Kielbasa (slightly urgent)

[AMumma]

Hi folks,

Was given a fresh kielbasa for my birthday (and a rack of ribs, but I digress) and wanted to cook it up for family tomorrow. Here's the thing. It's not pre-smoked or anything, meaning I've GOT to smoke it. I've never done a kielbasa before, so I'm a little confused as to what to do. I'm going to smoke it tonight. What do I do? How long? What temp? What internal temp? Is it OK to smoke it today and then slice and fry it tomorrow?

Help!

A

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

There's a couple of ways of going about it. I like to cook sausage indirect on my kettle with charcoal and wood chips just at whatever the grill wants to run at. I usually cook it to about 160 to 165 when I do it this way.

Unless you know the sausage has cure in it, I wouldn't try doing any kind of cold smoking approach. You could maybe smoke it using the minion method at 225 until it hits 150 and then pull it, refrigerate it and slice and fry like you said. Since you want to to fry it, I'd go this route.

If you know it's cured you could smoke at 150 a few hours, then up the temp to 180 to finish at 150 internal. The best way to accomplish this is using the snake method on the WSM. I don't suggest this in your case.

 

[AMumma]

There's a couple of ways of going about it. I like to cook sausage indirect on my kettle with charcoal and wood chips just at whatever the grill wants to run at. I usually cook it to about 160 to 165 when I do it this way.

Unless you know the sausage has cure in it, I wouldn't try doing any kind of cold smoking approach. You could maybe smoke it using the minion method at 225 until it hits 150 and then pull it, refrigerate it and slice and fry like you said. Since you want to to fry it, I'd go this route.

If you know it's cured you could smoke at 150 a few hours, then up the temp to 180 to finish at 150 internal. The best way to accomplish this is using the snake method on the WSM. I don't suggest this in your case.

Perfect. That's what I'll do. I'm not sure if it has any cure in it, so that's the approach I'll take. I'll get it to 150 or so, pull it, and then fry it up tomorrow night to make sure we're fully cooked (and fully flavored).

Thanks!

 

[Greg Powers]

I'm with Dustin.
Is this a home made sausage?
If it's cured you have lots of time.
If it's fresh then you need to get it out of the danger zone, meaning an internal temp of at least 140°, fairly quickly.

 

[AMumma]

I'm with Dustin.
Is this a home made sausage?
If it's cured you have lots of time.
If it's fresh then you need to get it out of the danger zone, meaning an internal temp of at least 140°, fairly quickly.

It is not homemade. It's a fresh kielbasa that I was given for my birthday purchased from a local butcher shop. I'm not 100% sure if it's cured or not, so I figure I'll just play it safe and try to get it to 140 within an hour on the smoker.

Also, it's frozen. I froze it when I got it because I wasn't sure when I'd be cooking it. It's currently thawing on my kitchen counter.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

You could call the shop and ask them if it's been cured. Sorry to be late to the conversation.
Am I so late I should go stand in the corner?
If I'm that late, how did it turn out?
I love virtually all manner of sausages!