Tee asked me to do a write up on the use of a hot water bath to speed up the time on smoking sausage.
For full disclosure, this is not my idea and I learned of the Turkey Roaster idea on another forum. The first one to bring the hot water bath to my attention was Kirby and he posts on another forum. When he and his buddies make sausage they are making 60 pounds or more at a time. Kirby has a large stainless steel tub that he made that is heated by propane heaters that he puts the tub over. He has water circulation pumps pulling water off the bottom and shooting over the top to keep the water at a constant temp. He will smoke a load of summer sausage or hot dogs or sausage or what ever road kill he has made up and smoke with heavy smoke for a few hours. After the smoke he pulls them and puts them on racks and lowers them into his tub to finish off. While the hot water bath is going he puts another load in his smoker and repeats the process. He can put up a lot of smoked sausage in a short amount of time.
After Kirby started posting about his hot water bath a few other guys on that forum started doing the hot water bath using a Turkey Roaster. I don’t know who came up with the idea and if I remember I will be sure to edit this to give them credit.
Why a hot water bath instead of just finishing them off in the smoker you ask. Well, several things. First it cuts the time by at least one half. Second, the sausage turns out plump and juicy. Third, you can do several loads in a day instead of just one.
Why does doing the hot water bath speed up the process? Heck, I don’t know the scientific reason but I would hazard a guess that water is a great conductor of heat verses air. For some reason, meat that is put in hot water say at 160 degrees will get to an IT of 152 a lot faster than meat that is in 160 degree air. You can have hot and cold spots in your smoker and that too will tend to keep the meat from coming to IT. Water will cover all surfaces of the meat and be consistent which helps drive the IT up.
It is just like having your house temp at 78 degrees and having a tub of water at room temp, the tub water will feel cooler to the touch than just sticking your finger in the air. When you finish a long smoke in the smoker it is suggested that you plunge the sausage in a cold water bath to take the temp down to around 100 degrees to stop the sausage from cooking and then to let it bloom at room temp for a few hours. I don’t use any ice in my cold-water bath as I just fill a tub with cold water from the faucet and it is pretty much at room temp. When I pull sausage from the smoker with an IT of around 152 they go into the cold-water bath and they loose the heat pretty fast. They loose it faster then if you just lay them out or hang them at room temp and let the air-cool them down. So the process for cooling is the same as for heating if you get my drift.
If you decide to do a hot water bath please very carful not to let the water temp get above 165 degrees or you will fat the sausage out. Also remember that probes are not waterproof and you will short a probe out if you get the lead in the water. Don’t ask how I know this. You can use a food grade sealant to seal where the lead goes into the probe and this should take care of a potential problem.
I don’t use the hot water bath on all of my sausage as I am kinda old school and like to finish my summer sausage in the smoker then do the cold water bath and then bloom and fridge them. When I am making Kielbasa or smoking other sausage that have been stuffed in hog casings I like to do the hot water bath as I have found that the casings don’t dry out or become tough. If I am using collagen casings I don’t hot water bath them as I have had them get loose and peel. I have had good success with using cellulose casings with the hot water bath and after blooming them and in the fridge over night the casings peel right off and I have a great skinless dog or skinless sausage.
I will mention that if you do use the hot water bath and if you see what looks like water between the casing and the meat DO NOT poke a hole in the casing to drain out the “water”. It ain’t water!!!!!! It is fat that has rendered and it is under pressure. I can tell you that poking a hole in a casing to let the water out will shoot a stream of hot grease across the room and if properly aimed it can coat the kitchen ceiling. Don’t be concerned about the “water” pockets if you get them. Just let the sausage cool down and fridge over night and the fat will get solid and you can peel the casing and wash it with warm water and all is good. Or you can just throw on the grill and all is well. Them little fat pockets between the casing and the meat never hurt anyone. You generally get them when you stuff and get a fat lump next to the casing and as the meat sets up the fat doesn’t have anywhere to go.
I hope this has some been of some help to those that are willing to try a hot water bath or perhaps never heard of the hot water bath.
