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Cooling Sausages

Cooling sausages is the step where the sausages are showered with cold water or immersed in it to allow faster escape of the additional moisture from inside. If we did not do it, the sausage both being hot on the surface and inside, will start first to cool down its surface and then slowly inside. What we want is to quickly cross the danger zone where most dangerous microbes thrive 77º – 112º F (25º – 45º C) and arrive at more or less room temperature of 68º F (20º C) where it will be safer to hang it for an hour or so.

The official recommendation of the Food and Drug Administration (as prescribed in the Food Code) is to cool down cooked meats from 140º – 70º F in 2 hrs, then 70º - 41º F in less than 4 hrs and stored at 41º or 45º F.

Poached sausages should be washed (or dipped into) hot water to wash away any grease that has settled on the surface, then cooled down with cold water shower or dipped for 5 min in cold running water. You could use two buckets and change the water a few times. After that they should be washed again with boiling water to eliminate and smooth out any shrivelling that might have accumulated on its surface. Then they should be cooled down with air until they reach 50º F (10º C) or less.

This is an additional air drying process when a sausage will further improve its shine and color, it will develop a darker shade of brown.. It is created by fat deposition on its surface, just put some grease on your shoe and you will see that it becomes darker and shiner. It should be hung in a dark place like a garage, put a newspaper on the floor to catch any grease and moisture dripping down. We have seen one book calling it “blooming” but this is the air drying we are writing about. After that the sausage can be refrigerated where at below < 40º F (<4º C) there is little bacteria activity.

When air drying a sausage it should develop a darker color and better looks but it also might become more shrivelled (wrinkled), though some shrivelling is normal. The solution to the problem is to poach it again for 30 –60 seconds with hot water (not boiled) and then cool as before. It is also advisable to shower it with hot water once or twice during cooling as this will clean the surface from any soot or grease accumulation.

When soy protein concentrate is added (less than 3%, otherwise you’ll alter the flavor of the sausage), the sausage will be more plump and there will be less shrivelling.