Meat Processing

Lots of factors, casing size, collagen or natural casing, average humidity and temperature, air movement 32 mm may be a week or two, large diameters may take 4-6 weeks I would weigh weekly Lots of info on the web under salami or salumi

@brian scheider okay, that is going to have to wait a week or so but I will make sure I get the hard reset and check it

@Tim Zenner Well, I dont really recommend carrot fiber for smoked sausage. Use Sure Gel for smoked and carrot fiber for fresh sausage. But, if you are goiing to use carrot fiber then just use the same amount.

@smokinbubba Yup, and that’s why we did that. Personally, I love the stuff but it is pretty simple to get rid of in seasonings so why not?

@lsaule I guess how accurate do you want to be in your protein/fat ratio? You can break down your animal muscles into lean and fat and mix back together to get the protein/fat ratio you want. E.g. 5lb meat block with 30% fat is 3.5lbs lean and 1.5 lbs fat (5 X .30 = 1.5). This will get you in the ballpark. If you are looking for dead nuts accurate you are going to buy some really expensive equipment. I like to keep it simple and in the ballpark is good for most of my sausages, seasoning percentages are more of a focus for me. Hope this helps.

I recommend smoked meat stabilizer. Stuff and immediately smoke. It’s a cure accelerator. Good stuff.

One good thing about making your own sausage is you have some latitude to do your own thing. Snack sticks are usually smaller diameter, sheep casings casing are a good choice if you are wanting a natural casing. Brats and landsjaeger would be about right in a hog casing. Bologna can go in a fibrous casing, but is not a natural casing. Hog casings and sheep casings will vary a bit in size. A lot of casing suppliers will gauge them so you know what the size you are buying. Casing size consistency is probably more important for commercial processors looking for uniform weight and size for their product packaging.

Yep I think you got it, even go a bit shorter then go from there!

Placed my order this morning. I went with the dry rub, sweeter than sweet, bacon taste booster and some California ham spice, along with Suregel, sodium erythorbate, and finally cold phosphate. Thank you all for the help.

@smokinbubba Yup, pretty sure ours are exactly the same as that. However I can’t guarantee it. Our Mixers are on their way and should be here soon.

@Roe-Bear Yeah, it is all about the size of the container you are planning on using. If you use a small one then the little weston is fine. If you want to do a meat-lug or something then you need the Vacmaster SV1, the HBC or something like that. I have done larger batches with 2 small Westons and it seems to work.

@Kentucky-Fisherman I’ve absolutely noticed that flavor will develop overnight after cooking but I rarely hold before I cook. Now, those are with cured products, with fresh products I don’t think the same thing necessarily applies to fresh sausage. I have made brats and held them for a long time before I cooked them and don’t think they continue to develop. Maybe that is because it is frozen?

@Fractured-Fitness If you are doing a larger cut like a pork but, bacon or ham you want to inject and then tumble in a 50% strength solution. This is what a lot of the big boys do and it gets better and quicker penetration and more even cover. If you’re doing chicken breasts wings or something smaller reversing that like @Tex_77 is talking about is fine as well. I have never done a color penetration test but maybe we should?

Rnb, you need to use cure on any sausage that is smoked. Since your sausage spends a long time in the food safety danger zone 40-140degf. It is a must. If i understand correctly the eca lowers the ph of the meat and gives summer sausage the tang. I personally dont like the tang so i do my trail bologna without it. Hope this helps. Bubba

@twilliams Interestingly enough they dont put the weight on the package. I’d put 1 pack of 8 bones that are about 2-2-3/4" in a 10 lb batch of hot dogs. Sorry, I can’t be more specific than that! Treat it as pork fat basically, don’t let it push you over 30% by much or you might have the fat render out during the cooking process.

Pickled, I will have to try that.

Not at all just what I wanted to know, and right in time! Thanks! Glad you had a great time with the family, America needs more of that!

@twilliams Cuisinart digital, will weigh up to 11 lbs. Does lbs. and ounces as well as grams. It has a tare feature as well. It would be a whole lot better for smaller measurements if the upper weight level was lower. The digital jumps pretty fast due to the large capacity range.

@Bhouin1086 I grew ghost peppers and Chile peppers, dried them and ground them up in the wifes coffee grinder( not recommended if your going to grind coffee again I found out later the hard way). Anyway, I add a table spoon to 25# of meat. i find it much easier to do it that way. It mixes in better and more even flavor

@1oldfart (same response in another post) When you say listed, I assume you mean basically anything on waltonsinc.com? Anything CAN be used but I’d not say everything SHOULD be used. For example, a bratwurst seasoning or breakfast sausage is formulated for fresh products, they might not have the salt content necessary to properly aid in protein extraction. That can be gotten around though by using more seasoning per lb of meat. However, there isn’t a standard equation for converting fresh to cured because the salt content is different for each seasoning, so all basically have to be figured out by making small test batches.