How to Make Sausage Without a Smoker (Oven and Pellet Grill)

Short answer:

Smoke is flavor and color. It isn't what makes the sausage safe or done. The cure and the internal temperature do that. So plenty of good summer sausage and snack sticks come out of a plain kitchen oven every deer season. You just have to respect the same two rules a smoker does: low and gentle heat, and pull by the probe, not the clock.

Do you still need cure if you're not smoking it?

Yes. It's the low temperature and the long cook that make cure necessary, not the smoke. A sausage spending hours between room temperature and 170°F, in an oven or anything else, needs Cure #1 at 0.25% of the meat weight. Only sausage cooked hot and fast, like fresh brats on the grill, can go without. The full explanation is in do you need cure for sausage, and the amounts are in how much Cure #1 per pound.

Which way should you go?

Method	Low end	Smoke flavor	Watch out for
Kitchen oven	Often 170°F, some go to 150°F or lower	Liquid smoke in the mix	Dials that read wrong; ovens that bottom out too hot
Pellet grill	Often 160 to 180°F on the lowest setting	Real wood smoke	Swings of 15 to 25°F; can't do the 130°F stage
Electric smoker	Usually holds 130°F well	Real wood smoke (chips)	Slow recovery in cold weather
Dehydrator	Around 130 to 140°F	Liquid smoke only	May never get the meat to a safe temperature on its own

How do you make snack sticks in the oven?

1. Make the meat with Cure #1 and, if you want smoke flavor, liquid smoke in the cure water (amounts below).
2. Dry the casings. Hang or lay the stuffed sticks at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, until the casings feel dry to the touch.
3. Get air around them. Lay the sticks on wire racks over a sheet pan, not touching, or hang them over the oven racks. Use the convection fan if you have one.
4. Start low. If your oven goes down to 130 to 150°F, start there with the door propped open a crack for the first hour to let moisture out, the same job the open damper does on a smoker.
5. Finish at no more than 175°F until the thickest stick reads 152°F inside.
6. Cool them promptly, with a cold shower or at room temperature.

Thin sticks get there much faster than summer sausage, so start checking the probe early. The stages and the reasoning behind them are the same ones in the snack stick smoke schedule.

How do you make summer sausage in the oven, and at what temp?

Same idea, bigger chub, longer cook:

Stage	Oven temp	About how long
Bloom	Room temp	2 to 3 hours, until the casings are dry
Dry (if your oven goes this low)	130°F, door cracked	1 hour
Warm (if your oven goes this low)	150°F	3 hours
Finish	170°F, never higher	Until 155°F inside

Pull at 155°F internal in the thickest chub, then cool it in an ice bath or at room temperature. Why 155°F, and what to do if it stalls, is in summer sausage internal temp. The whole process, start to finish, is in how to make venison summer sausage.

Don't stretch the low stages out to make up for missing smoke. USDA's cooking guideline for meat processors recommends product spend no more than 6 hours total between 50°F and 130°F on the way up. Following the stages above keeps you well inside that.

What if my oven won't go below 170°F?

That's the most common oven, and it's fine. 170°F is the finishing temperature anyway. Skip the 130°F and 150°F stages, bloom the casings dry at room temperature first, then run the oven at 170°F until the probe says done: 155°F for summer sausage, 152°F for snack sticks. You lose a little of the slow color development a smoker gives you, and liquid smoke covers the flavor.

The real problem is an oven whose lowest setting actually runs hotter than about 175°F. Set to "warm", plenty of ovens run well past what the dial says. Above that, you're cooking the fat out of the sausage, and it comes out greasy and crumbly (why sausage fats out). Check it with an oven thermometer on the rack before the meat goes in. If it runs hot:

• Prop the door open a crack and watch the oven thermometer until it settles at or under 170°F.
• Or finish in a water bath. Bring a big pot of water to about 170°F, hold it there with a thermometer in the water, and keep the sausage in it until it reaches 155°F inside. Water holds a steady temperature better than most ovens. You won't get smoke color, so plan on liquid smoke.

How do you smoke sausage on a pellet grill?

A pellet grill gives you real wood smoke; its weak spot is the low end. Many pellet grills list their lowest smoke setting at 160 to 180°F, and an auger-fed fire swings 15 to 25°F around whatever you set. So:

Stage	Pellet grill	Done when
Dry	Room temp, off the grill (the grill likely can't hold 130°F)	Casings dry to the touch, 1 to 3 hours
Smoke	Lowest setting that really holds at or under 170°F	2 to 3 hours of smoke
Finish	Same setting, 170°F max (175°F max for sticks)	155°F inside for summer sausage, 152°F for sticks

Before you load meat, run the grill on its lowest setting with a probe at the grate and see what it really holds. If it can't stay at or under 170°F, smoke the sausage for a couple of hours anyway and then move it to the oven to finish. The snack stick schedule has a section on smokers that can't hold the low stages.

What about an electric smoker?

An electric smoker is the easiest of the lot for sausage, because it holds 130°F and 150°F without a fight. Run the standard schedule as written: dry at 130°F with the vent open and no chips, smoke at 150°F, finish at 170°F (175°F for sticks) until the probe says done. Add chips as they burn out during the smoke stage. On a cold or windy day it'll take longer to recover after you open the door, so open it as little as possible.

Is liquid smoke OK, and how much do you use?

Yes. Liquid smoke is wood smoke condensed into water, and it's the standard way to get smoke flavor out of an oven. The catch is that bottles vary a lot in strength, and too much tastes bitter and harsh.

• Where most makers start: about 1 teaspoon per 5 lb of meat.
• The heavy end: some go up to about 1/2 teaspoon per pound.
• How: stir it into the ice water you dissolve the cure in, so it spreads evenly.
• Test first: fry a small patty of the mixed meat before you stuff, taste it, and adjust.

Smoked paprika in the seasoning adds a bit of smoky flavor and color too, if your recipe suits it.

Can you make snack sticks in a dehydrator?

Not with the dehydrator alone. Kansas State Research and Extension, passing on the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's guidance, says to heat meat to 160°F to destroy bacteria and warns that a dehydrator may not reach that temperature. Most dehydrators run around 130 to 140°F. A snack stick is ground meat stuffed in a casing, so the heat has to get all the way to the center.

The safe way: cook the sticks first in the oven or smoker until the thickest one reads 152°F inside (the pull temperature for cured sticks in the snack stick schedule). Then, if you like them drier and firmer, finish them in the dehydrator. The dehydrator is for drying, not cooking. Making jerky? That has its own method: how to make venison jerky.

How do you keep smoker or oven temps steady?

• Put a second probe at the grate, right next to the sausage, and trust it over the dial. Set temp isn't actual temp.
• Preheat until it settles before the meat goes in, and give it time to recover after loading cold meat.
• Step up gently. Move to the next stage a little at a time instead of jumping 40 degrees.
• Keep the door shut. Every peek dumps heat. A leave-in probe you can read from outside saves you.
• Block the wind and keep pellets or chips dry. Wind and damp fuel are the two biggest causes of swings outdoors.
• Don't crowd it. A packed smoker or oven heats unevenly. Leave space between sticks and chubs.
• If it's running slow, let it run slow. Cranking the heat to catch up is how batches fat out.

Every snack stick and summer sausage recipe in DeepWoodz lists the stages and the pull temperature, and the built-in smoke timer walks you through each one, whether that's a smoker or your kitchen oven. The recipes are free and scale to the meat you have, cure locked at 0.25%.

Bottom line

No smoker, no problem. Use Cure #1, dry the casings, keep the heat at 170°F or under (175°F for sticks), add liquid smoke for flavor, and pull at 155°F inside for summer sausage or 152°F for snack sticks. A dehydrator can dry sticks, but it can't be the thing that cooks them.

Common questions