URGENT 911

@mdseaside Back pressure between the knife and plate could be the key. Was your plate retaining ring inner [censored] clean and tight on the grinder head? Ck the space between the grinder knife and the plate. If it’s not a tight fit… mush

Thank you for the reply and thankfully I don’t like my bacon charred. I will keep it pliable. Pleased I do not have to waste this pork belly.

Thanks guy! Should have clarified a couple things in my question but it has nothing to do with twang, just making sure the meat is safe for consumption after I’m done smoking. Normally I would either leave it in the fridge overnight (i.e 12 hours or more) or would just go with ECA and go immediately into smoker right after stuffing. Without going into all the details I really don’t have that option this weekend so my choice is either a) add the ECA with the cure and start smoking within 6-10 hours of when the cure and ECA are added to the pork or b) leave the ECA out. I’m planning on smoking about 100 pounds of sticks in the smoker so I’m thinking it will probably take me 3-4 hours just to get everything mixed and stuffed (i.e. thus the reason for the 6-10 hour range). Based on these additional details, would you recommend ECA or not?

@JoeB No Libation gives you no excuse… lessons learned

Thanks for the quick responses! Much appreciated.

If you mix in the garlic, then pack it in a pan and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator prior to stuffing, you may find you get better distribution of the flavors.

@Jonathon thank you. .16 and 2.4 oz of water for 1 lb ground turkey for making turkey bacon got. I appreciate you giving me the answer

I had the same problem for years until last week I switched to a vertical offset converted to propane. With the burner off to the side instead of under the sausage I no longer get over done bottoms and under done tops. I also can do 24 inch casings now instead of having to settle for 12 inch cases to keep the bottoms from overcooking. Dyna glo signature vertical offset. Paid $150 for mine brand new and robbed a burner from my turkey fryer.

@LuckyDs no problem that’s what this community is all about helping one another and learning from each other…what works what doesn’t…this place is full of excellent info

@bpschuebel Thanks so much.I was thinking along those lines myself but being the first attempt wasn’t sure if myself. Ive made summer sausage several times and use the citric but didn’t think the sausage needed it. Thanks again!

@mcherbies How did the bologna turn out? I would love to add some sugar as well… Not sure how much.

Ok, cool I found it. I was using the wrong search. Didn’t realize there are 2. Found exactly what I needed. My math was correct, it just didn’t seem like it. Thanks a bunch.

@mdseaside Nice looking sausage’s there. As @Jonathon said that’s interesting about losing some smoke flavor in the Sous Vide.

Turned out quite good! Too much clove flavor though️ For my tastes.

@Rafter3 There are only 1 or 2 seasonings that we sell that actually have the cure mixed in, the vast vast majority of them have the cure in a separate package that will be included but is in its own small bag. The exceptions to that rule is some of the fast pack stuff and honestly that is almost exclusively bought by commercial processors. For summer sausage the best thing to do would be to watch all of https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/category/40/cured-sausage if you have time. If you don’t then watch/read: https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/765/cured-sausage-104-casings-for-summer-sausage https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/762/cured-sausage-107-basics-for-making-summer-sausage https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1108/cured-sausage-206-advanced-cured-sausage-processing Pay special attention to the 205 thermal processing. Pulling it at 130° and finishing in 177° water is going to cut hours off of your processing. It can be a little intimidating to try on your 1st batch though. If you want to get comfortable with the process first then just watch the 104 and 107. Quick tips would be, use sure gel meat binder, use Encapsualted Citric Acid as a cure accelerator and tang adder (if you don’t like tang then stuff before holding overnight) and finally be patient with your smoke schedule. It is easy to get frustrated during the stall and just up the temp on the smoker but that can cause issues.

Hmm, so you’re saying using cure in ground jerky may not be enough for safety, that a high salt content is needed as well? I’m not shooting for "shelf stable at room temp for six months, " as I keep jerky in the fridge or frozen. I’ll check out those videos for sure. I made a recent batch of teriyaki jerky that was real good, mostly I think because I extruded it a little thicker and didn’t cook it bone hard.

@smokinjerky1991 Start here https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/683/summer-sausage-nightmare/8?_=1610834298671 that is a water shed moment in meatgistics history if you ask me! Also we talk about fatting out a good amount in https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/category/40/cured-sausage Basically to give you the cliffs notes on it fat renders out of meat if it is not mixed enough and or a binder wasn’t used. So, add sure gel meat binder and mix the meat until it is tacky and sticky.

thanks, Aaron. The problem/question I have about the calls for pickling brine aren’t addressed in your spreadsheet. For most recipes the salt, sugar, and spices are scalable (twice the volume you double the ingredients) but the nitrite concentrations are not scalable in this way. Nitrite concentration depends on how much meat you are going to put into a volume of brine and those values also depend on how long the meat will need to cure in the brine. Injections certainly shorten the time needed for curing as well as the use of accelerants. I’m hoping to figure out how these calculations are made so I can adapt the pickling recipe to use other pre-mixed cures that contain different nitrite concentrations for curing bacon and hocks.

@BobK take a look at my spread sheet I attached to the bragging board “Fresh Smoked Ham”. It wasn’t created for bacon cure but uses the brown sugar cure and is scalable. Hope it helps!

@Jonathon no worries