HELP! Did I ruin my sausage?

[johndoby]

Hi guys, new to the forum, new to making sausage. I just made my first batch of sausage using hog casings. I'm not sure how you guys do it, but around here, everyone smokes sausage before they freeze it. After I made them up, I ran out of time, so I just stuck them in the refrigerator. I just got my smoker going and pulled them out, and on the top side of some of the sausages, the casing turned a darker color and hardened. They were uncovered in the fridge for 3 days. Is this going to ruin the texture of the sausage once smoked, could it be spoiled?

Thanks for the help,
John

[DanMcG]

If you didn't use cure #1, I wouldn't smoke them...
Sounds like they dried out, a frost free frig with do that..

[johngaltsmotor]

like Dan said, the color change and stiffening is from drying - refrigerators are basically enclosed air conditioners so they dry the air which them sucks the moisture out of your sausage making the exterior hard.

If you used cure #1 you should be okay from a safety standpoint. As for the texture of the finished product? tough to say - you'll likely get pretty poor smoke penetration because of the case hardening at the darker areas.

depending on how widespread the problem and how much harder the surface is, I might be inclined to take 1 link and break it open, mix it up to distribute the drier bits into the wetter and see if you'd be best to restuff it. Sure more handling increases risk of bacteria, and casings aren't free, but if you've already put effort into it...

[vagreys]

If it were me, I'd forget about smoking them, poach the sausages and eat them.

[johndoby]

Just to fill in the blanks, I did end up smoking them in applewood, and they came out great. Perhaps it was because the case hardening was minimal.

[This Little Piggy]

Definitely sounds like the fridge dried them out. For smoking, you want the sausages to dry out a little - just until the casing is sticky or tacky rather than moist. Usually leaving them on a rack in the fridge, not too close to the fan, is sufficient. If the casings dry out too much, they will harden, as mentioned above, and smoke will not stick. Conversely, if left in a dish, moisture will pool at the bottom, saturating the casings, and also making the smoke less likely to stick.

Glad you were pleased with the result!