I just made some Andouille, Louisiana hot links and Texas smoky links. They need to be smoked to be authentic and taste "right". I "hot smoke" all the time so this is not an issue. But I have made a bunch and want to freeze most of it and use it as needed. I see two options:

1) Just freeze as is and then "hot smoke" it when I need it. The problem with this is I have to setup my smoker which is not great when it is a week night and I want something to feed the family quickly.

2) I thought about cold smoking them for 1-2 hours to get the smoke flavor in. Then I will freeze them. Then I will grill them and make sure they get hot enough. I see no issues with this?

Folks warn about "cold smoking" without nitrates or salts but I think that is only relevant if it is a long "cold smoke" or if you are curing them and will then eat them without cooking them?

Thoughts?

Thanks for any help and advice you can provide...I want to hear what the experts out there think. Thanks!

DZ in the UK

I've had good success smoking sausages at l/s temps. I generally bring them to a safe temp before freezing, but I don't worry all that much since they'll get recooked before eating.

Yeah, just hot smoke as normal then freeze the cooked sausages. Sausage is tough to ruin by overcooking since there's so much fat in there. I can't see how freezing, thawing, and recooking sausages would be a problem.

Many commercial andoullies etc are fully-cooked anyway before you throw them on the grill/in your jambalaya.