I LOVE my Anova Sous Vide and am stretching my traditional and regular pre-grill steak or chicken sous vide routine. I want to make link (casing) sausage (2/3 venison 1/3 pork) for the freezer. A lot of people recommend a hot smoke to pre-cook the sausage before freezing. I don’t have a smoker. But couldn’t I do the same thing with my sous vide (minus the smoke flavor)?
So I’m thinking about making the sausage, vacuum seal, cook, and then freeze. My advantage is that sausage cooks pretty fast on the grill and I wouldn’t necessarily have to worry about getting the entire link to temp (and risk over-grilling) for food safety.
Questions:
(1) This seems so simple I feel like I’m missing something. Anyone see a problem with my process? (2) Does it need to cool before I throw it into the freezer? (3) What would be a good guide for lenth of cooking so it doesn’t go mushy on me?
I am very disappointed that none of knowledge based power users or staff answered your question. I am also interested in your proposed technique. I make 100-200 sausage links per batch. VacPac and freeze. for future grilling. It would be advantages to Pac, poach by SV and freeze. What have you found out about this method?.. Thanks
My method has changed and I now have a smoker. The sausage smokes and comes to temperature so fast (about 1-1/2 hours) that I now prepare the sausage and freeze then smoke/cook when desired. It’s certainly not as convenient as pre-smoking and pulling out of the freezer. The only problem I have (which doesn’t sound like it would be a problem for your quantity) is that I smoke small batches we can eat where I’d rather smoke the entire prep. Next year I may make the sausage, smoke, and then freeze. Either way, I’m not using my SV. The smoker radically improves the flavor.