Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

The umai sausage bag works like a sausage casing, no vacuum with this. I just stuffed the casing like normal.

I think the bags are semi-permeable so they control the rate of evaporation. After a few days of letting the starter culture bloom I hung the salamis up in the fridge.

This is the first time I have made any kind of fermented sausage. I got the umai sausage kit for Christmas.

I had been reading about making fermented and dried sausages, but did not want to mess with making a curing chamber.the umai bags seemed like a good way to test the waters.

Well no before pics this time. I guess if you've seen one piece hanging in a stockinette you've seen them all.

I picked up a fresh pork 'picnic'--it's the upper arm on a pig. I made a curing solution with sodium nitrite, pickling salt and white sugar. I pumped some of the brine inside the arm to help get the inside curing and then placed the entire arm in the brine and let it soak in the brine for 8 days.

I then put it in a new container and let fresh water to run over overnight.

In the morning, I removed the arm and patted it dry. Then I put it in the stockinette that had soaked in White Vinegar and a bit of Liquid Smoke (this helps keep the stockinette from sticking to the meat).

At 9 AM it went into the smoker which was pre-heated to 175 degs. I let it hang for an hour and then started putting pans of damp applewood sawdust. I can't tell you have many pans I used but it was a lot! I was looking for a deep heavy smoke flavor..

I took it out at 10 PM and hung it under the eves on a hook to cool overnight (it was around 20 degs outside).

Anyway, here's a few pics of the finished product. NOTE: I didn't bother bringing the internal temp up to 165 degs as it will be baked to 165 later:

Stockinette still on:



Stockinette removed/skin side:



Flesh side:



By the way------it smells wonderful inside the Boars Nest

It's too big to fit inside a vacuum bag so it's off to plastic wrap followed by heavy duty aluminum foil and finished with freezer paper so it won't get freezer burn.

Originally Posted by spazola

The umai sausage bag works like a sausage casing, no vacuum with this. I just stuffed the casing like normal.

I think the bags are semi-permeable so they control the rate of evaporation. After a few days of letting the starter culture bloom I hung the salamis up in the fridge.

This is the first time I have made any kind of fermented sausage. I got the umai sausage kit for Christmas.

I had been reading about making fermented and dried sausages, but did not want to mess with making a curing chamber.the umai bags seemed like a good way to test the waters.

So did you ferment first at a warm temp before they went into the Umai?

First attempt at smoking today. Helped by my son who wanted to be involved in every part of it. As my first go was just sausages. Pre heated and just getting smoking and put them in cold. Came out alright. Had to have it up full at the beginning to get the temp up but by the end was had to keep turning it down. Will be fun to keep playing with



I hate phone pics. You get the idea though. Was nearly double that amount of sausages but couple to the neighbour, couple to a mate who was over and some for dinner and I'm not going to have em for long.

Kinda nice to see photos with shorts, t-shirts and NO SNOW! Good on ya.

Originally Posted by DZEC

Kinda nice to see photos with shorts, t-shirts and NO SNOW! Good on ya.

Bloody hot hear between 32c and 38c most days with the odd 40 to 42


Also no snow here ever. If I want snow got to travel to other side of Australia in the lower side then go way up in the hills.

First and foremost, A Big THANK YOU to your son for wanting to be involved and to you for getting started learning a wonderful way of preparing meat.

I got started making fresh sausage because my father used to talk about the fresh sausage and the smoked hams and bacons that his father made when he was growing up. The problem was that he HAD to help but he didn't WANT to help so he never bothered learning the spices, procedures etc.

I have a basic country fresh sausage recipe my maternal grandmother's youngest brother came up with. Both my dad and his older sister said it is very close to what their father had made.

I could die today and all three of my children could make fresh and smoked sausages, birds, etc as they all have learned the art and I have all of my recipes recorded.

Again thanks for getting started and congratulations on your first sausages, they look great and I'll bet that they tasted better than any you can buy in a store!

A guy who I used to work with and I helped get started making smoked jerky and sausage stopped by a few hours ago to bring me some summer sausage that he'd made. He uses a readily available kit and I must say it's a good tasting summer sausage even though it's not a traditional summer sausage which is made in the winter and ages for months.

I wouldn't think of hurting his feelings as he suffers from some sort of mental disorder which he takes meds for. However he's brought similar sausages before and I asked him to come over and together we could make the sausages.

I showed him how I did it including how to stuff and how high of a heat to use and then what to do after it had reached the correct internal temp. We got a sausage that looked every bit as good as one you'd buy in a store.

However apparently he didn't store those lessons as this one looks worse than any other he's brought over.

He's not a member here so I have decided to ask if anyone can offer what they think he did wrong for making this sausage--I'm pretty sure that I know exactly what he did wrong but I thought it might help others to learn from his mistakes.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

So did you ferment first at a warm temp before they went into the Umai?

I stuffed in umai cases, then hung at room temp for a couple and half days, then fridge. I pretty much followed their video.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

My guess would be too hot, melted fat, and no cooling bath.