Dave in AZ congratulations🍺 and thanks for all of your great posts!!

I would swear that I have seen humidity or something, maybe barometric pressure have an effect on propane in the past too, but I have never been able to consistently put my finger on it & narrow it down to a science so still not sure. Who knows, outside of a lab & very controlled & monitored conditions, it is hard to say sometimes.

Moist Meat

Dang it now I want some pizza! Denny O

Dave in AZ said in Smooth acid in pepperoni:

Lastly, a few folks HAVE left it sit overnight mixed in and said they didn’t see a texture loss. Maybe it was mrobisr. So it may work… but not a “best practice” if you can avoid.

I agree that avoiding it is best, but if you cannot I have NEVER had a problem ever, so don’t worry do what you have to do.

dawg That is the bottle of oil i got for the bamboo boards. Not it. bocephus While that is not the goal, I guess it is having that effect!

Thanks for sharing it is great people like you that make the sausage making experience fun.

Denny O this is how I figure it out. The 75% is 75% of 100%. The 25% is 25% of 100%. So if we have 100lbs. Of meat, 75 pounds is lean meat, 25lbs. Is fat. So if I added the 25lbs. Of fat to the 75 lbs. Of lean, I’ll have 100lbs.

Deepwoodsbutcher look up the “labels and more” store on e-bay. They have everything you can think of for labels.

NelsonMV that’s the spirit! Just keep on trying 😁 a few things to remember

Keep your meat cold! Meat binds best between 40° and 45 °. Use your thermometer to tell how cold it is. It can feel cold to your hands, but it can be 50° to 60° in reality. Make sure you get your bind. There’s sticky, then there’s STICKY. Make sure it sticks to your hand up side down, and stretches apart. Just like in waltons video. Binders work great! Binders keep your product moist, helps keep fat from " fatting out" and really binds the meat together good. Waltons sure gel works great as a binder. Try not to go over 160° during cooking process. Higher than that and the fat has a hard time holding on.
I had all the same issues as you did not to long ago, and just a few small changes, made a big difference. Good luck!

wdaly Definitely not perfected after my first batch but I probably wouldn’t change it much the next time.

wvotrfan They definitely take it to a new level. Nice to be able to use a straw, especially while driving.

twilliams I completely agree that visually it is not appealing at all, but I would still try it. At work several of us have agreed to try whatever we bring, at least one bite and well some have been very good, and others were stand by the trash can just in case.

kyle now that plan might work. Thanks buddy.

chippewa I don’t know when you were by last but it sounds to me like there has been quite the change. They even purchased the property across the street too, the old sale barn.

werskirs Good Luck, hope you can convince her. If I lived closer, it wouldn’t be for sale any longer.

Well, they stayed in the smoker following the scheduly nearly exactly, hung up at 145, Inchecked em an the part closest to the burner were getting done,
I needed to save em an get em out so I steamed em right quik an pulled em, kinda funny looking, waiting on em to “ wrinkle” I have made much prettier sticks
When not trying to get a wrinkle, will try to post a pic,

Dave in AZ said in What does Willies taste like?:

I just re-read the thread title, and laughed and laughed…

Dave I think an “A” has been edited out of the title to clean it up a bit. 😂 😂 😂

chippewa That was the thinking to begin with.

no_eyes_processor haven’t heard from you in a while. Glad to hear from you again.

I’ve had the same experience with long cook times. Over time I’ve found what works well for me. My experience has been that the sticks are very sensitive to the amount of fat added when trying to bring up to temp (160). One batch I decided to add what I thought was an excessive % of fat and when I put them on the smoker they were up to temp in less than 4 hrs (smoker never got over 190). (I ramp up the temps the same every time I cook. However, my pellet smoker will not consistently stay lit if I go below 150, so I start at that temp.)
I’m still experimenting with fat and water content but the ratio that came right up to temp was 6 lbs venison, 2lbs of lean pork butt, 2 lbs of lard (for a 10lb mix) I add the spices, cheese and pink salt based on 10lbs, and have found about 1/2 cup ice water per 1lb of mix is about right. In this case, 5 cups. Never added anything but spice mix curing salt and water.
I’ve found to its much more difficult to smoke in cold weather. I have done it, but I cover my smoker with fiberglass welding blankets from harbor freight as insulation. The more meat in the smoker, the longer it takes. My 30" x 17" smoking grill will handle 10lbs. (1 layer of sticks with some space between each stick) and I rotate them because of smoker hot spots.
Hope this helps!

John Belvedere I believe he was simply referring to this commerical regarding salsa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbp9UrwC-mI

akdave Curing salts have been used for thousands of years using naturally occurring sodium nitrate in salt deposits. It wasn’t until the late 1800 hundreds that the use of nitrite became popular and understood. I read somewhere that they probably didn’t understand the process prior to that but knew that certain salts fixed the red color and kept the meat preserved for an extended period of time compared to other salts. While today we use commercially produced nitrates/nitrites contrary to popular belief they are found in nature.

OleSmokey Nice work.

Whoop Whoop!! 80 to 76 final

Jamieson22 good looking stuff all of it

Jonathon yeah, that’s how they describe hikers to their friends

Jonathon thank you for your expertise. I’m looking back in time to before the German war when sausage makers choose the best temperatures for their sausage meat and their spices. Then came the war. Polish people, Jews, and others were terminated. We almost lost the sacred recipes of the past. Government agencies were in charge of what meats, spices, and temperatures were allowed. For a long time, you were only allowed pork in making kielbasa garlic sausage. Later you were allowed some beef as the story goes. If you added other ingredients it was not considered a certain sausage type. You could rename it like “Jon’s Sausage” for instance.

calldoctoday Interesting, I just spotted it today at the West Wichita Academy

Deepwoodsbutcher A local deli makes something similar with the ends of their lunch meat, less the horseradish & I like it better than the ham spread. Now I’ll have to try it myself. Thanks

zbigjeff thanks. Usually if I am good for anything it is as a bad example…465

Ridley Acres I really enjoyed your post about your hog processing. It was a real family affair. I’m from Wisconsin and I grew up with Sheboygan, Usinger’s, Klement’s and Southside Sausage brats. I looked at the ingredients in the 1503 and saw that it didn’t have sage or marjoram to give them their distinctive German flavor. I think the 1503 would be kind of plain tasting (imho).

bocephus yes, I agree! And I do appreciate all the knowledge, and opinions.

When are you going to do a pod cast or live stream with a live audience?

Local brewery? Even just on the sales floor and interact with the customers in the store or other staff?

bocephus I even have shark in the freezer…going to do a will-it bbq soon. I have one that was all ready for tomorrow and it was HORRIBLE but Austin isn’t going to be here. So we will push it out a week or so.

Dave in AZ I don’t think it was me that posted that, but I have seen them come up for sale occasionally and that’s why i’m considering how to make a block of meat for such a thing.

History gets more fascinating the older I get.

Austin if you like a certain sausage mix how do you make it into a snack stick or summer sausage

jblick21 that should make you a great smoker. Congrats and good luck 👍

HerbcoFood filled with Jiffy!

Possum If this does turn out to be the solution; order a second bushing in case you lose it or it gets damaged in cleaning. I always have a spare because I lost one, I assume it went down the sink drain while washing things up or rolled somewhere I can’t see. I never found it. I remembered Jon/Austin saying to always keep an extra auger bushing and an extra stuffer seal ring on hand. I now have spares of both on hand!

smokinbubba you had a busy day

Dave in AZ Thanks Dave!
It is the process that an item is cured changes the amount mostly, then the product has to fit the process. Does that boil it down to a simplified answer?

I make braunswiger yearly 50%wild game liver50%pork emulsify in food processor stuff 2 1/2 by 12 sausage casings vac pac then poach 175° water to 155 then cool over night then remove vac bag and cold smoke about 3 hrs

jakeanderton great to seebthey came out nice! Congrats!

wvotrfan You don’t want them.

Mainly just the salt… Flavor was still very good…

Bunch of good information here from Dave in AZ calldoctoday and others but I would say there are 3 main reasons we want to let the cure sit in the meat overnight.
1 - safety, specifically (though not limited to) in a vacuum pack. Botulism is a nasty little b****r and it can grow JUST fine in a air-free environment, sure cure prevents it from growing
2 - flavor preservation
3 - color development and preservation

One more vote for to much protein extraction. If you are looking for moisture retention I use carrot fiber works great.

Jonathon Yeah or the poultry police will come and get you as Emeril used to say.

Grimpuppy we ow you were busy!! Everything looks awesome! But those brats have my mouth watering!!! Great job🍺

Jonathon
Hurts more because I did it for a friend.
Thanks for your input.

Thank you everyone!

Spmaher3 I’m with sjhuntingfool on this. I have learned that 12.5lbs of snack sticks is the max for my masterbuilt electric. Just don’t give up. You’ll get it figured out and find out it’s way worth doing. Just try smaller batches til you get a handle on it.

Dave in AZ please don’t get me wrong, they look wonderful, and I am very certain that they are. I go back to the pita pbj’s that became one of the many small tributaries to the massive river of my psychosis

bocephus 🤣 🤣

kyle gus4416 https://waltons.com/categories/waltons-wearables they are the 1st two options here. We will have ics up in a few days. Our graphics manager is totally wrapped up in our commercial catalog, so I didn’t want him taking time to take images of these yet.

jakeanderton I have used a pork loin before in a fresh sausage. It was around the time I first heard that pork loin has less intramuscular fat than chicken breast. I made some side by side with no fat added as I wanted to see what the difference in taste/texture was. Turns out that even with less fat pork loin makes better sausage than chicken breast, even if it has less fat.

I would still recommend adding pork fat though. I haven’t had to buy it in a while but it shouldn’t be more than $2 a lb at your butcher…or that is what it was in 2020 when I bought a case of it. I vac sealer it in the largest chunks I could but still have had to slice off some of the oxidized parts when I defrost it. I think that bag might have gotten slightly pierced though.

dawg This is exactly why those billionaires are all invested in the lab meat and insect production it is all by design. I do believe that this is why those same people have bought so much farmland, because they will still be able to get the fertilizer, chemicals, and raise livestock for their own consumption and profit. The tyrant’s playbook has never changed, power and money are always at the heart of the matter.

Jonathon Great! I cannot wait to try it with the stuff we have here. Alex or Andrew better hurry up & get a deer or I am going to have to find the beef.

Denny O I can usually figure this stuff out. Couple days ago I tried couldn’t get anywhere. I knew I was missing something

tarp it tastes great! I have been making it for about 5 years now.

TCost That’s the nice part, we usually get to eat our mistakes and learn from them and try again til we get it right.

HerbcoFood I still think there will be some pepperoni pizza involved in the menu.

Tex_77 The scandals article opened my eyes to the world of meat thefts and ponzi type schemes. Wow!

kyle said in Darn down vote button:

Denny O also I overlooked you using the “f” word in your post. I assume your talking about other sites😊

Took me a second! 🤣 🤣

badexpresso It’s a 700. I’ll look into upgrading the firmware. I’ve tried propping the door open on the 700 and it started doing really weird things. Haha

covcreo welcome aboard.

Jonathon you doing a great job! I’m half-Polish. I figured what good am I to be Polish and not make Polish sausage? I do make other sausages that aren’t Polish. I appreciate your work and what you do. A lot of the sausages I make are not in the stores.

Jonathon said in Walton's Chamber Vac Sealer:

Mcjagger It will be a month or so but we have a video coming out on this. Still being worked on though.

djman69465 said in 80/20 ground beef extruded jerky in a dehydrator:

kyle LOL ill try and watch the my “language”.

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

armyguy Envious of that stuffer, I usually grind through a 10mm plate and then second grind through 7mm plate.

Thank you for the help! When asking my wife, she says she wants no “tanginess”. Seals the deal for me; no ECA.

I didn’t know there was a burrito season, I eat them year round.

I have had to do the same thing. You will need to add more water to the mix in order to stuff it or you may hurt or even brake your stuffer.

Jonathon In addition, dry the cheese of your choice a bit to help with its heat temperance & then freeze it before adding to your mix, late in the mix. We use other natural cheeses using this method too, just make sure you are you a harder & more aged cheese as we have had better luck with those.

wvotrfan great looking steaks and sides.

Jonathon thanks you guy’s , more information, that’s what I like. Gives me more things to consider when sausage making. Just thought that maybe too much water, or not enough water, would effect the bind or something. I think I’ve been going a little lean in the water department, going to bump it up a little. Thanks again.

Jonathon thanks for your reply. I’ve given up on using the MRT cure due to the nitrate and will use some of the Sweeter than Sweet cure instead to make a pickle for these first few pork bellies I have ready for curing. I’ve done the math to correct the weight(1.33 lbs) of the cure per gallon to give me 120 ppm ingoing nitrite as per Walton’s bacon pickle recipe. I need to order some more Country Brown Sugar cure for some hams I am going to do and I will add some of the Blue Ribbon bacon cure to give it a try on the pork bellies that are next on the list for processing.

Denny O They were dominated on both lines, which is where the Bison usually dominate. They have had a lot of injuries this year, especially on the o-line.

The Streets are from my hometown, Indianola IA. My cousin was neighbors with them.
I was headed to the U of I 50 years ago this fall

https://waltons.com/search-results-page?q=catalog

angel4us I take boneless breasts and since about 1/8 to 1/4 thick and just dehydrate the dog’s love em as is no spices

nicholls47 sounds like it could be good

Grimpuppy don’t add it to standing water. There is a xhance it will gas out and that can cause a dangerous cloud. Now, if you want to add it to your dry seasoning and drag your meat through it then soak it overnight that will be okay. Just can’t dump large amounts into standing water!

The plastic casings might be the first problem. They do not breath to allow excess moisture escape. You might try the fibrous casings. Then you might want to do some thermal processing in a smoker or low temp. oven to help dry the outsides before putting in the sous vide. Walton’s sell different types of binders for different uses which will help with moisture retention. I think sure gel might be what you would use.

I had the same issue— untilll…when they get close, put a water pan on the burner an they will steam to temp. this will soften em up some an make em softer,
this will not take long, stem works fast,and I am famous for “over smoking” lol, that will always lead to tough caseings

kyle My son got me one for my birthday recently. It lasted a day. I’ve always got stuff to stock up on.

https://meatgistics.waltons.com/topic/4472/made-some-blueberry-and-cream-cheese-brats-also @THE FEEDLOT made these but didn’t post much about his recipe. He hasn’t been active in a while though, maybe tagging him will get him to see this and he can give his input. They looked great!

Yes just add between 10-15% more seasoning than for the brats. Have used it with both pork and chicken to make sticks, the chicken came out very good.

Jonathon Austin On page 50 of the 2023 paper catalog I see images of stuffer tubes. The flat-flangee style stuffer tubes pictured on the right side of page 50 are not shown or listed on page 68 where only cone-flangee stuffer tubes are shown with price and model information.

Does Walton’s carry the flat-flangee style of stuffer tubes pictured on page 50?
9da9753a-1c64-4dfb-9108-9423c28c260420230129_075047.jpg

34b13460-e006-490f-8cb0-b9e3d6bab8cb-20230129_075127.jpg

Hey guys, for anyone who has a grilleye and needs a probe for it on your next order over $100 you can use FREEGE to get a free Grilleye Iris Probe. The coupon will be good for one per order but you can use the coupon more than once if you want more than 1 extra, however, it will only be good for 50 total units. Hope some of you guys can use this!

It works with the Grilleye and Grilleye Pro Plus.