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Humor me by listening to my long tale of woe.

I started smoking sausage severl years ago with a WSM - could not learn to control temperature, and smoking sausage was a failure. Purchased a MES and experienced the same overshoot of temperatures and fat out sausages. Gave up, but kept my Weber for grilling.  Purchased a RecTeq RT-1250 pellet grill, and it works quite well for low-and-slow cooking, but the lowest temperature setting is 180℉. Too hot for sausage.

Now I have a slightly used CookShack MSO25. It works quite well, have made Jerky with it, and today cooked sausage with it. Phoenix temperature at 9:30 AM on start was 103℉, and climbed to 115℉ by 1:30 PM. So, I smoked the sausage with a smoke box, since I cannot get the MSO25 to create smoke at low temperatures. Using learned procedures, I started cooking at 135 degrees, increasing to 150, then to 160, and eventually to 175℉. The sausage internal temperature hovered around 135 - 140 degrees for the entire cook. Shortly after the cooker reached 175℉, the sausage reached 150, and I shut things down after 8 hours and 15 minutes of cooking.

That, to me, seems to be a long time. Your thoughts?

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Update to my initial post:

Second attempt to smoke sausage in my 025 CookShack. After smoking the sausage with a smoke tube in my pellet grill, I transferred the sausages to my 025, temperature set at 140℉. After 1 hour, increased to 150℉.  Visually checked the sausage and noticed they were dripping wet,  and the reddish-brown color had turned to a pink.!  Left door open to allow moisture to escape, after 4 more hours (with door shut) with internal temperature stalled 144 ℉, pulled sausage.  Casing tough.

Don't understand the cause, but am about to give up on cooking anything in this stainless steel box.

It sounds like you've had quite the adventure with smoking sausage! Given your long cooking time, it could be due to issues like inaccurate temperature calibration in your CookShack MSO25, the high Phoenix ambient temperature affecting the smoker's performance, or potential airflow and placement issues with the smoke box. Additionally, the size and fat content of your sausage, along with ensuring proper preheating and airflow, can also impact cooking times. Double-checking these factors and experimenting with different setups might help you achieve more consistent results.

Last edited by oldsarge

I have the bigger brothers to your SMO25.  These units are known for being tight and smoking wet.  People that smoke jerky in them will open the door a number of times to dump the moisture.  I used to do summer sausage and ran the first hour at 145 degrees with the door slightly open to dump the moisture and dry the sausage.  the next hour I use the smoke tube and close the door down to almost closed.  I do this because my units are so tight that the smoke tube will go out if the door isn't slightly ajar.  The rest of the cook is with the door closed, but I do open the door every hour or so to dump moisture.  I have one of the long wood clamps with the squeeze handle that I use to adjust the door opening.   This is where that old saying: "if you're looking, you aren't cookin" bites you in the butt.  Opening and closing the door to dump moisture will extend your cook time.

The cookshack smokers do a great job at what they were designed to do.  The SMO stands for Smoker Oven, and the original design was for smoking brisket.   Most of the people on this forum have been running these units for years and have learned to adapt our procedures to work with these units and still produce a good product. 

My error. I was of the opinion that an electric smoker with the digital controls that maintained a low set temperature was a great candidate for smoking sausage.  Adapting procedures to accommodate the SMO25 would be  redundant - I can  smoke sausage in my Weber Performer and on my RecTeq pellet grill in addition to low-and-slow cooking and grilling.

That being the case, keeping the SMO25 would be unrealistic.

I agree with Mike. and I can see your point.   When I went from a stick burning offset to electric, there were some adjustments I had to make and I've never  looked back. On a side note, a couple of  electric smoker companies do sell a small fan system that fits over the smoke hole to aid in venting and moisture removal.   Pretty much like a computer fan in a can.  

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