Barbecue is big in Texas and smoked sausages are an important part of the Texas barbecue culture. They are a staple item in any respectable Texas BBQ joint. Fortunately, smoking sausage in a smoker is easy with the right technique, a little patience and the correct equipment. From raw sausages to pre-cooked options, like hot dogs and chicken sausage, this post covers everything you need to know to create juicy, flavorful smoked sausage. Whether using an electric smoker, charcoal smoker, Big Green Egg or a pellet grill, mastering the smoking process is easy to do.
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What Do You Want to Smoke?
The first step in smoking sausage is to determine what you are going to smoke. Are you making sausages from scratch or are you buying them? Are they raw or precooked sausage? The approach may vary slightly depending upon your answer, but the goal remains the same: to achieve juicy sausage with a smoky flavor.
Making Your Own Sausage
If you decide to make your own sausage, there are a few things to know that make the process easier.
Grind it Cold
Cold meat is much easier to grind that cool or room temperature meat. Cut the meat into 1.5" chunks, add the spices and place it in the freezer 30 minutes along with the parts of the meat grinder that will make contact with the meat.
Grind it Twice
In order to get the right texture, you need to grind the meat twice with different grinding plates.
First, grind the meat mixture once using a coarse (⅜") grinding plate.
Then, grind it a second time using a medium (¼") grinding plate.
The medium grind is important to get the right texture in the sausages. If you need a good smoked sausage recipe, look at one of my favorite sausage recipes for Texas Hot Links.
Stuff the Casing
Be sure to make a few small holes in each sausage with a clean sewing pin. This allows steam escape during the cooking process and prevents them from breaking open in the smoker. Refrigerate the sausages for about an hour while you warm up the smoker.
Preparing Your Smoker
Smoked sausage can be made in just about any grill or smoker that can be setup for low heat. Common options include an electric smoker, offset smoker, pellet smoker, charcoal grill and ceramic smoker. Each has its own advantages, but all can deliver the smoky flavor you are looking for when used properly.
Start by setting up your smoker for indirect heat at 160°F. Use the smokestack dampers to control the airflow and maintain the temperature of the smoker. Cooking low and slow is where a temperature control device, like a Fireboard, really helps. Watch my video on Why You Need a Fireboard to learn more. If you don’t have a temperature control device, a digital meat thermometer with a detachable probe will at least help monitor the internal temperature of the sausages while cooking.
For fuel, lump charcoal works well for cooking low and slow. Wood chips will add flavor. Cherry wood, apple wood and pecan wood are some of the popular woods for adding smoky flavor. For me, applewood is the best wood for smoking sausages. It adds a pleasant flavor that is not overpowering. Soak about a cup of woods chips in cold water for 30 minutes. I prefer using wood chips over wood chunks because the chunks can add too much smoke. Also, I rarely use hickory or mesquite because the flavors are too strong for my taste.
Setup the smoker with lump charcoal.
Preparing the Sausage
Many recipes will instruct you to let meat come up to room temperature before cooking. That is not the case when smoking raw sausages or pre-cooked sausages. The sausages should be cold and go from the refrigerator directly into the smoker. If your sausage
Smoke Them Low and Slow
Once the smoker is preheated, place the sausages directly on the grill grates or smoker racks. Make sure that there is adequate spacing between them for even airflow. Some sausage makers suggest placing a drip pan half filled with water beneath the grill grates to maintain moisture inside the smoker. This may be helpful at higher temperatures, but not at 160-175°F. However, an empty drip pan beneath the sausages might help keep your smoker clean.
Smoke the sausages for 2 hours at 160°F and then raise the temperature to 175˚F. Continue to smoke the sausages until they reach an internal temperature of 155˚F checked with an instant read thermometer. The temperature will continue to rise another 5°F after they are removed from the smoker. Check the temperature frequently, overcooked sausage is dry and shriveled.
There are recipes that utilize cold smoke, specifically for precooked sausages, but I prefer hot smoke. This way, I know that the sausages are actually fully cooked.
Chill The Links
Prepare a large bowl of ice water. When the sausages reach an internal temperature of 155°F, remove them from the smoker and immediately submerge them into the ice-cold water bath for 3-4 minutes. This will stop the cooking process and will help prevent shriveling.
Let Them Bloom
Remove the sausages from the water bath and place them on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Allow them to rest at room temperature for 2 hours. This step is called blooming and it helps flavors develop. After 2 hours, place the sausages in an airtight container and refrigerate. Smoked sausages are one of those foods that are actually better the next day after the flavors blend, if you can wait that long.
Equipment
Sausage making is one of those endeavors where you need the right tool for the job. There are two tools that you should own, or borrow, before making your own sausages.
First, you need a good meat grinder with two different grinding plates, one coarse and one medium. I have tried making sausages using a meat grinder attachment on my stand mixer. Tried is the keyword, it was a disaster. The meat grinder attachment had only one grinding plate and a low-quality metal bearing where the shaft went through the grinding plate. Little bits of metal wore off while grinding which created metallic colored meat all around the hub. Not good. You need a real meat grinder.
The other tool that is very helpful is a decent sausage stuffer. I tried using an attachment for my meat grinder to stuff sausages and it was an epic failure. It didn’t push the meat fast enough and made sausages that had the consistency of a hot dog. The inexpensive hand-cranked sausage stuffer shown below worked great.
The sausage on the left was made using an attachment on my meat grinder. It was overground and had the consistency of a hot dog. The sausage on the right was made using the sausage stuffer in the photo to the right.
This inexpensive sausage stuffer worked great.
Storage
Store leftover sausage in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. They also freeze well, but need to be in vacuum sealed freezer bags to avoid freezer burn.
Serving Suggestions
Serve your smoked sausages with scrambled eggs or in breakfast casseroles. Also, try slicing them into ¼” slices, then pan fry them until lightly browned.
Top Tip
Invest in a good meat grinder and sausage stuffer. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get tools that work well. Entry-level commercial units are readily available at restaurant supply stores.
Also, avoid over-smoking your sausages. Too much smoke flavor will overpower the taste of the meat. Use wood chips sparingly for the best results.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re using an electric smoker, wood smoker, stick burner, Big Green Egg or pellet grill, smoking sausage is easy to do and well worth the effort. Enjoy!
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