George Johnson said in Curing seasonings:

Re: Roll Call (Start Here First)
If I’m using speed cure can I use or should I use encapsulated citric too?

Speed cure is the same as Instacure #1 and other curing salts based on 6.25% Sodium Nitrite and salt.

There are two functions that ECA performs and the decision to use it should be based on those two functions.

ECA add a tangy fermented sausage flavor to certain types of sausage.

ECA acts as a cure accelerator when using Cure #1 or equivalent, so that you can smoke cured sausage immediately after stuffing without it holding overnight.

So, if you are looking for adding some fermented sausage flavor to your sausage, then ECA is one way to achieve that.

If you are just looking to speed up the curing of the sausage, then there are other products out there that will do that without changing the flavor like ECA does.

Jesser I make all mine all flavors with venison, pork and pork fat

calldoctoday
Thank you.

Christina112211 you will love this we all are here to help each other ,have a question just ask someone will give you proper advice to solve your problem

Awesome thanks buddy…I go with 1 tsp…thanks a bunch …

Aren’t we all just getting started $$,$$$.

Welcome! Dang glad to have you with us!

thank you !!

Jonathon ,thank you sir I used pork for the fat and just ordered willies seasoning, casings and hot cheese high temp …let you all know how they turn out…thanks to all of you who replied …

mac21st Welcome to the community. I’m always learning so look forward to gaining from your experience.

Welcome, I’m new here also have fun exploring and learning.

Hi Wendy!
I’m an addict too! This hobby is a PURE addiction! Of course fishing is not! ;<)

ya right!

“10lbs roasted red pepper with bearded butcher original seasonings” Ain’t that gonna be a bit spicy? ;<)
Which of the Bearded Butchers seasonings did you use, U have 5 of theirs.

Dave in AZ welcome aboard

Austin beat me to this but yeah, safe to eat, just treat them like fresh meat.

I agree that you want full immersion in ice bath over hanging to dry in the cold

I made my own sure gel A few years ago with A 3 parts powered milk to 1 part cold phosphate. It works great, I prefer soy protein with pork but use my homemade sure gel for chicken.

rmb823 said in MAKING HOMEMADE BEEF STICKS:

DO you let the temp. get to 160 before you take them out? Don’t they get to dry. Because they still keep cooking after you take them out don’t they.

With sticks and other sausages, you should be cooling them rapidly when they reach 160. That way they don’t keep cooking and it sets the ingredients in the casing.
You can cool them the fastest in a tub of cold water. Because sticks are so small, they can be cooled fairly quickly in a refrigerator or outside if air temperatures are cold. The faster they cool, typically the less they wrinkle.

kyle I understand. It feels really weird. Even here we usually have something a bit earlier, but it is really running late this year. It seems like it has all been doing a lot of weird stuff & I would swear it used to get colder when we were at one particular location in Texas, even though we were a little further south there.

glad to see you here

mfrievalt I don’t know if the others I mentioned are any more sensitive or not, probably not. I do know that you can adjust the sensitivity on mine & it is pretty sensitive, but I have never thought of using it for this sort of thing as I am still doing it the old fashioned way. On the other hand, my only worry is that it will only tell you that steel pellets are there, but not exactly where they are, so you still need to use the old fashioned method to find them.

mrobisr thanks for the update.

chrispbrown27 Welcome aboard & welcome to the neighborhood.

Usually 3 PM central time I believe. You can always send a chat message to Jonathan, he usually will answer.

Thanks gents. I bought both books. Sometimes my common sense is lacking.
Clamato Juice
tomato powder
Lemon Powder
Lime Powder
Horseradish powder
Worcestershire Powder
Hot Sauce – Franks
Garlic Powder
Celery Salt
Smoked Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper
1 tsp Prague powder
4Tbs pickling salt
Let the spice mixing commence 5# batch

nolannn said in how does cure with ECA protect meat before its released:

Jonathon
If ECA controls bacteria by drawing out moisture and making the meat unfavorable, then how dry do my snack sticks have to be. At 165 they aren’t super dry.
How much ECM is needed. Waltons ECA called foe 4 oc per 25 lbs. PS Seasoning is 2-10 oz per 100 lbs. If im using ECA so the meat can go in the smoker soon after mixing the cure and spices. what is the minimum.

I know one thing. 4 oz per 25 lbs is too strong for me. I tried it on sticks before and it seems to compete with the seasoning. 3 oz per 25 lbs tasted better.

You may be confusing the way ECA and salt control bacteria growth. Salt is the ingredient that draws moisture from the meat and from from the cell walls of harmful bacteria. ECA on the other hand can help control bacteria growth by lowering the pH of the meat, which acts to slow the growth of bacteria.

I have noticed a lack of consistency in the amount of ECA required for sausage depending on where you get it. Different suppliers will recommend using different amounts.

Another thing to be aware of with ECA is because you are using such a small amount relative to the amount of meat, you need to make sure it gets evenly dispersed through out the meat. One little clump of ECA that is unevenly mixed in your meat can mean some of your sausage will be very sour and some not at all.

elisse it’s a satisfying feeling! Store bought is no comparison to homemade!

TexLaw Thank You!

Hi Alex.

I used to have the same smoker, but had so many issues with My Bradley that I got a PK100 and haven’t looked back since. You wont be sorry once you pull the trigger on a new PK100. I ended up giving my 6 rack bradley smoker to a member of meatgistics.

BTW - Team Blue is the way to go here in Meatgistics
team blue 7.png

I have a buddy with the dual grind L*M 22 it’s all I’ve been around until yesterday I used a 1/4 hp L*M the first grind of 35 lbs wasn’t terrible definitely not as good as it’s bigger brother but good lord the fine plate after was excruciating I did about 2 lbs in ten minutes I’d push the plunger down and it would come up the tube all around it. I ended up doing the large plate for the second grind and it wasn’t much better, having to freeze between grinds just to push it through the smaller grinder sucks. I hope the bigger 1&1.5 hp don’t have these problems. Has anyone used the new made by meat stuff? https://www.[link removed]/

I’m not sure if it’s a rebranded Weston or L*M like the C*****s version or not. The # 32 looks good

Tex_77 Yes and No. Yes, we could just change it to an hour when we don’t have as much use but no because we want it to be at that time as that is when people tend to use it, so we want to encourage that.

HarleyMunneke Hi Harley, sure cure will work for what you are talking about if you are just wanting to impart the cured meat flavor. If you are wanting to do a mix of a seasoning and a cure then you could either add Pa’s Black Bull or use the [Corned Beef Cure Twin Pack])https://www.waltonsinc.com/corned-beef-cure-twin-pack) but that is for a lot of meat!

Another option (and this is probably the best one) would be to use a jerky seasoning. Pick a flavor you want and then the 1 oz sure cure comes with it. I have never done what you are proposing though, but I would think that would be the best option.

Great advice everyone! Thanks so much, Going to experiment this weekend with small batches.

Thanks again
David

AdamCA Thanks for the info. Looking forward to trying it .Great site getting a lot of useful info here.

Thanks! The multiples are because we cook comps on Gateways, and used to on WSMs. No other reason to have so many duplicates, lol.

Can’t wait to dive in. Grinder got delivered last week, looking for a stuffer. Is the 11 lb one on the site going to be back in stock soon?

Tex_77 https://www.independentmeat.com/Products/Bacon

jaycle We just did some with pheasant and we have done goose in the past. Here is a link to the goose, gamebird should be released shortly via Pheasants Forever. https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1911/meatgistics-university-wild-game-goose-pepperoni-sticks My recommendation would be to add between 25-30% pork fat. If you are trying to make a low fat pepperoni you can get some ideas from these:
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/573/chicken-brats-made-from-thigh-meat
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/264/how-to-make-homemade-chicken-brats-recipe
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/393/how-to-make-juicier-chicken-brats-recipe
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/415/how-to-make-a-juicy-homemade-turkey-bratwurst

As you can see I went through a phase of trying to make a tasty low fat sausage. I eventually learned to stop worrying and love the fat!

processhead welcome to a great community.

rwilli2 welcome to a great community.

Jonathon I did your tender jerky recipe with whole muscle venison about a month ago. You’re going to love it. My meat block was 10 lbs. In a weeks time my family wiped it out. Even the wife and she doesn’t eat jerky.

Jonathon that’s a great idea 😁

So, I don’t know what is causing it but I am seeing way more old posts getting bumped recently. I have ZERO problem with it, there is a lot of good information in those old posts, especially enjoy the videos where Austin and I look sooooo young compared to now

mrwoody I will give this a shot. I appreciate it.

Clean money
Welcome to the community. Team BLUE rocks.

Austin If your really nice you might be able to get Jon to hook you up with a :bluehat: one. 🙂

Wildbutcher welcome to a great community with tons of knowledge. I’m about 80 miles northwest of you in Lula Oklahoma. Take it from me you want to go with the blue team.

keend0 welcome to the site. Lots of knowledge and experience here. Go Team Orange.

spangler2k3 Nice pics and some good looking dogs!

Gravydave So I assume you will be doing an imitation bacon process where you grind and form it into a loaf? If so the answer is yes, we recently did this with pork and the blue ribbon maple bacon cure plus bacon taste booster and were happy with the results. Just don’t forget to mix in some pork fat or it wont have much taste. Probably use sure gel as well for a binder. The booster isn’t essential but it does help kick up the flavor a little bit.

@Tex_. Yeah I am pretty bummed out. I just had a few questions for them but nothing. The users I found with cracks said no dishwasher. Rather the bottom of the drum is flat and the cracks started directly in the center. Pull a vacuum on a flat surface will always go to the least supported area. In this case the center.

I really wanted to try this it sounds like a great idea.

Jonathon thanks Jonathon ! Will see what happens!

Welcome!

Joe Hell While we will happily take credit for your success it’s probably fairer to point out you have a strong will and passion for it! Tex_77 Team blue thanks you for your current score is Good guys 171 Ruskies 166

Hog Pen I know Birnamwood, my wife is from Antigo.

TexLaw We just may have more people here than near Waltons. When we do get together as we discussed prior to the virus stuff, I think we should have a Waltons get-to-gether here in Houston! My back pasture is large enough.

fishing Few articles/videos https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/800/cured-whole-muscle-meat-104-bacon-basics and https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/412/how-to-make-homemade-dry-rub-bacon-recipe

drbrown35801 I know I am late to this but I really like the Pa’s Black Bull on both brisket and ribs.

veman Yeah, you want to add JUST enough water to cover all your meat, put it in the smallest container possible so you can add less water, remember, any water you add to the meat you will have to cook or dehydrate out.

sbtech Welcome to the fold, lots of great information available from the site and others in the community. A lot of experience and backgrounds. You may end up going down the rabbit hole chasing jerky and snack sticks and end up with a whole new hobby. Go team orange

Tony, Ecuador sounds interesting & I have often wondered about that, but Margaret says no & she speaks very good Spanish. Tell us more about it & how life is & how it was adjusting to a very new locale. What made you choose Ecuador?

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I’ll likely try a small amount of the batch just to experiment. If it’s successful I’ll report back! Have a Blessed day.

What’s better than a giveaway? Maybe Walton’s and Meatgistics! Looks like I entered Just in time.

Willie’s is good stuff; we use it for regular snack sticks (19 mm casings). If I do jal, cheese or jal/cheese, we go with H Summer Unit in the snack stick casing. For summer sausage, we use the H Summer Unit all the way regardless of the added ingredients (2.4 x 12 mahogany casings).

Clint Hunter I have some venison here and some pork fat. I will try to do this Friday and make our Meat Fact Friday about it. Its going to be a busy couple of days though here with the BHA event tomorrow night and me still trying to dig myself out from under a mountain of stuff!

ratrod36 welcome. !

twilliams lmao hahahahahahaha I was trying to say how to make and then use those as a place holder for anything…my god what an idiot move…I am leaving it though!

PapaSop craigrice i dont believe you would be disappointed in the PK100

Parksider We store the geolocation of whatever you input for your location in your profile, but to initially get the geolocation, an action has to be taken, so only those who have re-saved their profile since we set this up show up on the map. I’m hoping to run a script to automatically run it for every account, but I haven’t had time to get to that part yet. So, hopefully more people add or re-save their location and more will show up, or I get that script finished.

Thank though! Glad you gave us the idea for the map, and I do think it adds a lot to this whole deal, and everyone’s backstory and location is a cool part to see!

mark60 Sure gel absolutely works well with snack sticks and I like it even more when using wild game or other lean meat. Carrot Fiber is also something that can help and is a little less expensive than the sure gel. I always tell people when they are doing wild game they probably want to use sure gel, you spent a ton of time money and effort into getting the meat, spend a few more $ on a binder to make the best product that you can. But, if making pork or beef sticks using carrot fiber should give you similar results, not as good but certainly good enough!

Jonathon Thanks!

beekeeper84 Welcome! Meat and Bees make the world go round!

Dave R I don’t have any have much pro experience in food but I can still dream. I would probably prefer that kind of food job over restaurant.

Joe Hell Thanks for answering that! and veman Hope it turns out well! I love the bold seasoning!

peculiarb This isn’t necessarily for bologna but it can be used and just change the seasoning.

Meat Block : 18 lb pork butts
Additive: 7 lb frozen french fries or hash browns
Ice/Water: 12 oz
Seasoning: Seasoning of your choice
Process: Grind all meat through 3/16th plate, then grind half of what you just ground through a 1/16 plate. Add seasoning, water and mix for 3 minutes. Grind Potatoes through 3/16 plate once then mix in the potatoes and mix for a few more minutes.
Casings: Stuff into 30-32mm Hog Casings.

I guess it’s kind of late for this but here goes anyway. I’m Kevin from Howell Michigan. I tinkered with meat making for a long time (40 years or so). Rookie stuff in the oven with the boxed brands, but I really wanted to up my game and found Waltons on the net. Sure glad I did! These guys are great. I am learning a lot and can’t wait to expand my horizons (and my pocketbook). I fish and hunt a lot and plan on making stuff I never even thought about before. Thanks again guys.

Jonathon said in Hello from Ohio:

OffallyGood Glad to have you on the board! You can never have too much bacon, right? That is an offaly good name you have chosen!

I’m glad to be here. From the looks of it this is a drama free zone. I’m used to the facebook clusterfudge that are recipe groups.

I really love the pluck. My grandma is the only one that knows I make tacos out of beef heart. You grind up the offal and nobody knows it is there. My sister is really picky. If she knew I was bringing innards to family gatherings, she wouldn’t eat it. LOL

Here is my bacon:
0_1548173497213_IMG_20190121_122248.jpg

ewspears One thing that can cause those blow outs is overstuffing the casings, but they just don’t hold the twist like the natural casings do. Everything has its pros and cons and for collagen casings that’s definitely on the cons list.

TLDTLD
Will do

Alan
Have you tried the spraying yet to see if it even works? because, I have had the same problem with the dark red collagen casings and it would also not adhere to the meat. Now I’m, curious …

Jonathon Must have been that great cast iron skillet LOL, we’ll see if it duplicates in the next batch. As I mentioned about friends trying it, I gave a package after freezing it, and I mentioned no rendering and when he cooked it (I believe pan frying but I have no details) he too, had no rendering. Amazing. I love these type of adventures.

Kansas Dad,
Thank you, I really appreciate it. That is what I pretty well figured I would do & just put everything in one of those Aluminum BBQ pans I keep then into the coolers lined with Blue Ice at the bottom. The transport is only 4-5 hours, so I think it should be OK, so long as I cool it all down over night first. The ham I ended up with is 25 pounds so I will do one pan for the turkey, another for the ham (that may end up shredded), & others for smoked oyster stuffing, cream corn, sweet potatoes, smoked mashed potatoes, etc. Thank you for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Well I really looking forward to trying some of Walton’s pre-mixes, it sound like tasty fun.

Steve007 I personally don’t do a lot with wild pigs, I know our Retail Store Manager makes brats out of them and says they are always excellent. For larger muscle things like a Ham he says they can still be very good but they will have some gaminess to them, so you need to be prepared for that going in. Pulled Pork from Wild Pigs can apparently be very good but I’ve never had it.

The age of the Pig and its diet is going to play a large roll into how any whole muscle cut tastes. If you can get a slightly younger pig you have a better chance at less gaminess.

Anyone here have a good whole muscle wilg pig recipe?

Jonathon
I picked up brisket at the Kroger Chain grocery already for $1.99 a lb. on sale. Walmart has some very nice full brisket with the round for $3.94 a lb. I have checked several butcher shops and they normally stock packer 6 full briskets with the round on it to a box @ $4.99 to $5.99 per pound or most butcher shops would sell you a individual brisket. You did not have to buy a whole case.

stanca Yeah, I have had the bison epic bar a few times, it is very tasty for sure. I found out that they used to vegetarians or vegans (can’t remember which) from a podcast I listen to, they didnt find being vegetarian or vegan healthy for them so they did some experimenting and created Epic. It’s a pretty interesting story, vegetarianism and veganism is just like anything else, it works for some people but not all, just like Paleo or Keto!

I feel great on my Keto (modified!) Diet, less inflammation in my joints and I dropped a stubborn 10 lb that just wouldn’t come off with anything else. My appetite control is also far better and I don’t crave bad food anywhere near as often!

Glad someone is trying to keep the old recipes alive, it’s important!

Hip Granny Welcome to the board! We will do our best to help you with any questions!

Jonathon LOL What can I say about the bread, maybe it’s the water??? I love my trout fishing especially on the Farmington River, big fish! My bother in-law is a competition bass fisherman, so I get to fish with him a lot. Love my Q

eggflipper Welcome to the Board, 17 years is a good amount of time and I’m sure you will have some good knowledge and opinions to share with everyone!

TomBiga Glad to have you on the board Tom! We will be continuing to try to provide useful information that will help processors of all levels!

RDP1975 Great to have some of our friends from the northern border on the board!

Paramedic1 Well keep going for them, small is better than nothing! I could see an argument about Bear being a nuisance at this point. In Kansas you can shoot as many coyotes as you want year round!

Thanks for the info. I tried your suggestion of the ice bath, it worked great. Being Montana, I just had to reach outside for some snow to add to the water! Thanks again, most appreciated.

Jonathon Thanks! I’ve got 8 hogs to butcher this month and a freezer to clean out before hand so I’m grinding and stuffing as fast as I can right now!

spatrick988 Welcome to Meatgistics, let us know if you have any questions or go ahead and post any tips or recipes that you really enjoy! Getting to the point in the year where deer processing information will become more relevant for sure.

Bacon Acres Farm Welcome to Meatgistics!

Farmer1 Welcome to Meatgistis! We love to have both new processors and more experienced ones, like you, on here. If you have any questions feel free to ask or post pics of anything you have made.

you will love making your… and you can add whatever you want, and adjust it to your taste!

Sharlene They do! We only keep one variety of the German Sausage Seasoning in stock, but here is the one we have: https://www.waltonsinc.com/h-german-sausage