Made a batch of jalapeño popper sausage. I added 10 fresh jalapeños to the grinder to bump up the heat. Jonathan had said it was lacking on heat with just seasoning. It ended up with the perfect heat for me. Also did a batch of cheese burger cheddarwurst. I really like it also. I think I am going to use some to make a bacon cheese burger pizza.
I added 1 pound of bacon to each batch also. Hatch green chili is still my favorite fresh sausage/brat, but I think this is number 2 for me.
My take of Shotgun Shells using jalapeño popper brat seasoning.
1 1/2 pounds 80/20 ground beef
1.5 oz jolapeno popper brat seasoning
16 oz cream cheese (could use high temp cheese of choice)
2.5 oz water
1 package manicotti shells
1 pound bacon
Mix ground beef , water and jalapeño popper seasoning.
Mix in cream cheese.
Add mixture to piping bag with a large nozzle.
Pipe mixture into manicotti shells. Pipe half from one end and then fill from other end works well.
Wrap each shell with one slice of bacon. Try and cover the entire shell. Any exposed pasta will not soften during the smoke.
Smoke at 225-250 for 2 hours. Remove and enjoy.
I have made tons of whole muscle jerky but never restructured. When I bought the new stuffer during the Christmas sale, I added the jerky maker attachment to give it a go at some point. This weekend was the time. Started with 15 pounds of 93/7 ground beef. It was on sale for two bucks a pound cheaper than any whole cuts, so I used it instead of grinding my own. Added meat, seasoning, cure and smoked meat stabilizer to the mixer. After 4 minutes it dead stopped my #22 grinder attached to the mixer. Added 16 oz of water and it was turning again. This is the second time this week my #22 has dead stopped. Earlier this week it stopped while grinding pork and cream cheese at the same time. Wish I had waited 3 months to buy the grinder and gotten the new one with reverse. Anyway, got it all mixed up and into the stuffer with the jerky attachment. Man does that thing work slick! It made quick work cranking out two strips at a time. I can’t even imagine how much time it saved compared to using a jerky gun. Got them all extruded and did some in the oven and in the smoker. Both turned out excellent!
Couple lessons learned.
#15 of restructured jerky takes up a lot of space! I had my whole counter top plush the top of my deep freeze full of jerky on just the first run through the stuffer. It also takes a lot of room to cook it. The first run through the stuffer filled my smoker, my Traeger, and my oven. Second run filled my Traeger and oven.
I wish I didn’t have to add the water. The Traeger handled it but the smoker and convection oven both struggled to dry it out. 2 1/2 hours in the Traeger and 6 hours in both the smoker and oven.
Overall, the flavor and texture is great. I will definitely do it again.
Something satisfying about making corndogs with hotdogs I made myself.
In the ice bath
Casings stripped and drying
Pulled 2 from sous vide and strait onto buns
Overall rating is excellent! The taste is equal to if not better than the premium hot dogs. If you like Nathans, Hebrew Nation, or any other hot dog with that flavor profile you will love these.
My recipe was:
#5 ground chuck 73/27
.2 oz sure cure
.4 oz smoked meat stabilizer
.2 oz hickory smoke powder
1.2 oz sure gel
4.8 oz Frank and Bologna unit
6.4 oz water
1 1/2 cups ice cubes while in food processor.
Starting to get low on brats so I made 3 batches last night. From left to right, hatch green chili w/cheddar cheese. Jalapeño popper w/bacon, cream cheese and fresh jalapeños. Chicken (thighs) using hatch green chili, fresh jalapeños and bacon.
I have made about every flavor of brat and these three are my favorites that I will always have in the freezer. They are so good!
Had a pretty good weekend hunting. Fried quail sandwich for dinner last night.
Here is a printer friendly conversion of all the seasonings for 1-10 pound batches for anyone interested. I did all of them in an excel spreadsheet. You should print these out in landscape and it should pretty much fill the page. The seasoning weights are all in ounces. I will do the additives soon.
Edit: additives and cures have been added to the excel files
CLICK HERE FOR EXCEL FILE IN OUNCES
CLICK HERE FOR EXCEL FILE IN GRAMS
Did my first processing with the new grinder, mixer and stuffer. My old setup was #8 grinder, #20 mixer, and #5 stuffer. 12lb batch was the biggest I had done before. I decided to do a whole 25lb batch with the new setup.
First off was the grind. The new grinder is simply a beast! The first grind, I almost could’t feed the thing fast enough. The second grind blew me away. My old grinder would have taken an hour to second grind 25 pounds. The new grinder took 15 minutes. I only had to clear it with the stomper twice. My old grinder was stomper everything on second grind. Washed up grinder head and hooked up the #50 meat mixer. Dumped in 25 lbs of meat and turned it on. Dumped in seasoning, cure, sure gel, and smoked meat stabilizer. Added 40 oz of water after a minute and let the mixer run. I can’t tell awesome it was not to have to crank that handle! Although the mixer worked great, you do have to watch the sides and scrape it down here and there. This is where a reverse would be nice but not a big deal. Being able to tilt the mixer to unload it was also great. After mixing, the tub comes off for cleaning. Surprisingly the tub fit in my sink better than the #20 and cleaning it was pretty easy. On to stuffing. I used 19mm casings for the snack sticks. I struggled with stuffing at first. The handle was extremely hard to crank. There was so much pressure when trying to crank that the handle slipped out of my hand and did 3 fast turns backwards barely missing smacking me in the face by about an inch. After checking a couple things I realize the air valve is adjustable and shipped completely closed. After opening it up things were much better. Making 19mm snack sticks was still a little tougher to crank, but adjusting the air valve took the back pressure off so the handle didn’t spin out of control backwards when you let go of it. By the last refill, I was stuffing like a pro. Overall, even though I had done grinding, mixing, and stuffing before, there was a learning curve on the bigger equipment. Overall, I did #25 in about 1/4 of the time it would have taken with the previous equipment. Looking forward to many more big batches.
I never add water to breakfast sausage whether I make patties or links.
Sometimes UPS hands off to USPS for delivery. And in my experience, most of the time USPS drops the ball.
I am not aware of any that are natural gas ready out of the box, but there are several natural gas conversion kits available.
The knife must have grabbed one of them hats while I wasn’t looking 
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I had posted this a while back, but just for reference, here is the 8 compared to the 22.
I have an #8 and a #22. The #8 works great in small batches on the first grind. The second grind is really slow on an 8 compared to the 22. Five pound batches are not to bad. Anything over that and you will probably wish you had the #12.
Last night was smash burgers with homemade curly fries in a light batter and Steak Princess Cajun Firefly Dust for seasoning.
That looks great!
I wish someplace around here carried pork bellies besides the locker. I only buy them on special occasions cause the lockers charge a premium price for them. I can buy bacon from the locker cheaper than a belly.
kyle said in Blackstone griddle:
twilliams I have the Flat Iron brand from Menards (blackstones were impossible to find when I bought it) It was much cheaper in price, but I have no regrets now. I think it works great
I also have the Flat Iron from Menards. It had some things going for it that Blackstone didn’t at the time. The grease trap is in the front for easy access. It has a lip all the way around between the flat top and the burners so wind isn’t a problem. And the biggest thing for me, the cover is attached with hinges and just lifts up so you don’t have to take it off and find a place to set it when you cook. And it was only $219. As far as use, I don’t know how I lived without it. I love mine.
