kzwisconsin I’m betting that the product isnt being cooled quickly enough. Make sure you are going right to an ice bath, not a cold water bath but a 50/50 ice and water bath. Not cooling quickly enough with inedible or fibrous casing will cause the meat to stick to the casing like you are talking about.

smokinbubba NICE score, you are going to be happy with that one and good job with clean up! You shoud see how dirty some of the old equipment that comes in to our service shop is!

I just got the chili dog mix will let you know

processhead great info, thanks.

The smoking schedules and thermal processing have a couple objectives.

It is important to realize that it is possible to do all of the above with different schedules. So there is no one right answer.

Regardless of the schedule used, it is usually possible to achieve all of those objectives.

Personally, when I am doing something new, I do ongoing hands-on monitoring throughout the thermal processing to track progress.

stupid facebook changes to my location!

Carrot for fresh and sure gel for cured
Carrot will help hold the liquid in for a juicier sausage
In your case it will bind with the natural moisture and some of the fat in the meat and you will be fine however some water would have been better
As you well know Midwest_kc the biggest factor is over cooking, get them too hot and all the juiciness will be a distant memory no mater what the mix LOL

For many years, H summer sausage seasoning is all I used for sticks. I would add extra ingredients to get them to fit my taste, mostly garlic and red pepper flakes, and of course, hi temp cheese

twilliams
Thanks for sharing. Pretty sure we’ve all been there. It’s how we learn and move forward.

processhead Yeah, I prefer that (actually I prefer almost everything) with the tang. There are a few that in my opinion though absolutely require it. Pepperoni, Salami, Lanjaeger and a few others.

processhead Eureka!! By George I think you’ve got it!

shappartj 20210403_144128.jpg

This may help you, i use the top version with the 2qts to 25lbs meat block

I posted the recipe. It is a scan and not the best quality. Hope it is readable.

DennyO check out the Meatgisitics University videos for the products you want to make, they will tell you what to use. There are also multiple Meatgistics University posts about the different types of additives and their uses.

processhead Been there, done that

well, i may give it a try and will let you know!!

Thanks for the thoughts.

I agree all around. Poaching or grilling is the way to go, as they are pretty quick and can accommodate large amounts.

Personally, I cook by sous vide and then refrigerate. Sometimes I pack and freeze them just like that, but I sometimes go ahead and grill them first for easy reheating.

NDKoze I would suggest a food grade white grease.

What was your process with Jerky from Excalibur? It should be held in water and seasoning overnight unless you have a vac tumbler, the vac tumbler gets the seasoning cure and water to penetrate right away so can go right to smoker.

Seanlee Hardy 0 never tried celery powder in jerky

clubchuck well you summed it up. You can see the risk on unrefrigerated fermented sausage. I walk with caution. About your life insurance “didos ”. Thanks for the info.

IVERYAN
It looks like you are getting a pretty fine emulsion there.

I would soak that bearings and the unit in a commercial grade food safe sanitizer. It will penetrate into the housing and remove the bacteria buildup from liquids and make it safe to use again in terms of food safety. We often soak bearings like this and our FDA/USDA/STATE inspectors have approved this under our HACCP and Sanitation Plans.

processhead Great, thank you!

hey anyone have a seasoning mix suggestions for a turkey breakfast sausage , wanna put in links .

MIMIP maybe try a sweet Italian. Or better yet ask the Waltons-Meatistics team if they offer any low sodium options.

I usually dont bag but i couldnt get a good crimp with my pos auto hog ring pliers so i did bag these.

Hm maybe the estimates were totally off. They only bring back the quarters if that makes any difference? This year we will be processing 6 hogs, weighing 115, 112, 105, 84, 72, and 48 (536 total).

Give it a try. Make a patty before you package and fry to see it it needs more meat or more spice

I wanted to make a boneless ham from a boneless leg of pork and wanted to know if i could use my waltons dry rub bacon cure and ham seasoning in lieu of waltons ham cure

I dehydrate my own jalapenos after I pick them. Then add seeds and all to the meat block without rehydrating. They act as a water/fat binder and rehydrate during cooking process.

LuckyDs said in Going to do hot links should I think of it as a cure sausage?:

So next time if I want to treated like a fresh sausage just don’t add the cure?

Correct. No cure, no smoking.

processhead said in Kielbasa vs ring bologna:

Got it.
Ok, I will stop yacking about bologna…

…and will be interested to hear your impressions of the finished product using the two different seasonings.

AdamCA said in Electric meat suffer:

processhead That electric stuffer also has a small line that states it is not for small diameter products so he wouldn’t be able to use it for snack sticks.

Good catch on the disclaimer. It would take a pretty good gear drive and motor to crank out the torque needed for stuffing sticks.

craigrice If I could get away with NOT cleaning behind my slicer blade I would for sure. Scares the [censored] out of me every time.

Thank you very much for sharing!

I had the same problem, so being very expensive to have them shipped and all from the north island, I dried it out and used them again just the other day for more salami, it is hang and doing good at this moment!

rmeissner2790 i have done the honey bbq, the amount of seasoning does affect how wet it gets. 2 qts is the max. With 2 qts you will be good with the amount of seasoning in the honey bbq. Less seasoning you could drop it down to 1.5 qts. Even though i dont. Honey bbq also gives a little bit of slippery texture which helps in stuffing. As well as sure gel if you are using that. Again, these measurements are for 25lbs. Adjust if doing smaller batches

no_eyes_processor I enjoyed the podcast, glad to have heard your story and about your accomplishments.

The way you guys are trimming and sorting fat/ lean while butchering sounds pretty normal. Once it is sorted like that, when you get ready to grind you have a lot of flexibility to weigh out any proportion of lean/ fat that you want.
Some lean trimmings will have intramuscular fat that makes it less than 100% lean. That could be where your butchering buddies are getting the 95/5 ratio you mentioned.

Unionguy1019 that’s a lot of sugar. I do ours one at at a time, a few times a year.

I have now cooked up 2 batches of the links. First was pan fried with 2 tablespoons of water in skillet. Fat was bubbling in the casings when I probed with thermometer (160 and 162 on the 2 I checked). Did another 5 links this morning in skillet with no water and 2 I checked were right at 160-164. Again, flavor was good and dryness was oh-so subtle. Next batch I do I intend to bump up lean to fat to closer to 30% and see how it impact the outcome.

As TexLaw said.

Jonathon

Actually, I think the poster was asking if you follow the same rinsing protocol with injecting as with pickling. Your video starts off with talking about the injecting method, then switches to the pickling method and the rinsing that must be done. Do you have to rinse as well when injecting, or do you go right to the smoker with it?

smokinbubba sorry didn’t think about your name when I posted the comment was on my tablet at the time and didn’t realize that it posted more than once

I was thinking about this yesterday while cleaning the equipment in the picture above. One of the challenges many home processer face is just having enough work space to clean big items. I found a 2-tub sink with drain boards several years ago which helps a lot, but trying was clean can be tough without the space to do it properly.

I also rigged up a short length of hose to the sink faucet so I can direct hot water to places that need rinsing or need a little pressure to flush debris off of equipment. Having that extra couple of feet of hose on the hot water line makes a huge difference during clean up.

Many of you have probably already figured out that cleaning processing equipment requires some specialized tools like brushes to clean out grinder heads and plates, and stuffer funnels. I have accumulated most of the specialized brushes I need to get into the little cracks and crevices to get them cleaned correctly.

If you are doing your wash down outdoors, a pressure washer is a great tool for getting things cleaned quickly, but it needs to be connected to hot water to really remove fat residue properly. For many of us, the local climate prevents us from cleaning outdoors for at least part of the year

Thank you. It tastes pretty good too. I gave some to a neighbor to get his opinion on it. He has been smoking his own country ham for a number of years and prefers country ham. He came over a few days later and said, “Well, your ham is good, but I hate to tell you this but it tastes like you bought it at a store.” To him, that was a bad thing. To me, that was a good thing.

All good advise above. The sous vide advantage is precise temp control of the water. I understand many bologna manufactures use a steam cabinet to finish. I just like my steam wetter

sneaky87 typically it is no more than 1 qt of distilled water for 12.5lbs meat block

Biscuit small canning jar. Use Brine solution. 1 cup sea salt to 1 gl distilled water. Refrigerate . Will last a long time

Thank You…hadn’t thought of that. I’m pretty new to this…very new to this…so my learning curve is sky high😊

Chef I do believe you are confusing dry curing terminology with dry aging. As for dry curing your sausage it is no different than any other EQ dry cure. Dry aging on the other hand is the process that begins after dry curing is completed. This is where the temp and humidity controlled chambers come into play. This allows you to remove 35 to 40% aW without case hardening. If you allow case hardening your sausage will actually spoil from the inside out due the aW (available water) inside unable to leave the meat.

I don’t have that brand, but for mine I use an old 50 quart cooler and place a meat lug lid with a cut out for the sous vide device over the cooler. Works like a charm. I guess my point is more than you think. I used to use a large meat lug, but wanted to make a set up that lost less heat. My setup is pretty much like papa sop’s, but now I use the cooler.

processhead said in Grinder Putting Out Mush? Don't Overlook The Obvious.:

Reviewing some posts of other people having problems grinding meat reminded me of a recent experience I had, and why you need to rule out the obvious when troubleshooting equipment problems.

Some friends and I had made sausage one weekend and after washdown, one of the new guys had reassembled the grinder head as we normally do so it would be ready to use the next week.

The following week, I was working alone and had just starting to grind some pork butt. I noticed the grinder was putting out mush meat and not feeding properly so I shut down the grinder.

I took the nut off the grinder and pulled the plate out and saw that my buddy had put the knife in backwards with the cutting edge facing inwards when he reassembled the grinder after the previous use.

Yeah, everyone is entitled to make a rookie mistake like that once.

The take away is, grinders are really simple machines and there are not many things that can go wrong.

When you do have grinding problems:

Understand how the plate and knife are supposed to fit in your grinder. Make sure your knife and plate are sharp. This is probably not a huge concern if you own a newer grinder and are a hobbyist/ occasional user. For best results, only grind very cold or partially frozen meat. Warm meat does not feed well in most grinders.

processhead said in Grinder Putting Out Mush? Don't Overlook The Obvious.:

Reviewing some posts of other people having problems grinding meat reminded me of a recent experience I had, and why you need to rule out the obvious when troubleshooting equipment problems.

Some friends and I had made sausage one weekend and after washdown, one of the new guys had reassembled the grinder head as we normally do so it would be ready to use the next week.

The following week, I was working alone and had just starting to grind some pork butt. I noticed the grinder was putting out mush meat and not feeding properly so I shut down the grinder.

I took the nut off the grinder and pulled the plate out and saw that my buddy had put the knife in backwards with the cutting edge facing inwards when he reassembled the grinder after the previous use.

Yeah, everyone is entitled to make a rookie mistake like that once.

The take away is, grinders are really simple machines and there are not many things that can go wrong.

When you do have grinding problems:

Understand how the plate and knife are supposed to fit in your grinder. Make sure your knife and plate are sharp. This is probably not a huge concern if you own a newer grinder and are a hobbyist/ occasional user. For best results, only grind very cold or partially frozen meat. Warm meat does not feed well in most grinders.

twilliams said in Beef snack sticks callogen snap:

jroby not sure if you will get any more snap however maybe your water amount is a bit heavy. I use 1qt for 12.5 lbs and that is pushing alot. Maybe cut it back to a 1/2 qt for 10lbs to start with. Im thinking the snap you are looking for is very hard to achieve as a home processor.

That can be an issue. Added water will need to be removed from the product at some point during the process. That can be part of thermal processing or afterwards as air drying.

Probably more of a challenge for guys finishing their sticks in a water bath where you don’t get any addition drying during the final cooking process.

Air drying after cooking is a good way to get the final dryness and texture you are after if you have a good place to do it.

NDMike
Yes. Smoked to IT 130 then SV the rest of the way. Took about five minutes to go from 130 to 160. Game changer!👍 Was getting a few wrinkles in the smoker, SV took care of that as well.

duckbill what are you using for a grinder? What size? Is your meat partially frozen at time of grinding? Are your plates and knives sharp? What are you stuffing it with?

TJENKIN421 Yes, make a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar. Set your target temperature to 140 F, and start it up. When it gets to 140 F, it’s clean.

smokinbubba said in Garlic Ring Bologna:

Ronald Shrout I think I would go garlic powder. Easy to mix in with your dry ingredients but obviously you will loose the freshness of fresh garlic. I would think it would be worth it for ease of incorporation.

Agree with the above. You could add incremental amounts of garlic powder, mix in evenly, and cook up a patty to evaluate the taste and adjust up as needed before stuffing.

So, we got some information from our application specialist who knows Excaliburs processes well. His response was “Large batches are well mixed for distribution and then immediately packaged so no settling occurs.” Now, we are going to have an Excaibur guy on the podcast soonish so we will make sure to bring this up!

smokinbubba I have a #25 LEM mixer. I have been running options through my head on how to do it. I got a couple ideas but haven’t really dove into it much yet. It has a stuffing speed that is slow and grinding speed that is faster. Need to check rpm on stuffing speed to see if it is slow enough for a direct drive.

processhead Thanks for the good info!

Like Will Roger said “I have never met a Sausage I didnt like” or something like that. Thank you.

As s.a.m stated above. bearded butchers have a pretty good recent video on it. I believe they have an older video on lamb aswell. .22lr should be fine for the harvest, and the rest is same. You could split it like a hog or beef but they are small enough I wouldnt bother. If you wanna practice your butcher skills nows the time to bust out the frenched rack of lamb and leg of lamb.

Grimpuppy thank you

twilliams

Finished up my experiment with a honey cured vs maple syrup cured. Both turned out pretty mild tasting. Maybe an extra day or curing would help. The next time I am going to use maple sugar instead of syrup. I used a pint of grade B, it darkened the pork a bit and was messy. I just didn’t want to use my limited supply of maple sugar until after sugar season. Smoked with hickory, should have the next belly ready in a couple of weeks.

IMG_20210301_204846623.jpg

I grind 3/8 1st grind. Than decide what type of sausage I want. I like 1-1 pork beef. So what I may stuff 3/8 or bring to 1/8 for hotdogs Is my choice You’re the Chef. 🤗

processhead God will judge me by the people i befriend. Thank you Paul. I’m among friends!!!

If very tangy when the ECA is used in the recommended amounts, I always question if there was uneven mixing of ingredients or at least the ECA.

ECA melts and activates around 135F, you should be fine for a few hours

smokinbubba I got it off a program called guidefitter

I contacted Bill. He said the PK100 will Not work well in cold weather. He did give me some ideas. I will push my smoker outside my garage and complete the smoking process in cold weather. I will then put my smoker inside my garage and complete the cooking process
More to come.

Hawker saves on gas😊

Sdickey1960 Yeah, you can use something like bactoferm T-SPX and then let it dry cure. You need some specialized equipment to do this but it absolutely will “keep” longer. Some sort of cabinet that you can monitor and control both temp and humidity, a way to measure pH and temperature.

blackbetty61 you got it together sausage warrior. If it works for you that’s all that matters Thanks for the insight. Cheers😊

Tim Bailey Very common problem with these. I figure I will have my welder at work tig it back if/when it lets loose! There is only one option for the carnivore grinders and its the blue sky 50lber. I wish someone would come out with a 20lb model so I didnt have to do my small batches in the kitchen aid.

keend I couldn’t get a manufacturer to tint a knife orange and I tried hard, so I am not hopeful on that but it WOULD be interesting to have a stuffer like this…actually grinder would be cool too. I wonder if we could spray the outside of the container with something instead of having orange tinted in.

Tinting isn’t what I am trying to do though, this would be more helpful to the actual process than this.

Only use fresh for breakfast links. Slow heat, cold pan or simmer in a little water to bring the meat temp up and then brown. Depends on the mood 🤔

Kentucky Fisherman Good Point.
In all of our Freezers essentially all cured products are the last to freeze and first to start to thaw Right along with fresh sausages.

Miket482000 i have an answer on this, I just can’t think of it right now. I am guessing it has something to do with the pH but dont quote me on that yet. I will find the answer tomorrow and update the post…darn, this is annoying, I can’t think of it and I know this was talked about in the last month. I’ll try more searching tomorrow.

twilliams said in Mixing sausage:

You just dropped big coin on items you may not have needed.

You’re right, but it as mostly a hobby and something I enjoy doing with friends and family so I’m not attempting to justify any ROI. Bought the grinder with credit card points through Paypal anyway. And now I bad want a chambered vacuum sealer, which is real coin! I am in construction so I like equipment…

chrispbrown27 That’s awesome! We love when people have a huge success with a product that they slightly modify! This is part of what meat processing is all about, trying new things and continuing until you get the result you want. One note, it seems like you did but taking good notes when you are trying new things is absolutely essential. Few things are more frustrating than finally hitting on what you wanted and then not knowing how to get there again!

If you have any, please submit pics and I will have Londyn post this to our social media accounts.

I am waiting gyro to arrive looks like Thursday being making those… lots of elk this year to play with lol…

smokinbubba Thank You!

bcompton53 if the entire face looks uniform and even with no scratches or knicks i would think so. Also depends how fine you got it to with the paper

rich_green also if you do use cure and cook low and slow in smoker you must hold in fridge for 12 hours before putting in smoker, with or without smoke unless you use a cure accelerator

I have tried a 50/50 mix but the 40/60 is a much more moist sausage

Mke Dildwr if you follow Jonathon link, you have to scroll up 2 post to get my recipe. I have done it with chunks of beef, but I do find the flavor is a little different then if you use venison, but is still good. An important part is to slice it thin, I dont know why, but it seems to taste better.

Hawkeye I’d like to see your recipe for your snack sticks with the pineapple and venison. Would like to give it a try.

Elsos Yeah, what you are describing in your initial post sounds like the vinegar from something in that can. The lowered pH is going to denature the proteins and prevent them from effectively binding together. I added some pickled jalapenos to a batch of willies once and to prevent what happened to you I laid them all out on a screen and let them air dry for 2 hours. That seems to be long enough to dry the outside of the jalapeno slices but it still maintains some of the taste.

Jonathon yup, listening to my wife and father in-law tell the story it was hilarious after the fact, not then. It cost him a new kitchen to mom in-law.

smokinbubba Thanks bubba. Everyone makes do with the resources they have. I personally find it helpful to know my audience before I lather advice. Generates more smiles then frowns😎

OK, now I’m really confused. I understand that belly’s are cold smoked. Been there, done that, years ago. I thought imitation bacon was hot smoked to 160f with a smoker temp of 175.
That’s why I thought a sous vide at 175 would not render.

wmjacksoniii said in BBday Grinder stuffing funnel size?:

Forgive me if this is a stupid question that should have been a no-brainer to figure out. Has anybody have any idea how I can figure out what size sausage tube will fit a BBday cheapo grinder/ stuffer? There is no markings on the machine, the funnel that came with it, or any of the grinding plates. I tried Google for a customer service number and discovered that it always refers the customer back to customer service of the store it was purchased at.

Agreed, we need clarification on what your question is. Lots of experience on this site and awesome customer support from Waltons. I think a few of us read your original post differently. Are you looking for additional stuffing tubes for your grinder?

smokinbubba
Thankfully I have a spare room. Yep, Harbor Freight, can’t beat it.

What I like the most about the suos vide is how it has expanded my sausage portfolio. I would never think about making sausage larger than 1.5" before due to the extremely loooong smoke times. Now, I have a plan for 4" bologna maybe this weekend. My Waltons order should be here by then. (Don’t tell my wife I made a second Waltons order this month plz) The super short cook times in the sous vide has made these before unreachable goals now very reachable.
3hrs in water vs 30hrs (estimated) in a smokehouse. Big difference. Plus we seem to be cooking dinner with it a couple times a week! A very handy tool.

Hurricane0331 Yeah if you are lactose intolerant then carrot fiber (for fresh) super bind or soy protein blend (for cured sausage) are replacements for non-fat dry milk. Dont use sure gel, it has milk in it.

Laura 'Date' Attenberger I would recommend you dont do the powder, but instead roast garlic cloves and then grind those with the meat. This is what we did with some snack sticks and it was very good. I would recommend 2 medium-sized cloves (not the entire thing which is called a bulb) per 10 lb of meat.

If you need to use powdered garlic I would suggest making small batches with different amounts and just frying that in a pan to see what strength. It wouldn’t be exact as smoking and pan frying are going to produce different products but it will at least be in the range.