Meat Processing

As @TexLaw said.

@Jonathon Actually, I think the poster was asking if you follow the same rinsing protocol with injecting as with pickling. Your video starts off with talking about the injecting method, then switches to the pickling method and the rinsing that must be done. Do you have to rinse as well when injecting, or do you go right to the smoker with it?

@smokinbubba sorry didn’t think about your name when I posted the comment was on my tablet at the time and didn’t realize that it posted more than once

Thank you. It tastes pretty good too. I gave some to a neighbor to get his opinion on it. He has been smoking his own country ham for a number of years and prefers country ham. He came over a few days later and said, “Well, your ham is good, but I hate to tell you this but it tastes like you bought it at a store.” To him, that was a bad thing. To me, that was a good thing.

@Biscuit small canning jar. Use Brine solution. 1 cup sea salt to 1 gl distilled water. Refrigerate . Will last a long time

Thank You…hadn’t thought of that. I’m pretty new to this…very new to this…so my learning curve is sky high

@Chef I do believe you are confusing dry curing terminology with dry aging. As for dry curing your sausage it is no different than any other EQ dry cure. Dry aging on the other hand is the process that begins after dry curing is completed. This is where the temp and humidity controlled chambers come into play. This allows you to remove 35 to 40% aW without case hardening. If you allow case hardening your sausage will actually spoil from the inside out due the aW (available water) inside unable to leave the meat.

I don’t have that brand, but for mine I use an old 50 quart cooler and place a meat lug lid with a cut out for the sous vide device over the cooler. Works like a charm. I guess my point is more than you think. I used to use a large meat lug, but wanted to make a set up that lost less heat. My setup is pretty much like papa sop’s, but now I use the cooler.

@processhead said in Grinder Putting Out Mush? Don't Overlook The Obvious.: Reviewing some posts of other people having problems grinding meat reminded me of a recent experience I had, and why you need to rule out the obvious when troubleshooting equipment problems. Some friends and I had made sausage one weekend and after washdown, one of the new guys had reassembled the grinder head as we normally do so it would be ready to use the next week. The following week, I was working alone and had just starting to grind some pork butt. I noticed the grinder was putting out mush meat and not feeding properly so I shut down the grinder. I took the nut off the grinder and pulled the plate out and saw that my buddy had put the knife in backwards with the cutting edge facing inwards when he reassembled the grinder after the previous use. Yeah, everyone is entitled to make a rookie mistake like that once. The take away is, grinders are really simple machines and there are not many things that can go wrong. When you do have grinding problems: Understand how the plate and knife are supposed to fit in your grinder. Make sure your knife and plate are sharp. This is probably not a huge concern if you own a newer grinder and are a hobbyist/ occasional user. For best results, only grind very cold or partially frozen meat. Warm meat does not feed well in most grinders. @processhead said in Grinder Putting Out Mush? Don't Overlook The Obvious.: Reviewing some posts of other people having problems grinding meat reminded me of a recent experience I had, and why you need to rule out the obvious when troubleshooting equipment problems. Some friends and I had made sausage one weekend and after washdown, one of the new guys had reassembled the grinder head as we normally do so it would be ready to use the next week. The following week, I was working alone and had just starting to grind some pork butt. I noticed the grinder was putting out mush meat and not feeding properly so I shut down the grinder. I took the nut off the grinder and pulled the plate out and saw that my buddy had put the knife in backwards with the cutting edge facing inwards when he reassembled the grinder after the previous use. Yeah, everyone is entitled to make a rookie mistake like that once. The take away is, grinders are really simple machines and there are not many things that can go wrong. When you do have grinding problems: Understand how the plate and knife are supposed to fit in your grinder. Make sure your knife and plate are sharp. This is probably not a huge concern if you own a newer grinder and are a hobbyist/ occasional user. For best results, only grind very cold or partially frozen meat. Warm meat does not feed well in most grinders.

@twilliams said in Beef snack sticks callogen snap: @jroby not sure if you will get any more snap however maybe your water amount is a bit heavy. I use 1qt for 12.5 lbs and that is pushing alot. Maybe cut it back to a 1/2 qt for 10lbs to start with. Im thinking the snap you are looking for is very hard to achieve as a home processor. That can be an issue. Added water will need to be removed from the product at some point during the process. That can be part of thermal processing or afterwards as air drying. Probably more of a challenge for guys finishing their sticks in a water bath where you don’t get any addition drying during the final cooking process. Air drying after cooking is a good way to get the final dryness and texture you are after if you have a good place to do it.

@NDMike Yes. Smoked to IT 130 then SV the rest of the way. Took about five minutes to go from 130 to 160. Game changer! Was getting a few wrinkles in the smoker, SV took care of that as well.

@duckbill what are you using for a grinder? What size? Is your meat partially frozen at time of grinding? Are your plates and knives sharp? What are you stuffing it with?

@TJENKIN421 Yes, make a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar. Set your target temperature to 140 F, and start it up. When it gets to 140 F, it’s clean.

@smokinbubba said in Garlic Ring Bologna: @Ronald-Shrout I think I would go garlic powder. Easy to mix in with your dry ingredients but obviously you will loose the freshness of fresh garlic. I would think it would be worth it for ease of incorporation. Agree with the above. You could add incremental amounts of garlic powder, mix in evenly, and cook up a patty to evaluate the taste and adjust up as needed before stuffing.

So, we got some information from our application specialist who knows Excaliburs processes well. His response was “Large batches are well mixed for distribution and then immediately packaged so no settling occurs.” Now, we are going to have an Excaibur guy on the podcast soonish so we will make sure to bring this up!

@smokinbubba I have a #25 LEM mixer. I have been running options through my head on how to do it. I got a couple ideas but haven’t really dove into it much yet. It has a stuffing speed that is slow and grinding speed that is faster. Need to check rpm on stuffing speed to see if it is slow enough for a direct drive.

@processhead Thanks for the good info!

Like Will Roger said “I have never met a Sausage I didnt like” or something like that. Thank you.

As s.a.m stated above. bearded butchers have a pretty good recent video on it. I believe they have an older video on lamb aswell. .22lr should be fine for the harvest, and the rest is same. You could split it like a hog or beef but they are small enough I wouldnt bother. If you wanna practice your butcher skills nows the time to bust out the frenched rack of lamb and leg of lamb.

@Grimpuppy thank you