Meat – What would happen if I dehydrated fresh sausages for a couple hours

charcuteriedehydratingmeatsausages

I want to make sausages, likely following a fresh sausage chorizo recipe. I can't dry and cure them in the traditional way since I lack the equipment, so my plan is to make regular fresh sausages using either Spanish or Mexican-style recipes (still undecided, and they'll be fresh/non-cured either way).

I was toying with the idea of putting the fresh sausages in my oven on the dehydration setting, which I think takes many hours. However I've learned that this is a bad idea. Apparently the fat in the sausages wouldn't respond well to dehydration in this way and the product wouldn't resemble the dry cured sausage I would desire.

But what if I put the sausage in the oven on the dehydration setting for maybe 2-3 hours? I would likely use a temperature around 150F, which would cook them thoroughly with enough time. I'm thinking this would have a few advantages:

  1. It would cook the whole batch at once. This means I could freeze them after they've been cooked and simply warm them up in the future to eat them.
    1. It would dry them a bit, which would in my opinion improve the texture and flavour.

What would happen if I dehydrated fresh sausages for a couple hours?

Best Answer

You would potentially grow bacteria that would make you sick. The production of cured sausage has to follow a specific process that makes use of the correct balance of salt, water activity, and acidity (often, along with the addition of nitrates) to create a safe product. You can certainly make fresh sausage and cook fully, or refrigerate for a few days, or freeze for a much longer time. Alternately, you can make beef jerky, and fully dehydrate thin slices of meat. However, I would not recommend playing with the age-old, tried and true, processes that have been proven effective for properly producing cured sausages.

Given your edits, and your focus on fresh sausage, dehydration has no advantage, and as @rumtscho clarifies, poses a safety risk. Either cook fully right away, or chill below 40F (4.5C) immediately. When I make fresh sausage, I vacuum seal in bags and freeze what I am not using immediately. This preserves the quality for several months.

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