I have some Walton’s Buffalo Wing Flavored Snack Stick seasoning coming and I am not sure what type of meat mix would be recommended. Has anyone tried using chicken thighs in a snack stick? Can or should you use chicken in a snack stick or should you stick with pork or pork & beef?

Hey All,
I am new to the site and to sausage making as well. I am about to attempt making pepperoni for the second time. First attempt was with Unami and it was a failure. I am going to try a cooked pepperoni this time.
I have question on the Encapsulated Citric acid. I want the cure so I want to grind, mix the seasonings, and cure sit over night then add the ECA the next day and stuff. I also plan to add some turmeric and paprika for color. (saw the Turmeric idea on Chudd’s BBQ)
Can I expect any issues from an over night rest then mixing in the ECA? and if so Do i need to add any liquid the next day to loosen up the bind? I am worried about a crumbly sausage.

Looking for a blueberry brat recipe, not breakfast?

Made some bologna sandwich spread last night. A very nostalgic treat for me. I first learned to make it from my grandmother. I’ve since made it with small differences at a couple of retail shops. Absolutely delicious IMHO

6# ground bologna
4 cups miracle whip
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups sweet relish
Prepared Horseradish to taste

I normally use less sugar and a healthy amount of horseradish as that is my preference. Simple and easily tweaked to personal taste

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Had some left over ham to use up-came up w this recipe.

5 lb ground pork
1lb diced ham

2 TB holly sausage seasoning
5 eggs

1/4 cup carrot fiber
.75 lb cheddar

I mixed the eggs and seasoning together for my slurry. Mixed w pork and then added the carrot fiber and mixed again. Finally mix in the cheese.

Stuff, eat, enjoy! Everyone liked them

PICKLED SAUSAGE
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
6 to 7 squirts Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
1 tablespoon crushed garlic or powder
1 tablespoon dried onion
12 Earl Campbell’s Red Hot Links
2 jalapenos
1 small onion

Boil 18 Links until they float. Arrange sausage in layers with jalapenos and onions, pack to top. Combine all other ingedients in a medium sauce pan and simmer for 5 minutes.

While still hot, carefully pour brine until full. Put lid on tight shake to mix for 3 days and enjoy!

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This is a recipe that about replicates the hamburger or hotdog buns you buy from the store: soft, correct texture, not to hard or crusty like a baguette or artisan bread. It has the proper yellowish color and richness and dinner roll tearability from an egg and more butter than most bread.
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I make bread about every other day for kids lunches, as well as baguettes, brioche, sourdough, bagels, English muffins, and pretzels. I’ve tried a lot of variations for sandwich buns, so far these are the best.

You need 4" bun pans to make. I got a silicone mild shallow one making 8, half inch deep, and a metal pan making 6 that is 1" deep. Will post Amazon links later if I can figure out what this software will let me post for links.
I think for most folks would want a 5" bun for a large burger. The 4" ones are like McDonalds cheeseburger size.

I was testing amount of dough per bun on these. The deeper ones in back were 67 grams dough, the smaller buns up front were just 50g in the shallow mold. Correct amount: 67g each, up to about 80g.

Recipe:
1c milk
2T sugar
1T instant fast rise yeast
— mix above warm, let yeast activate while measure rest
1 large egg
1/4c or half stick salted butter, melted
390 g All Purpose flour, about 3 c fluffed. Not bread flour.
1t salt

1.Mix egg and butter into liquids, add half flour.
2. Beat this batter 3-5 min.
3. Add rest of flour while kneading with breadhook or spatula/ hand. Knead 5 min.
4. Add 50 g or so additional flour as needed to achieve this dough consistency:
– a wet, slack dough. Pulls away from sides of mixer bowl but stays stuck to bottom.
– too moist to knead by hand almost. Holding it 5 seconds results in stuck to fingers, you have to only let your fingers contact it for half second to keep from sticking.
– better too moist than too dry! You can add enough flour to surface to work into balls later.
5. Scrape dough from bowl, form into ball, coat in hands with butter, about 1t or so. Put back in bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap.
6. Let rise/proof for 25min to 45 min at 80-100f, faster if warmer, to just less than doubled. Don’t overproof or it won’t rise 2nd time!
7. Punch down dough. Should total 800g or so.
8. Divide dough into 12 x 67g chunks. This works great if you buy 2 of the 6 hole 1" deep 4" diam bun pans.
Do the math for whatever your dough weighs, you need at least 65g each. You could do 10 x 80g. If you get the 8 hole silicone pan I have, then you’ll have 8 rolls of 90-100g dough. I think that would spill over mold too much, but will try and post.
9. Form dough into balls by forming an OK sign with your fingers, shove dough through hole with fingers from below, shoving excess dough up through center of ball. Smoosh flat to about the size of a Skoal or Copenhagen can lid, maybe a bit smaller.
10. Lay discs or flattened balls into bottom of greased pan if metal, just plain if silicone. Cover suuuper loosely with plastic wrap, so it won’t impede dough rising 1" above pans or more.
11. Stick pans back into proofing spot. I use my oven, run it for 1 min then off to get 100 to 115f temp.
12. Let rise for 30min to 1hr, until dough fills molds and rises up 1" or more. Pull out, put somewhere warm so they don’t fall, heat oven to 350.
13. Bake in bottom third of oven for 20-25 min. Pull out quickly 5 min before done and paint tops with melted butter. This keeps them soft and browns them. Cook until tops look golden brown OR waaay better, an instant read digital thermometer is 190 f.

Notes:

Dough must be pretty moist, too moist to handle without a bit of flour on the balls when forming. If drier, like something you’d knead on a board, it will be like a french roll instead of soft burger bun. If you want less dough so it properly fits your pans, like this is a wee bit much for mine, reduce flour 60 g and milk by 1 oz. Higher ratios of egg and butter will be fine. Weigh flour! If you’re experienced at proper dough consistency you could volume measure and work up to it… but it always takes longer so you don’t overshoot the flour. Weighed ingredients for baking is the only way to go. You NEED the bun pans to achieve proper bun height. If just flat on a tray, dough is too slack to stand up and will spread out. If you make dough firmer, you won’t get the soft burger bun texture, you’ll get a subway sandwich roll texture. Don’t overcook, they get tougher. You can also cook at 375 f for 18-20 min. This might give softer bun depending on it’s size. They sell a 5" bun tray, that is a large burger bun. Then you need 8x 100g buns for larger bun. IMPORTANT – for softer bun with better even brown, place a tray of boiling water below buns during cook! I just have a tray in there, microwave boil 2c and dump it in after loading bun pans. Acts like a steam injection oven.

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You can see 50g dough didnt quite fill the shallow molds of 4" silicone, but 67g did great in deeper molds.

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These 50g buns are good for small thinner sandwich buns, my kids don’t like too much bread. But dough didnt expand to mold wall, so they lack proper height.

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Edit… see below for more recipe size notes. The foldable silicone mold is absolutely the way to go, used it 20 times already, perfect. Here is the one to buy:

[https://www.[link removed but type in amazon dot com here]/gp/aw/d/B06XQWJ5RP](link url)

Ive got 2.5 pounds of jerky cut how much cure and jalapeño jerky seasoning do i use little unsure
please and thanks

any one that knows me know I am always trying different fried chicken recipes , I have marinaded it , dipped it , battered it, double coated it , you name it and I have tried it all over the years , but this is a different way to fry chicken
( at least it was to me ) I have fried this chicken many times and it always turns out the same

what I want is: (1) chicken thats bursting with flavor
(2) crispy skin
(3) (3) crispy and crunchy crust
this chicken does it all !!!
when you read how its done your going to think two things : (1) it will be to salty (2) it will be to spicy

it will NOT be to salty or to spicy !!!

you will need a whole frying hen cut into pieces
don’t use the precut chicken from the supermarket, the pieces are to big and it WILL NOT FRY RIGHT . instead take the time to cut up a frying hen
with that said lets fry some chicken !!

this is what your going to need :

2 ½ tables spoons salt
2 tablespoons turmric
2 tablespoons red pepper
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon dill powder

put the cut up chicken in a LARGE bowel and complety cover with cold water add all the ingrededents to the water cover and sit it in the fridge overnight

the next day you will need :

1 1/2 cups of plainflour
1 TABLESPOON of cornstarch ( no more )
1 TEASPOON salt
I TABLESPOON red pepper
mix all of these together really well
thats it, add nothing else !!

preheat your oil to 340 degrees ( no hotter !!)
remove the chicken from the fridge, and remove from the water and brine mixure
DO NOT (I REPEAT) DO NOT RINSE THE CHICKEN
coat it with the flour mixture and shake off any excess flour
drop in the deep fryer for 17-18 minutes
( don’t over cook it )
remove and drain in metal collender or such
do NOT put on paper towels
(paper towels will make the crust soggy )

this is the BEST fried chicken recipe I have ever used
bar none !!!

Per a request, Here’s my recipe for about the last 45 years.

60 lbs ground pork, Butt
2 cups Sambuca
1 cup anise seed, ground
1 cup fennel seed, ground
1 cup granulated garlic
1 1/2 cups Kosher salt
1/8 tsp Sodium Nitrite, I dissolve in the water for better mixing
1/2 cup ground black pepper
6 cups ice water
1/4 cup oregano
1 Tbs allspice
1 Cup ground coriander
For sweet (mild) sausage: I do grind the seeds and add everything to water prior to mixing with the meat.

For Hot/Spicy Italian sausage, I add about 1/4 cup of crushed red pepper flakes and about 1/4 cup of Smoked Pimenton Picante Hot Paprika by El Angel. It seems to be a consistent heat level.

Not sure if the Nitrite is really necessary, but in much earlier days, small Italian markets went to the safe side.

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Had a package of the jalapeño popper sausage seasoning I’ve been wanting to try out. Made 12 1/2 lb batch today that I really like!

Added:

2 lb cooked, chopped bacon
2 cups 505 roasted green chili
2 blocks cream cheese
2 cups hi temp blue cheese

Mixed, stuffed, cooked, and now a nap! Ha. The 505 gives it a little kick-worked we’ll I thought.

Does anyone have a recipe for Duck brats ? A customer would like their duck meat turned into bratwurst…

Denny O’s
Ham and Bean Soup

Ingredients:
8 qt cast iron Dutch oven w/ lid (12” diameter, 4” deep oven)
2 pounds Great Northern beans
1/3 cup baking soda
1 large sweet onion chopped
The top 5 inches of a head of celery chopped (leafs and all)
½ bag of leftover relish tray baby carrots chopped to 3/8
1 ½ Tbl bacon grease
2 smoked whole shanks or 7, 1-1/4" thick cut shanks
2 - 26oz cartons Swanson’s chicken broth, or your own home made is preferred!
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
Several good blots of Louisiana sauce
1 Tbl dried California sweet basil
1 Tbl dried French thyme
1 Tbl dried marjoram
1 Qt home canned tomatoes

Preparation:
Cover your beans, nothing else added, with cold water about 2 inches, and bring to a solid hard boil for about 10 minutes.
Remove the pan DON’T DRAIN and SET THE PAN IN YOUR SINK. Throw in about 1/3 cup baking soda, and stir like crazy until the foam that will appear, disappears, then stir a bit more. Don’t worry if the foam looks green because it will!. Let it set and rest for 15 minutes.

Drain in a colander and rinse very well in cold water to remove the entire soda flavor. Doing this, you won’t have to soak the beans overnight; it cuts your cooking time and seems to help in removing most of the “gas”. More soda = less gas I’m told. The reason for setting the pan in the sink is that it will foam quite a bit and could go over the sides of your pan.

While rinsing beans, sauté onion, celery and carrots in bacon grease in the Dutch oven till onion is translucent

Stir in all remaining ingredients into the Dutch oven and add the smoked ham hocks
Return to boil and cover with the very tight dutch oven lid and low, low, slow simmer for about 1 ½ to 2 hours
Rotate ham once or so during this the time

When beans are tender
Remove the ham bones clean the meat and chunk into bite sized pieces, discard the bones, then add back into the pot.
Keep heating and adjust thickness by adding 3 tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in cold water first or to your liking, then stir into the pot.

Cover and let simmer for ½ hour or more, keep eye on the bottom and stir as the thickening will want to settle and try to lump or stick to the bottom.

Serve with cornbread; try adding home blanched sweet corn or better yet, use creamed corn for the liquid into your mix before baking it. Try chopped cooked bacon and use the grease to coat the cast iron skillet baking pan.

Notes to self:
I maybe need to try adding a few bay leafs.
Really full pot!
A 14” oven would be better but oh well; I have 3 60 year old Dutch ovens and I’m not buying anymore.

Make sure there is lots of ham meat, Lewrights smoked hocks are a little more money but well worth for the flavor.
2 smoked whole shanks should be enough without leftover ham bones. 7, 1-1/4" thick slices seems to be close.

Using the soda trick seems to help, at least for me 1/3 to 1/2 cup baking soda…
Might try using 2 lbs beans and divide in ½ and mash second 1 lb from the colander for the thickening, but then again it doesn’t take much cornstarch to do the trick and show more beans.

Has anyone used fresh jalapeños with a Bologna mix?

Denny O’s Sweet Heat Smoked Beans

This recipe seems to be addictive for those that have had them.

Ingredients

6-8 strips of bacon cut into 1/2 inch squares (I use at least i pound thick cut “Wrights” brand of bacon from Sam’s, or my own cross cut into 1/4" strips)

1/2 Medium onion, diced (I use one whole large sweet yellow onion)

1/2 Bell pepper, diced ( I use a whole orange and red)

1 - 2 Jalapeno Peppers, diced (seeding is optional) (I use 2 Poblano peppers, rib and seeds about 1/2 removed and a couple of jalapeño peppers seeds and ribs removed)

1 - 55 ounce can Bush’s Homestyle Baked Beans (or 2 smaller cans in homestyle slightly less total ounces)

1-8 ounce can of pineapple chunks, drained (Doles Crushed Pineapple not drained sometimes the next larger can)

1 Cup Brown Sugar, packed (1-/1/2 Cup)

1 Cup ketchup (1-/1/2 Cup ketchup plus a1/4 ish cup of Denny O’s BBQ Swauze)

1/2 - 1 Tbs. dry (ground) mustard (1/2 of the .45oz Tones little round container)

Prepare

1st Sauté bacon pieces in fry pan until slightly crispy and remove from pan with a slotted spoon. Using the bacon grease, sauté onion adding bell pepper, poblano and jalapeno peppers until tender.

In a large mixing bowl combine beans, pineapple, brown sugar, ketchup and dry mustard. Stir in bacon pieces and vegetables. Pour into a (10x12x4" aluminum baking pan, aka a half steam table pan. This will be about 1/2" from the rim of the pan.)
While mixing if things look dry, add additional ketchup 1/4 -1/2 cup at a time.

Smoke

Place in a 220-250° smoker for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Make sure temperature of the baked beans reaches 160° or place in a 350° oven and bake for 1 hour stirring about every 45 minutes to an hour.

NOTE:

If you are making these beans as a side dish for Kansas City style pork ribs, smoke the removed skirt meat for 1-1 1/2 hours, then dice the skirt meat and stir into the Baked Beans (in addition to the bacon.)

DISCLAIMER

(With the Poblano and Jalapeno pepper added to the dry mustard these beans have the potential for some MAJOR heat. Taste as you mix to judge the heat factor!) CAUTION should be exercised when feeding these beans to small children and/or the elderly.

To make this recipe Family Friendly, omit the Jalapeno pepper and the dry mustard.
(NOTE: cut this in ½ or to 1/3 way too much for 2 including leftovers!)
(Lightly sprinkle rib rub after tasting for heat, not knowing how hot the peppers are with the mustard)
(Also added Honey squirted over the top and then drizzle molasses lightly and stirred in.)

The original recipe is first, (My additions are with-in parenthesis,)

Enjoy!
Denny O

I am in an urgent need of recipes. I can’t eat deer, beef, rabbit or pork for 5 years! I am already tired of fish and fowl. I would love to have some new ideas on how to cook something different with these. My deer snack sticks and jerky are useless now, so looking for something for chicken, duck, or turkey? I don’t know, can you make fish jerky? It is going to be a long 5 years!!!

Cindy Bushar 0 asked me to post her my recipe for a fresh corned beef reuben brat, it got long so I decided to post it here in User Recipes.
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There are various spice additives you can use. I bet Walton’s has one.
But I like to mix my own flavorings when cooking, and corned beef is just salted and cured beef, usually brisket but sometimes top round when sliced. And a Reuben is just corned beef on a rye bread with caraway seed, sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and thousand island dressing.

So flavor profile is just salt at about 1.8%, cure#1, and NO SMOKE. Pastrami is smoked corned beef, but we’re not making a pastrami brat, soo… Sous Vide is the correct cook, in my opinion. Of course like all cooking, you can do it however you personally like! But I’m going to write this to best replicate Reuben flavors in a brat.
Additionally there is no browning or maillard reaction flavor, as corned beef is almost always boiled, so sausages should not be smoked or grilled for authentic reuben flavor. But… I like to grill in a pan even so sometimes 😉
Sometomes for the boil a spice pack of bay leaf, coriander seeds, peppercorns, and mustard seed is added, but it is small. But I add 1/2 t or so of each for a 1 kg batch, just grind them all, and I mix with salt and cure1 in the water to ensure fast dispersion and mix.

For meat, any ground beef will work, but brisket and brisket fat is authentic. No pork, we’re making corned beef. I have used pork fat when I didnt have brisket fat, it is very good flavor too.
You can corn and cure it rapidly and cook right after you stuff, if you add a cure accelerator. I use ascorbic acid, vitamin C, at 1g per 1kg meat, which is a std 1000mg tablet. I crush it up, mix with water, and add after I’ve mixed in salt, cure1, and seasonings lightly. I do this EVEN IF I WILL LET FRESH BRATS SIT IN FRIDGE DAYS BEFORE COOKING. This is because cure accelerators also create very strong color and fix it in place, and I want that deep red color.

I don’t add any sauerkraut flavor, as everyone will rather put sauerkraut on a brat on a bun for a Reuben brat. Also the thousand island dressing, just ketchup and mayo really, is better applied as a topping sauce. You’ve got to decide how you’re going to eat final product and flavor accordingly. In my opinion, I will want a sauerkraut topping and sauce on the brat–no one like eating a fancy brat just plain on a bun! So those two flavors are not put into spice mix.
However, the swiss cheese can be added to the brat nicely by slicing up to small 1/4" chunks. Many folks say 10% of meat block weight for cheese amount. You can add more, whatever you like. Swiss has decently high melt point so regular swiss can be used.

It is very unlikely you’ll find rye brat buns, so I like to add those flavors. That will be caraway at 0.3% to 0.6%, I like it a lot.

Here, I’ll write out full recipe for 1 kg of meat, 2.2 lbs, just multiply as desired:
750 g brisket or top round, 6mm to 10mm grind.
250 g brisket fat, ground, add separate at end of mix to preserve good fat definition.
(You could just use 80/20 or 70/30 ground beef honestly, I have and it was good, but the brisket or pork fat was better.)
10% water, so 100g, mix with spices before adding them
1.8% salt, so 18g
2.5 g, about 1/2t, cure#1
1 g or 1/2 t each coriander seed, mustard seed, peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, ground up all
2g or 1 t caraway seed, coarse grind
1-2% nonfat dry milk as binder, 10-20g
100 g or more swiss cheese diced 1/4"

Add all but fat, light mix 1-2 min. Add ground fat, and 1000mg vitamin c tablet crushed and mixed with bit of water to help mix evenly. Mix 2 min or so to disperse fat and accelerator. If you like a firm sausage texture, mix harder before fat, but try to not overmix fat and smear it.

Stuff in 32mm hog casings or collagen replacement. Cook in sous vide to 160 f internal. Or simmer in 180f water, but I like to capture juices via sous vide.
Eat on bun with kraut and thousand island dressing.
Other tweaks:

If you like firm sausage texture, vs more crumbly brat, mix more. I like that, and a good bind, so I use NFDM as binder. You could add 1% or more rye flour as binder if you wanted that rye flavor and a more English banger or filler-style sausage. I also like this, but it is kinda opposite of the current fresh brat low bind trend you see in supermarket fresh brats. I tried it and liked, but kids liked without better.

Hope this recipe and notes are helpful to folks 😉

How many use binders in their sausage and which are best

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I grew up on the Delaware Pennsylvania border, and an area where there were a lot of Pennsylvania Dutch. For breakfast we had something called scrapple as often or more than bacon. I thought it was a nationwide thing everybody loved till I grew up and moved away. It’s basically a cornmeal or buckwheat mush with meat in it that is thickened in the refrigerator and slices fried for breakfast usually with maple syrup. I searched here and found two threads for similar items by ND Mike and processhead which I will link below as references. Stanley Marianski has a recipe for Scrapple in his book, as well as the online web version which I will link to has another reference. The last thing he says in his book is you may need to tweak your recipe to get the right thickness or density of the scrapple that you desire, and I found this to be true.

I make pulled pork in a Instant pot often, so am often left with a thick rich broth and extra meat. This is a great recipe to use up both.
Ingredients
1 litre pork broth from boiling pork butt

160g or 1-1/3c cornmeal (can also use buckwheat flour, more traditional in some areas. I mixed half and half. But it is not a 1:1 replacement, use a bit more buckwheat). So long as the cornmeat to liquid ratio is same, you can vary to use up stock.

0.66 kg or 1.5 lbs cooked pork butt, chopped ; this doesn’t have to be exact, more or less is fine.

That adds up 1.82 kg more or less. For each kg or 1000 g, add these spices:
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1.8% salt, so 18g, final. Adjust for your stock saltiness.
(I used cajun salt blend Tony Chacheres instead of salt, I like hot sausage etc)
1 t black pepper
1 t sage
1 t thyme
1/2 t savory
1/2 t nutmeg
Optional:
1/2 t allspice, 1/4 t ginger, 1/8 t cloves
1 t crushed red pepper<< I like this for heat.

Boil stock with all spices, gradually add cornmeal and/or buckwheat stirring constantly, approx 5 min to thicken. Spoon should stand upright on its own. Add stock to thin, more cornmeal to thicken.

Add meat, stir in and cook 15 min or so stirring occasionally, low heat so it doesn’t scorch bottom.

Adjust seasoning, this is how it will taste except fried.

Line small loaf pans with plastic wrap or wax paper. Pour scrapple into pans. Cover w wrap or waxpaper, refrigerate several hours to thicken.
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Cut into 1/4" to 1/2" slices and fry in some butter. Let one side fry on med low heat til it firms up before flipping, or it will fall apart. You can lightly coat slices in flour to help brown up.
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Serve with some maple syrup, honey, apple butter, etc. Usually for breakfast instead of bacon or sausage.

References:

Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages by Stanley Marianski. He calls for an onion and 1/2t mace instead of my optional spices above. Website for Marianski
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/head-cheese/american/scrapple ND Mike thread on similar product gritwurst
https://meatgistics.waltons.com/post/76788 processhead thread on jaternice, also similar
https://meatgistics.waltons.com/topic/4812/something-different-jaternice

Results:
I liked the flavor and heat. I didnt use the allspice/ginger/cloves this time, wanted a more traditional Pennsylvania version, but it is good that way too.
Thickness, I used 50 50 buckwheat and cornmeal. Result wasn’t as dense as pure cornmeal, needed to be a bit thicker so it holds together while frying. Recommend not going below 1-1/3c grains to 1 L liquid.
Dice up the pork fine so you can slice easy.

My kids love it, say they like it better than left over pulled pork.