Retired157 It can get someone into overload, but it is all good info and many good people to help sort it out

Dr_Pain said in Cooking stall in my smoker HELP:

DennyO said in Cooking stall in my smoker HELP:

Dr_Pain said in Cooking stall in my smoker HELP:

Sheesh! I need to get back to cooking so I can compete with you guys. That is some good looking product

Doc, you just take care of you first! Take your meds now so you can make your meals later!!

Getting better everyday. I made a dish last night (from my childhood) that I will share soon. It is a simple all in one and cooked in the microwave. Simple enough and TASTY!!!

Ohh, Very glad to hear! Push yourself mindfully a little and keep it slow and steady.

I have a I phone but don’t really know all about it but hang in there you sound better every time you post I will keep praying for you and your family and I no you got this

This was quite a read! LOL

The recipe is for 3 sleeves/bags. If you use 1 sleeve/bag the recipe would be 1/3, if 2 sleeves/bags the recipe would be 2/3, if using 3 sleeves/bags if would be full recipe.

Randie N I have those and they do work, the real advantage is they are stainless steel so when done I just put them in the dish washer and call it a day.

Jamieson22 that’s my problem too, I keep making all these flavors to try and don’t eat them on a normal basis. Was hoping I was gonna sell more. Now it’s not grilling season sooooo……

Dr_Pain make some of that Kabanosy and let him snack on them he will help you to convert that room, hehe.

Jamieson22 OK, ours are stainless steel. It looked like yours were about the same. We need to find you some SS Filters so you can keep them longer & wash them when needed. I just cannot imagine them costing that much, but everything these days is shocking me. I am in a constant state of shock!

twilliams If you have a hard time getting past the appearance then send them to me

GWG8541 Thank you for your service!

Bob Stehlik that’s the way I have usually seen them presented. You could lmix and match

pepperettes That’s a real wiener!

PapaSop - Nice

lkrfletcher nice and well deserved. Thanks for all the solid advise along the way.

cdavis My brother live down there in Ovilla, south of Dallas, says it was in the high 20’s and that was about it for winter so far. I can deal with the snow, but the ice sucks with the truck, I can’t get enough weight on the rear end to keep traction, take about 1,500 lbs. over the rear axle to get a grip on ice with the traction tires even. Glad it’s gone now, warmed up to 41 degrees and rain. Normal weather for the NW.

GWG8541 it’s pretty good. The craisins add a little sweetness. Wild rice dont add alot of flavor, but gives it a good texture. It is the favorite sausage of many of my friends and family that I make

That was definitely a profession quality video. You guys did a great job!

Happy New Year Jonathon . Thanks for including one of my post in the recap. Although I am down, I am getting better and I will be ready sooner than later in bringing my A game to the Community. All you guys deserve my best

Jamieson22 Not a problem, just another set of eyes looking.

Joemy96 That makes perfect sense. I have never made 32s so my experience has only been with 19s and 21s

lkrfletcher said in Sweet!:

Sweet!

Dude!

craigrice said in New to waltons some advice would be appreciated:

if you dont want the tang of ECA then you can use smoked meat stabilizer as a cure accelaretor then smoke the same day with out the tang

or Sodium Erythorbate and stop the browning too.

calldoctoday Would you believe me if I said it was solar flares?

Cooper1 said in Summer sausage question:

Thanks John, I smoked them last night and they came out perfect as usual. So with that I’m not going to mess around with a good thing!

Wisdom incarnate. Congrats

HerbcoFood said in Spice Lined Casing:

Jonathon Those look real fancy there Clark!

Was that a Christmas Vacation quote ROFL!!!

That looks absolutely horrible!! I would need to try it to confirm though

Joking of course ;) The more I see you guys using dedicated smokers the more I feel that at some point I will have to buy one

Johnboy13 I ground my fat with a 3/16 plate and this is what it looked like 20211212_091757.jpg 20211212_085630.jpg

DennyO I follow the Globe procedures which leaves blade intact. Figure if it is good for commercial applications it will handle my small-time usage. Also less time and handling of the blade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDyle83gVtg

GWG8541 Thanks for the thumbs up.

welcome you will find people from many different professions all with the same desire of learning this and a good atmosphere !

PapaSop Well, there you go & you have a whole lot of referrals here to boot.

processhead said in First Attempt At Snack Sticks:

Agree with every ones comments and great looking sticks.
Did the ECA release? You should be able to taste it when you take the first bite as a tangy flavor.
I don’t think you would otherwise taste unreleased ECA unless you chewed it very thoroughly.

Thanks! Yes there was a definite tang, so I think I was good to go! I’m going to try a batch without it and let it cure overnight to see what i think of those.

pepperettes Those look delicious. If thermal processing before drying is giving you the results you want I wouldn’t change it.
l will say that cure #1 has only nitrite and salt and is sufficient for 1 month or so drying . #2 adds nitrate which converts to nitrite over time and is generally used for longer dry cures

bocephus It doesn’t change with steel knees either, the tendons and muscles still act as a barometer.

Lance Very Nice & tasty looking too! Great Snackin.

DennyO ha ha ha 😂 yes it would 😄

Dr_Pain said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

processhead said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

Dr_Pain said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

processhead said in Heat Control While Grinding Meat:

Are the plates and knives sharp?
Dull knives will grind slow and cause things to warm up.
Does the drive end of the auger (back end) have a fiber washer where it contacts the grinder housing?

That was going to be my suggestion. He could start by buying a sharpening stone and resharpening the plates and cutter. If that does not work then that may be a good opportunity to UPGRADE LOL!!!

I don’t mean to derail the main topic, but what you want to sharpen your own grinder knives and plates is an absolutely flat surface abrasive. Unless unusually large, a sharpening stone will not have the size and flatness you need.
What works well for grinder plates and knives is a flat counter top with a sheet of wet/dry silicon carbide abrasive paper, about 400 grit.

Lay the sheet of abrasive paper down flat on the counter and just work the grinder plate in a circular pattern on the paper till you get a uniform smooth polish on the plate and have removed all knife wear patterns from it. Use the same process for the grinder knife.

This works for plates/knives with light to moderate wear. It won’t work that well for stainless or disposable knives and plates.

I have never used the grinding stones that the sausage maker sells but I thought it was a good concept. Eric at 2 Guys and a Cooler seems to advocate for them (but let’s face it he is sponsored by them) but I believe I have seen another video where he did what you mentioned with the sandpaper.

I looked that the stones sold by TSM and watched the video.
For those not familiar with them, the stones are round and fit inside your grinder head with the plate or the knife, depending which you want to sharpen.
When the auger turns it rotates the knife against the stone and puts a fresh edge on the knife.
The second stone rotates the stone against the stationary grinder plate.
I have not used this product but I would have some reservations. Using them in an electric grinder looks like it would be easy to break the stones if you were not extremely careful adjusting the grinder head nut.
Over time, the stone for the plate is also going to cut a groove in your grinder plates because it is smaller than the plate is.

Thank you!

Parksider I picked some up recently and really like it. You are right about the consistency.

twilliams said in Vertical Pellet Smoker:

tomhancock those natural casing or collagen?

They look like collagen to me.

Lance over 250lbs . WOW nice job 👏

Recipe papasop
Process RidleyAcres

Although HerbcoFood does have a point. I LOVE pasta :)

Brezer74 That looks great!!

Yes, everything was cold. Most of the deer meat was partially frozen as I had precut the pieces before freezin, and the pork while not frozen was cold with some of it approaching solid (1/2 hour in the freezer after cutting it in strips that my grinder can tear through). Didn’t see any schmere of the fat. As I mentioned, I only coarse grind my pork for summer sausage so that I get small pieces of fat in the final product. I like it to have a typical salami look rather than looking like a homogeneous mass like bologna. Something else I will watch for as well, but I do understand the need for it all to be cold.
Thanks
Peter

This Meatgistics University post on making snack sticks can help you nail down a cooking schedule. https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/763/cured-sausage-106-basics-of-making-snack-sticks

mrobisr Exactly. I am with you 110%. My brother did the circuit for years with all the schedules, rushing from here to there, etc. It looked like a whole lot of work & stress to me & not much fun.

nicholls47 Always worth a try, you never know it might have turned out great.

Jonathon just NO

Chef Amen to that, and Happy New Year to you and the rest of the Community

mrobisr Thank you

That is what I know as “The fry test”.

Ridley Acres Very nice looking ham, from the looks of it, tasted good too.

dlcoleman2 I use pork fat and trimmings and go with 30%. Keep it as cold as you can when grinding and stuffing to keep the fat from rending out. Any less fat and the brats always seem dry to me!

I will say after tasting some jerky made by vacuum tumbling I will be getting a tumbler very soon. I was very impressed with the very complete flavor and texture of the meat.

DennyO Nice looking slabs. Appreciate the steps to the process.

Garry Tarpley we haven’t cooked any links yet, but we sampled the meat left in the stuffer and the single blowout. I would say the flavor is more like a breakfast sausage than what I would consider a brat.

twilliams That seems like an aggressive flavor mixture.

Jamieson22
Amazing!

gus4416 Looks like you have a fine helper there to help with making sausages & cured meats far into your future!

Yep, more good info.

bocephus Hmm… One never knows… LOL

I upgraded from a #8 to a #22 about 15 years ago. I have been very happy with the #22, grinding 500 to 600 lbs a year with it.

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 said in Pink Cure:

processhead That would probably work extremely well.

The situation I found myself in as this was happening was in the packaging of 20-40 5# bags of cure #1 on a Friday night and by Monday they had gained several ounces. The plant could have switched to plastic bags instead of paper, but once it was determined that it was just humidity the QC and R & D folks were happy. A few oz of water in a 2,500# batch apparently didn’t change the final product.

Right. If the cure was in prepackaged, factory-weighed containers, then absorbed moisture would be no problem.

Only when trying to weigh out the cure in small quantities, like for small batches, would you run the risk of not adding enough cure.

wdaly That could work, we will try that as well when we do the test, thanks for the idea!

JohnG5 yep. Havnt had a chance to try it. What was the puffs to meat ratio. So I dont have to experiment with it. And did you run them through the grinder or just crumble and mix with seasoning?

We are fans of corned venison and we use the Walton brine mix. I will say after it is complete, we cube it and pressure can it with a little beef fat so it is ready to just warm up and use.

Nice! It is definitely my favorite brat.

Woody1551

I am not seeing any red flags on your bacon smoking process.
Although unlikely since you are using damp sawdust, you might want to ensure the sawdust is just smoldering slowly, and NOT burning with an open flame.

Thanks all for the info

Austin I definitely plan on making it out to visit family soon. I’m pretty close to my sister and her family. They lived in California when I was stationed there as a young Marine. My sister still blames for her boy’s “bad habits”, even 35 years later. My brother-in-law worked for Sutherland lumber until retiring last year. Her sons all live in the region with their families, and one lives in Goddard. He is the proud Dad of Madi and also one of the people who let me know about Walton’s when I was looking for seasoning and cure for venison processing. I’m glad I paid attention to him.

PR butchering Okay, talked to some of the old timers in commercial sales and the consensus was…there is no consensus! First thing is, Meat Block. It if is Wild Game, toss it. That is going to hurt but not as much as food poisoning! 2nd, like I asked above, any graph data on internal temp would be an enormous help in answering. Figure it hit 140 and then shut off, so it dwelled for a bit at least. Since it was -17 it probably dropped REAL quick but how quick is real quick? Even if it is -17 hangingin in a smoker, that might have taken a bit to cool off. IT at 140 is 12 minutes which really isn’t that long. Lastly, for the Kielbasa I am assuming you are planning on reheating it before you eat it, so make sure it gets reheated past 160.

For the sticks it is a little different. I wouldn’t hand this out to anyone else, this is the type of thing if I chose to assume the risk of eating that would be my choice but I wouldn’t let anyone else eat any of them.

Of course, the quality of the meat is a question too. If they were beef/pork then how good did they look, smell and feel before you processed them? How careful were you with sanitation?

Jamieson22 said in Helpful forum “Community”/post updates:

Can better photo handling be added the downsizes photos uploaded automatically? If I try to post original photos from phone I always run into errors.

Can it be made easier to see if you have upvoted (liked?) a post in the forum? At least in chrome the icons look identical if you have clicked or not. SO often I go to upvote a post and the number goes down - making me realized I already had liked it.

Apologies… Couldn’t resist. ;). LOL

At the risk of jinxing myself here… I was using a photo resizer for a long time when using my phone for posting or transferring to laptop. For some reason it quit loading pics to this site. Decided to upload pics directly from my phone’s gallery and it worked. Now it uploads the pic and automatically resizes it. No idea why, but if it’s not broke…

I typically use my laptop when reading through the latest posts. Use the “Dumb” phone when I want to send pics. Another reason I use the laptop is because I’m sitting at the kitchen table chilling with a bourbon in hand! :)

twilliams

Sure gel was one of the ingredients that I did add in with the seasoning. In the past I have also added carrot fiber to help retain moisture. And I had no issues. But this time I didn’t add it and having different problems. So confusing.

Bob Stehlik that’s a neat little area of town, not as nice as it used to be. We still make our way there a couple of times a year when visiting family.

Pork butt ground and the cheese of your choice added along with cure #1, salt, dextrose/sugar, California ham spice, and some smoke.

Jonathon looking forward to it, should be out of my training and home.

Lance ok. It sounded to me like a gooey or slimy word thanks for correcting my definition.

My brother was there at the time w 2/8

That would work just watch the salt content I guess?

twilliams I put 3 oz. In summer sausage and 2 1/2 oz in snack sticks

Congratulations mrobisr ans kyle , well done.

Jonathon thanks for the update. I honestly forgot to check when I hit 1500. Apparently it was awhile ago. Thanks for all you guys do.

dgmd it may take a day for them to stop comong would be my guess, it looked like you have everything turned off correctly in your settings.

Great! Thank you!

Jonathon did you add cheese to the sticks?

no_eyes_processor still getting bounce backs so here goes, I hope the reader works as well in Meatgistics as it will in an email or word doc
Turn on and it defaults to Set Temp, directly below that is Set Smoke, however this is greyed out and cannot be selected,
So one scroll down (counte clockwise)is Feed, below that is shutdown which is also greyed out
So one scroll down from that is settings
one scroll down is ext.
one scroll down brings you back to Set temp.
Clicking the wheel will bring you to a screen that is 160 degrees and low smoke.
1 scroll clockwise (opposite of before) will bring you a screen that says High Smoke Set Temp 220
1 scroll clockwise from that will bring you to 160 degrees and whatever smoke you have selected (if you selected one)
every clockwise scroll will move the temp up 5 degrees until you hit 450. I believe the next setting is 500 degrees
Now, here is an issue, you get 4 seconds on 1st screen with 160 degrees and low smoke to press something, fi you don’t, it will automatically go to confirm (which can be clicked to lock in, or one scroll counterclockwise will take you to cancel, which takes you back to the 160 and low smoke screen. You cannot clockwise scroll on that screen, unless you go down to cancel and then back up to confirm
Okay, so once you select your temp and hit the confirm (so 2 clicks, one to get to confirm and one to confirm) the system will take 6 minutes to startup. It defaults to a bypass option that you can use if your grill was already hot, or a counterclockwise scroll will go to a cancel button which will take you back to the previous screen.
During this time the smoker will probably put out a lot of smoke, this isn’t anything to be concerned about
One it gets done with that 6 minute startup it will display the current grill temp and up to 4 probe thermometers temps
Moving the wheel in either direction will take you to the main screen again,
your choices are set temp (this is what it starts on)
1 counterclockwise scroll for set smoke
feed will be greyed out below it and cant be accessed
Scroll counterclockwise goes to shutdown
scroll counterclockwise goes to settings
scroll counterclockwise goes to Exit
another counterclockwise scroll will take you back to set temp, where we began on this screen.
Touching nothing for 30 seconds puts you back on the screen with the temp displayed and the up to 4 probe thermometers displayed
If you were to have hit set temp on the previous screen you go back to the options of set temp from before
If you chose set smoke in the previous menu
Each counterclockwise scroll will move the smoke setting up 1 all the way to 10 with 1 increase with every scroll. Clicking the wheel will take you back to the previous screen which is the temperature display screen.
To shut it off from the display screen click the wheel do 3 counterclockwise scrolls and click the wheel, then click the wheel again as it defaults to confirm, which will shut it down. If you got to this screen by accident you can do 1 counterclockwise scroll to get to cancel
shutdown process takes 20 minutes but requires no input from you

If you need anything, you have my cell phone #, feel free to call!

bocephus said in Walton holly sausage mix:

Johnboy13 Add a little bit at a time and fry up a small patty, until you get it right. Remember to document the quantity per weight of meat.

Totally agree with this approach. Don’t commit all your ground meat till you have a mix that you like. Stick to 1 or 2 lb batches. Then scale up up the meat and seasoning amounts after you get the flavor you are looking for.

JohnG5 congrats to all.

I agree. I plan to leave frozen and cook as needed. Thanks.

davew1 you also. Good luck 👍

Chris Scheppers I sent you an email.

Never heard of it, but the recipe I found has me very interested.

Miller Yes if you want to smoke right away I would suggest using encapsulated citric acid or sodium erythorbate. If you aren’t really experienced with smoked meat stabilizer I would avoid it if you have access to the other two.

Andrew Welcome back Andrew. It’s been a while since you have posted. What have you been making lately? Anything of interest?

johnsbrewhouse thanks and think fat the processor uses could have extra salt too. I will try cutting my seasoning back

Yes that Waltons 7lber is the best for us home hunter processers…

Jonathon Austin These two guys probably have experience using it.

Tex_77 said in Meatgistics Maintenance:

Ugh that’s my favorite tome to be on.

Same here… If I set an alarm… LOL

I Was totally surprised looked like any other animal I boned only this one had lots more fat to trim