I've been doing some research about an upcoming barbecue I'm hosting. I'm required to do pulled pork, I think there'd be a rebellion if I didn't, but I'm curious to try something else along with it. Usually I do St. Louis spares, and originally I wanted to try my hand at brisket, but I think I'll need to do a few practice runs before trying to serve that to the public.
Anyway, I came across a link here on the forums to Ostrowski's here in Baltimore. I called the guy to inquire about his hours and explained that I was looking for fresh kielbasa I wanted to smoke myself. He said I needed a cure, but at the time I didn't know what he was talking about so I just said ok and thanked him for his time.
I went on to read that various things from various sources. Since I'll be putting the sausage on at the tail end of a butt cook, the temps will be relatively low. I read that smoking uncured fresh sausages will have a chance of getting people sick. More specifically I came across this from another smoking forum:
"The concern with low temperature smoking (where product is between 40-140 F) is botulism poisoning, although it is very rare. Between these temperatures the botulism spores produce a nerve toxin and if the amount of toxin gets high enough it can cause sickness and death.
To counter this, most cured/smoked sausage include a very small amount of Sodium Nitrite (not Nitrate.. that is entirely different); this is included in "Pink Salt" or "Salt Cure's" such as Cure #1 and similar products. Even in these products, they are about 94% regular salt and only about 6% sodium nitrite.
If your fresh kielbasa includes sodium nitrite, you are OK; but if not, you have to decide how much concern you have for the low-chance that the 6 hours it will take your sausage to get an internal temperature above 150F will cause problems. As others have mentioned, the faster you get your sausage out of the "danger zone" of 40-140F, the better, so a hotter smoke is preferable.. but remember that it is the temperature inside of your sausage that matters, not the temperature of your smoker. The first batch of sausages I did with my Bradley I had set to 180F and they took 6 hours to get up to an internal temp of 150F.
I'm sure everyone has their own tolerance for "chance"; my cooking background is from foodservice and commercial restaurants, and in that business you can't afford to kill anyone
so I personally wouldn't smoke a sausage at low temp unless I knew there was nitrite in it, even though the chances of a problem are very low - but I'm sure the there are people who never ever add nitrite and have smoked for years without a problem."
So, I guess since the butcher told me I would need a cure I can assume there isn't any sodium nitrite in his product. Would you recommend I just purchse some already cooked kielbasa and throw them on the smoker to bring them to temp only or should I chance it with the fresh stuff?
Thanks!
Anyway, I came across a link here on the forums to Ostrowski's here in Baltimore. I called the guy to inquire about his hours and explained that I was looking for fresh kielbasa I wanted to smoke myself. He said I needed a cure, but at the time I didn't know what he was talking about so I just said ok and thanked him for his time.
I went on to read that various things from various sources. Since I'll be putting the sausage on at the tail end of a butt cook, the temps will be relatively low. I read that smoking uncured fresh sausages will have a chance of getting people sick. More specifically I came across this from another smoking forum:
"The concern with low temperature smoking (where product is between 40-140 F) is botulism poisoning, although it is very rare. Between these temperatures the botulism spores produce a nerve toxin and if the amount of toxin gets high enough it can cause sickness and death.
To counter this, most cured/smoked sausage include a very small amount of Sodium Nitrite (not Nitrate.. that is entirely different); this is included in "Pink Salt" or "Salt Cure's" such as Cure #1 and similar products. Even in these products, they are about 94% regular salt and only about 6% sodium nitrite.
If your fresh kielbasa includes sodium nitrite, you are OK; but if not, you have to decide how much concern you have for the low-chance that the 6 hours it will take your sausage to get an internal temperature above 150F will cause problems. As others have mentioned, the faster you get your sausage out of the "danger zone" of 40-140F, the better, so a hotter smoke is preferable.. but remember that it is the temperature inside of your sausage that matters, not the temperature of your smoker. The first batch of sausages I did with my Bradley I had set to 180F and they took 6 hours to get up to an internal temp of 150F.
I'm sure everyone has their own tolerance for "chance"; my cooking background is from foodservice and commercial restaurants, and in that business you can't afford to kill anyone
so I personally wouldn't smoke a sausage at low temp unless I knew there was nitrite in it, even though the chances of a problem are very low - but I'm sure the there are people who never ever add nitrite and have smoked for years without a problem."So, I guess since the butcher told me I would need a cure I can assume there isn't any sodium nitrite in his product. Would you recommend I just purchse some already cooked kielbasa and throw them on the smoker to bring them to temp only or should I chance it with the fresh stuff?
Thanks!
