Drying and Smoking Sausages
Drying and Smoking Sausages
A practical guide to drying and smoking sausages for optimal flavour, colour and shelf life. Suitable for home use and small scale production.
You Will Need
- Sausages ready for drying and smoking
- Smokehouse or smoker
- Ability to do cold smoking and hot smoking
Sausages are typically stuffed into pork, sheep, ring or collagen casings.
In Short
The sausages are dried first, then smoked and finally poached in water. Proper temperature control ensures even colour, clean smoke flavour and sausages that do not burst.
Drying Process
- If you use visible fat pieces, cut them into cubes of about 1 × 1 cm, blanch for 2 minutes in boiling water and cool quickly before mixing into the farce.
- To achieve good colour and flavour, the sausages must be dried before smoking. If your smokehouse has no heat, you can hang them overnight in a cool, draft free room.
- You can also dry sausages in a fan oven. Set the oven to about 50°C with fan on until the casings feel dry and the sausages are no longer tacky.
- Dry sausages stuffed into pork, sheep, ring or collagen casings. This helps the casing absorb smoke, set colour and cure properly.
- When dry, hang the sausages in the smoker. Avoid oversmoking, as it can make them too dry.
Smoking and Heat Treatment
Recommended:
- Cold smoking: 16–23°C for 4–12 hours depending on desired smoke intensity.
- Hot smoking: 50–70°C (max 70°C) until the sausages have taken on a nice colour.
- If only doing hot smoking, smoke until the core temperature reaches about 76°C.
Poaching, Cooling and Resting
- Poach sausages in water at about 80°C.
- Frankfurter style sausages: 7–10 minutes.
- Cooked and smoked medister/meat sausages: 15–20 minutes.
- Rest sausages for 4–5 minutes before cooling them in cold running water.
Note: Maintain steady temperatures to prevent splitting during poaching.
Storage and Flavour
Allow sausages to rest or hang in the fridge overnight. Freshly smoked sausages may look pale, but their colour deepens after one or two days of storage.
A sausage with a balanced combination of spice and smoke can feel magical. Experiment and taste to find your personal ideal – everyone has their own preference.
Casings and Equipment
Sausage casings are available in our webshop foodstuff.no. Small packs fit 5–10 kg farce, while larger hanks of 90 m, 180 m and 900 m are also available.
We ship all over Norway. Good luck with drying and smoking your own sausages.