. Place sausages on smoker racks at least 2 inches apart

Time to add the meat!

If required, separate the links and set them flat on the cooking grates at least two inches apart for even air flow and smoke penetration. Butcher twine may also be used to hang your links.

You may add a couple of additional sausages as test links to verify the temperature using a probe. This manner, you won’t be poking many links and letting the fluids run out all the time.

4. Set and forget

Once your sausages have reached a consistent temperature of 250°F with rolling smoke, you may walk away for three or four hours, depending on the thickness of the sausage. When the internal temperature of the sausages hits 165°F, they are done.

You may turn your sausages halfway through cooking if you like, but it isn’t required, and you can let heat to escape from the cook chamber. Flipping the links may add some grate marks, but it has little effect on the taste.

5. Remove from smoker and serve or store

When the sausages reach 165°F, they are ready to serve. Allow them to rest at room temperature for a few minutes before serving, but they are best served directly from the oven when they are plump and juicy.

If you leave them out for too long, the casings will shrivel and lose their crispness. To avoid this, place the sausage in a cold water bath to halt the cooking process and lower the temperature. This, in turn, inhibits wrinkling of the casings.

Sausages may also be frozen for later use. They keep the smoky taste nicely and may be stored in the fridge for up to four days.

You’ll want to freeze them if you wait any longer. Frozen sausages may be stored for up to three months before losing quality.

Cold smoked cured or fermented sausages do not need refrigeration if done properly and in a controlled atmosphere, but you should eat them within three days after opening for the optimum flavor.

Sausage and smoke

That’s all there is to it. You now understand how to smoke sausage, whether store-bought or homemade. If you follow this recipe, you will always get juicy, smoky sausage.

Once you’ve mastered it, experiment with a variety of wood tastes and sausage varieties. In a bratwurst, a hickory and applewood mix will taste different than in Italian sausage. If you have any flavor suggestions, please leave them in the comments section!

Have fun with it, and please share your tales with us!