Kielbasa Question

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Kielbasa Question

Postby Odin » Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:01 pm

I made what I call Kielbasa and have a few questions maybe someone could help me with. The meat was pork butt and fat, from pork belly.

I stuffed the meat into 40mm casings to the point of bursting. They looked wonderful. I tied them off at 12 inch intervals. I let rest over night in fridge. The next morning I preheat smoker to 120 degrees and place the Kielbasa inside for one hour before adding smoke. When the smoke was added I raised the temperature about 10 degrees. I raised the temperature 10 to 15 degrees every half hour or so till I got to 165 degrees.

After 9 hours the temperature didn’t even reach 150 degrees. The casings became very wrinkled and it appeared the fat was rendering, just a guess. I gave up and took them out of the smoker and put them into an oven set at 170 degrees. After several more hours it hit 153 degrees I was looking for 155 degrees but pulled them at the 153. The casings were extremely greasy and wrinkled. I put them into and ice bath for about 3/4 of an hour then into the refrigerator. The next morning they were firmer and the casings not so wrinkled but very greasy. Any comments would be appreciated.

My questions; is it normal to take so long to reach 153 degrees? Wrong fat, pork belly? Cooked to high temperatures? How can I get the casings tight on the meat and not greasy? Poach?
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Re: Kielbasa Question

Postby DanMcG » Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:46 pm

What type of smoker do you use, and any chance your thermometers are off. it sounds like the smoker was hotter then 165° and the fat rendered.
On a big casing like that, I smoke them until I have the smoke color I want then poach them to finish temp.
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Re: Kielbasa Question

Postby Odin » Fri Mar 02, 2018 5:22 pm

DanMcG it’s a Masterbuilt electric. The temperatures are correct plus/minus a few degrees. I have several thermometers set to check temperatures so that’s not and issue unless the temperatures I’m using are to high and/or to fast. But your right the fat did render something I have to address. They taste good but look like crap. Not something I would give anyone.
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Re: Kielbasa Question

Postby herjac » Wed Jun 20, 2018 11:45 am

A bit late with this but I may be able to help with this temperature problem for others.

The controller on Masterbuilt electric smokers is an off/on device. The longer that it is on, the hotter the heating element becomes. If there is a large difference between the actual temperature and the setpoint when raising the temperature then there will be a considerable overshoot in the resulting temperature after the controller switches off as the heating element takes awhile to cool off. To reduce this overshoot you can watch the temp gauge and when it is at the top of its cycle (which will be above the present setpoint), raise the setpoint to that temperature. When the controller then turns on, the element will not get too hot as it will turn off quickly as it is already close to that temperature and the resulting overshoot will be less. In this way the temperature can be raised slowly without as much overshoot in the heating cycle.

I learned this technique from another forum after experiencing fat dripping from the sausages when smoking when the setpoint was 170F. It was the excessive overshoot of the setpoint which caused the problem. The next time I made a batch of Kabanosy I tried this technique with success and had no fat in the drip tray.

It should be noted that it does take time to reach the final temperature in the sausage as the less the difference between the meat temperature and the smoker temperature becomes, the slower the rate of change as well. I aim for a final meat temperature of 152F with a final setpoint of 170F.

I hope this helps.....
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