going to try this for 1st time. just about 15 lbs worth of venison. will be doing on electric smoker for ease. can get it down to 170 F, or could cold smoke i suppose if i cured it. what time and temp works for those who have smoked it before? Also heard something about poking holes in the casings to let air out.

Do your homework. In order to get dried sausage you need to let it hang for a long time. Most have a good smokehouse built, and do it when it is colder or have a window AC built in.

yea, as im reading about it, its alot more complicated than i anticipated. probly going to wait til next year to try it now.

Back in the day, processing places made great dried sausage. Then the state stepped in and you had to have a specific area separate from for your other facility. And it was regulated and checked every now and then. Guy at Granzines explained it all to me years ago. We would pick it up from them and hang it in the attic for the rest of the cold season. Attic smelled so good.

1. You'll want to start with a sausage that has at least 20% fat in it. Otherwise it will have a chalky texture if it's too lean.
2. Double grind it if you can. That will help the texture.
3. Use a cure. Insta-cure #1 is the standard, and 0.25% by weight is the standard ratio. Total salt by weight (plain salt plus cure) should be 2% minimum for safety. Unless you're planning on it taking more than 30 days to cure (and it really shouldn't), don't use Cure #2.
4. Use a needle to remove any air pockets after stuffing. If you stuff the sausage properly, there should be very few if any air pockets.
5. We always cold smoked our sausage and air dried it. Hot smoking for dried sausage seems like a bad idea, but I don't know for sure as I've never done it that way. We cold smoked ours for 3-4 hours and then let it air dry. Usually takes 10-18 days depending on the weather.
6. High humidity is ok and actually preferred. If the air is too dry, you'll end up with case hardening, where the outside layer is dry but it's still raw in the middle. If that happens, and it likely will, vacuum pack it and freeze it. It will even out in about a month. Not sure why this works, but it does.
7. Watch for mold. White powdery mold is ok, wipe it off with vodka. Green, black, or slimy mold is very bad and that product should be tossed if it's been that way for a while. You can wipe them down with vodka too if you catch it early and hope it doesn't come back. If it does, trash it.

Just a haze of smoke for as long as it is in there. This pic is not dried sausage, was for explaining smoke only. Keeping smoke on it will keep it safer than not having it. Your casing will be done enough to not let in more smoke.

If you have a spare operable fridge you're not using buy one each of these Inkbird controllers, a humidifier, a dehumidifier and a terrarium heat lamp and make your own curing chamber. It works 365 days out of the year. One controls the heat lamp and fridge compressor, the other the humidifier and de humidifier. Also put a small computer fan in for circulation.

Rattler12 said:

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If you have a spare operable fridge you're not using buy one each of these Inkbird controllers, a humidifier, a dehumidifier and a terrarium heat lamp and make your own curing chamber. It works 365 days out of the year. One controls the heat lamp and fridge compressor, the other the humidifier and de humidifier. Also put a small computer fan in for circulation.

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For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out. -Steven Wright