General

@twilliams Thanks, we love your set up! The Pro Smokers are awesome smokers even if they are more expensive, the insulation alone makes it worth it in my mind. I’d be lost without our PK-100!

@twilliams If you are planning on trimming your beef extremely lean then I would recommend you either add more than 30% or at least use a binder. We generally recommend that you have around 70/30 lean to fat, so if you are adding ground pork (which might be around 60/40) to a very lean beef you are going to be pretty light on the fight. Now, if you’ve been doing this with pork and venison and are pleased with the results you should have very similar results if you just replace the venison with beef but I’d think you would have better success with higher fat content.

@PapaSop He’ll come around, have to try it a time or two and then realize how simple it is to nail it everytime and he will be happy to do it!

The high temp cheese will ship fine, it is very stable and Walton’s does a great job with shipping things properly

@Jonathon Yep. I see that now as well. Could be just a manufacturing thing. I will still reinstall to the piece they came off of since it’s formed to that. @Drseibert . I thought about rubbing a little white oil on those rings during assembly and will do that from now on. Won’t hurt them. @Joe-Hell . Get those rings in dude.

@unclebill Those look great, thanks for posting them! Can’t wait to get home tonight and eat some pizza brats!

Good to know, thanks

@Jonathon OMG. You’re a good sales rep. Great deal on injector. That plus Pa’s seasoning, extra springs and eight other items. It’s like a meat xmas in April. :exploding_head:

@Jonathon Nope. Not at all. Makes sense. Thank you sir.

@Joe-Hell I decided to finally get back in shape a few years ago, luckily my wife decided to do that at the same time so we motivate/compete with each other, we get up every weekday morning at 4 AM to go to the gym! She is FAR more dedicated than I am though so (lucky for me!) she is the one in better shape in our marriage! As for food, I do a lot better on low low carbs and I seem to do best when I am in ketosis but the issue with that is I keep knocking myself out of ketosis with my protein consumption as through some process I am unaware of your body changes proteins into glucose. Darn bodies are double-crossing us! We did our blood levels through some guy who came to her work last year and I was basically perfect in everything and I don’t have any symptoms of anything that would make me think I need to go to a Dr to get anything checked. I 100% agree with you on pharmaceuticals being something to avoid. Everyone wants a pill when mostly what they need is to eat better and exercise! Good job on getting your health on track, it always pays off in the long run! @deplorablenc1 Lol boycotting avocados! I’ve been trying to fit more water in but recently I have developed an addiction to Diet Canada Dry Gingerale!

@deplorablenc1 Yep. We’re on the same page.

@deplorablenc1 Crap! I was just bragging that I actually ordered everything on my list and didn’t forget one thing…Then you went and mentioned Willie.

@deplorablenc1 Apparently it is a caching issue on their end so it should fix itself soon(ish!)

I bought the vacmaster vp215 three years ago and we love using it. We package all our meats and veggies using this. I use several different sizes of bags and buy them in large amounts and the savings are huge. You can even do stews or any thick sauce foods since the chamber has a sloping bottom.

‘Sausage’ can be prepared in a fresh style or dried/aged. Brats are fresh sausages. Both will have specific seasonings that are used traditionally. Both are tasty!

I asked the question yesterday on the live chat. I wanted to follow up with something I found: Molds also oxidize lactic acid as well as other acids. This action produces ammonia which just happens to increase the pH. So, apparently this is a normal occurrence. My first batch had no smell but this time it did. The real test will be when I weigh some this weekend and taste it.

@blackbetty61 That would make sense since the proteins haven’t been broken down as thoroughly as they would be with a second grind. Hope it turns out well and I can’t emphasize super cold meat enough, it is a huge time saver on a second grind!

@deplorablenc1 another tip to help that out is to use a sausage pricker and prick all your sausages (do NOT prick the top part where they will behanging over or they will split). But this way in the off chance of poor protein extraction the fat can at least render out of the casing rather than build up inside.

@no_eyes_processor That is an awesome new name! You have done a lot of impressive stuff and kept pushing and trying new things and that is great, we are happy to have everyone on this board but you might have the best “story” of anyone I know of!

@deplorablenc1 I pulled mine around 150 and threw them directly into the tank. I should have payed closer attention to the exact time but I think they were in there for about 45-60 minutes. I blame the rum for my memory loss.