smoking over open fire

[bendjoseph]

I will be making venison sausage tonight and tomorrow :grin: I would like to smoke it over an open fire. Any ideas on how to do it?

 

[omarick1948]

I don't recommend an open fire for smoking any meat. ____The problem with smoking over an open fire, is that you really can't control the heat temperature or the right amount of smoke to do it right and above all SAFELY! ___ Sausage has to be smoked slowly at a temperature of under 200 degrees. The sausage is ready and safe to eat when the internal meat temperature reach's 160 degrees.

I hope that you are using a commercial spice and curing seasoning or have experience with smoking meats, as you do have to use some type of Nitrite or Nitrate cure in your meat mixture to safely guard against Botulism and other dangerous organisms. A product called Pink Salt and Morton Tender Quick are two I regularly use for smoking meats.

Rick

 

[Loyalist Dave]

A product called Pink Salt and Morton Tender Quick are two I regularly use for smoking meats.

BEWARE.....there is a new product one may find in the seasoning aisle of the grocery store called "Pink" salt...it's not the same product as the "pink salt" that we use for curing meats.

LD

 

[Sean Gadhar]

A product called Pink Salt and Morton Tender Quick are two I regularly use for smoking meats.

BEWARE.....there is a new product one may find in the seasoning aisle of the grocery store called "Pink" salt...it's not the same product as the "pink salt" that we use for curing meats.

LD

From Wikipedia;

Curing salts are used in food preservation to prevent or slow spoilage by bacteria or fungus. Generally they are used for pickling meats as part of the process to make sausage or cured meat. Curing salts are generally a mixture of table salt and sodium nitrate. Common types of curing salts are Prague powder #1, which is 6% sodium nitrite and 94% table salt, and Prague powder #2 which also includes sodium nitrate.

Prague powder #1 & #2 are both pink.

ALSO Pink but not "curing salt"

Himalayan salt, a form of salt used in cooking or in bath products

Alaea salt, an unrefined Hawaiian sea salt used in cooking or in rituals

 

[crockett]

Yeah, unfortunately you'll need to set up some type of a smoking chamber.

 

[omarick1948]

Sorry about not clarifying about the right pink salt to use. Here is one place that I use that has about everything you'll need. Also, go to YouTube and type in: Sausage making, as there are a lot of video's on the subject.
http://www.sausagemaker.com/meatcuring.aspx

Good luck,
Rick

This sausage is being smoked is a 55 gallon drum smoker(Lid removed).

 

[satx78247]

Fwiw, I'm NOT sure what you would "count" as an "open fire" BUT the Woodland Peoples often smoked meat/fish/shellfish over a slow-burning wood-fire made of green hardwood/fruitwoods & "covered" by a "house" of woven vines/thin sticks/mud/etc. for hundreds/thousands of years.

Also, the Western NA tribes smoked meat similarly in ovens made of clay, adobe bricks and/or stones & fed with green wood.

Otoh, IF your "definition" of an "open fire" is simply a fire with meat/fish cooked over it, I don't think that that is "doable".

yours, satx

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I think he meant the latter of your ideas... a camp fire... and the smoking of a sausage type product.... :haha:

I think we know you can jerk meat over a smouldering, smokey fire... the Bushmen still do it today in Africa. :thumbsup:

LD

 

[satx78247]

I doubt that anyone here doesn't know that many traditional cultures (worldwide) have jerked/slow-roasted a variety of meat/fish over an open fire on a spit, on a stick, fastened to a "plank" and/or on a "grill" made of green sticks.
BUT
I don't believe that smoking sausages is practical or even "doable" without some sort of "covering" over a slow fire to "somewhat contain" the smoke.

Perhaps, the OP will tell us WHAT exactly that he "counts" as an "open fire"???

yours, satx

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Sorry, I was a bit obtuse... we both agree that you can't do a sausage type produce over a campfire...need an enclosed situation...I meant I thought that was what was the "open fire" point.

:wink:

LD

 

[Blizzard of '93]

as far as I know any sausage requires a 'cool smoke' to preserve it, this is the 'stuffed sausage' of course.
I have never done this but have made a good bit of cool smoked jerky.

 

[omarick1948]

There's something in the official rules of cold smoking ANY MEAT called the 40-140 Rule for safety.

The danger zone for cold smoking meat is between 40F degrees and 140F degrees. Between these numbers is the temperature zones where bacteria and Botulism grows and thrives. Above 140 kills bacteria and Botulism.

My suggestion to anyone wanting to smoke a small batch of salami or deer sausage etc., without having a dedicated Smoker, would be to smoke the sausage in a Weber type barbeque grill with indirect heat and wood chunks. An alternative method, but you still need the "cure" added, would be to use your kitchen oven by just adding a little Liquid Smoke to the meat mixture to get the smoky flavor. A quality liquid smoke IS DISTILLED SMOKE.
Place your sausage(s) into a 170-200 degree oven and cook the sausage until the internal meat temperature of the sausage(s) reaches 160 degrees, then take the sausages out of the oven and place in ice water for 30 minutes. Then take out of water. Air dry for an hour or two, then refrigerate over night before eating. Two or three days in refrigerator is even better before eating.

 

[ny griz]

:thumbsup: Thank's horner 75 some good info you gave.I learned something.Griz

 

[jferguson]

Smoking meats----there is 1. cool smoking (90 degrees F or less) and 2. Hot smoking, which is smoking with the intent to COOK the meat to doneness. Cool smoking requires a cure, like nitrates/nitrites. I suggest you see smokingmeatforums.com for all the GREAT info you want on these topics. Seriously, be safe.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Smoked cheese.......yummy! :grin: