How to Cold Smoke Sausage: A Complete Guide

Time and patience are required when smoking cold sausages.

The process of cold-smoking sausages doesn’t cook them, instead of giving them a smoky flavor.

If you do not know what you are doing, cold smoking can be difficult. It is possible to cold smoke your sausages without being a professional.

Cold smoking sausage is a relatively new technique used to impart flavor to meat products without using smoke.

 It’s a process in which the meat is suspended in a chamber that contains water and salt. 

The cured sausages should be set in the food chamber before the smoker is warmed up. 

Allow the smoke to cover your sausages for at least eight hours. They should be flipped around every hour until they are done. 

Once the smoking process is complete, you can either cook them immediately or keep them in the fridge.

You can learn more about how to cold smoke sausage. I will give you some tips that will make your sausages a hundred times better.

Why Is It Important To Cold Smoke Sausage?

Hot smoking and cold smoking are the two types of smoking that preserve food.

The difference between hot smoking and cold smoking is that hot smoking cooks the meat and makes it safe to eat, whereas cold smoking enhances the flavor of your sausages.

If you want to smoke hot sausages, maintain a temperature range of 60-80 Celsius.

When you cold smoke sausages, the temperature requirements are very low at 30 Celsius and below.

Sausages have a delicious smoky flavor, thanks to cold smoking. It is possible to cold-smoke any type of sausage.

Gouda, cheddar, fish, garlic, potatoes, corn on the cob, red peppers, and even hard-boiled eggs can also be cold smoked.

Cold smoke spices, like salt, garlic powder, and paprika, can be used.

Sausages that are best for cold smoking include bratwurst, chorizo, breakfast sausages, boudin blanc, Italian sausages, hotdogs, weisswurst, Polish sausages, and kishka.

If you cold smoke raw sausages, you need to make sure they are cured, salted, and/or ferment first.

What is the Time Required To Cold Smoke Sausage?

When it comes to cold-smoking sausages or any type of meat, the general rule of thumb is the longer, the better.

If you want to avoid any health risks, it is best to cold-smoke your sausages for 24 hours.

It is essential to have patience when smoking cold sausages. Since you are not technically cooking the meat, you need to cook it afterward.

The temperature at which the sausages need to be cold smoked is 30 Celsius.

If you want to be safe for consumption, cook them at temperatures greater than 80 Celsius.

If you don’t plan on cooking it immediately, you can store it in a sealed container in the fridge.

If you want to wait a while before enjoying them, putting them in the freezer is another option. They can help prolong their quality and prevent the growth of bacteria.

Steps for Cold Smoking Sausage

You can cold smoke your sausages in several ways.

Before you start, you need the right equipment, like a smoke generator, a food chamber, and airflow for the smoke to travel through.

Prepare the Equipment Before

There is a way to make your cold smoke generator.

It doesn’t need to be fireproof since there isn’t much heat used to process cold-smoking sausages.

You can buy one of them as well. It’s possible to use your barbeque for the food chamber.

Since you will need it to trap the smoke, make sure that it has a lid. Excess smoke should be able to escape through a chimney.

The sausages are kept in an unheated chamber so smoke doesn’t come out from the other chamber.

Airflow is an essential part of cold-smoking sausages because it allows the smoke to spread through the entire food chamber.

It prevents the smoke from being trapped, which could result in your sausages tasting bad if you take them off the grill and cook them.

There are different types of wood that you can use. The fruit woods that should do the trick are maple, hickory, alder, apple, cherry, and others.

The larger the pieces of wood, the better. The smoke generator will create too much smoke if you place chunks of wood in it.

Whatever you do, don’t use wet wood because it will burn unevenly.

Cure Your Sausages First

Sausages have to be cured before you can start cold-smoking them. If you are smoking uncured sausages, then you have to hot smoke them.

The curing powder is an ingredient that you should add at this point. The two powders you can use are Prague Powder #1 and Prague Powder #2.

If you add this ingredient to your sausages, you will be able to prevent the growth of bacteria.

The meat that is supposed to be cooked afterward should be used with Prague Powder #1.

The meat products that will be dry-cured later are the ones that the Prague Powder #2 is intended for.

Preheat the Smoker

Before you start cold smoking your sausages, you need to heat the smoker.

The sausages should be placed on the wire rack for the food chamber you have.

If you use a barrel food chamber, you have the option to hang all your sausages from rods above the chamber.

Place the Sausages in the Food Chamber

Extra work is required to use the wire racks in your food chamber or barbeque. If they don’t smoke evenly, you need to flip them around every hour.

Make sure the sausages don’t touch each other if you hang them in a barrel-type food chamber or the second method.

Sausages need to be dry before they are placed on the grill.

The deeper the smoky flavor you achieve, the more dry the sausage case is.

If the wood chips have burned out completely, you can refill the smoker with new ones.

After a couple of hours, you will notice that the sausages have a different color.

The low temperature is the most important thing you should look out for when smoking sausages.

The cold smoking process requires the smoker to retain a consistently low temperature.

Cook the Sausages

It is time to cook your sausages after they are cold smoked. It is possible to cook them regularly in your kitchen or to hot smoke them.

If you want to increase the temperature in your smoke generator, you have to do it. You will not need to move them from the grill.

It is always a good idea to follow a recipe if you are still unsure about cold smoking your sausages.

You can begin adding different types of food to your grill once you see how things work.

Depending on the kind of sausages you want to work with, you can find a lot of recipes for cold-smoking sausages online.

Tips For Cold Smoking Sausage

Follow these tips when you are cold-smoking sausages.

Start Small

If you have never done this before, it might be a good idea to start with something simple.

Low-risk food, like cheese, nuts, and vegetables, should be the first thing you eat. You can move on to the other meat products once you get the hang of them.

Keep An Eye About the Health Risks

Cold smoking meat is more dangerous than hot smoking because of the harmful bacteria and parasites that can be found in that environment.

Hot sausages smoking, on the other hand, technically cook them, and minimize those potential risks.

The heat makes them safer because it prevents the growth of those bacteria.

Cold Smoking Needs a Perfect Environment

Since there will be a lot of smoke, you should cold smoke your sausages outdoors. It’s better to have cold smoking sausages when the weather is cold.

If the temperature outside is too hot, you could risk the growth of bacteria in the sausages.

On the other hand, it shouldn’t be cold outside either.

Even though you need the low temperature to cold smoke sausages, you won’t be able to retain the heat if the temperature is too cold.

Alternatively, add a heat source into the chamber and wait for the weather to get a little bit warmer.

Needs a Low-Burning Fire to Cold Smoke Your Sausages Perfectly

Remember, you don’t want the wood chips to cause a fire. They should be smoldering at a steady pace.

When you light the wood chips, make sure that they don’t burn all the way through.

You should check every couple of hours to make sure you should add more wood chips. It is okay to leave the sausages close to the source of the heat.

If you place all the sausages on the grill, make sure you leave enough space between them.

The meat will absorb the smoke in equal amounts.

It is a good idea to flip your sausages a couple of times to make sure the smoke doesn’t get everywhere.

Store Your Cold Smoked Sausages Properly

After you cook your sausages, you can either eat them fresh off the grill or keep them for later.

If you want to keep them for later, place them in a plastic bag, aluminum foil, or plastic wrap.

The smoke will be absorbed better by the meat if this is done.

If you do not mind waiting, you can leave it in the wrap for a couple of days to give the smokey flavor time to build depth.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to cold smoke sausages, it is time to put that knowledge to good use.

The smoky flavor you get from smoking cold sausages is worth the wait, even though it might take a lot of time.

Don’t forget to only use sausages that have gone through the curing and fermentation process, as it can also be dangerous.

You will see that there is no limit to what you can smoke once you get accustomed to it.