Meat Processing

@Darkfish89 on your dried venison the way I am familiar is old school with beef as I saw it done it was brined , smoked (the smoking starts the drying ) then it was dried on a low heat and turned occasionally over an extended period of time till desired dryness is achieved . once it is smoked as any whole muscle meat and brought up to an IT. of a safe temp. you could then slice then dehydrate.

I think that is a strainer. Ive seen hand crank models that have the same head.

@ffmedicman If you aren’t going to use a cure accelerator and you want to hold it overnight I would highly suggest you stuff and then hold the meat overnight in the casing. If you hold it first and then try to stuff it is going to be very hard as the salt in the seasoning will start to solubilize the proteins in the meat and things will get set up on you and might even damage your stuffer.

@Waynegus No, I wouldn’t use both as they are both cure accelerators. I don’t believe it would cause anything to gas out too quickly as the encapsulation of the citric acid would prevent it from breaking down until 130° but it wouldn’t be necessary. If you are looking for the tang just go with Encapsulated Citric Acid, if you are looking for less/none of tang go with the Sodium Erythorbate. Hope that helped!

@Jonathon We are not using a binder. Until you mentioned it, I really had not thought about it but it seems it would help.

@akdave Sorry, I gave you the link to a private section where I post things as I work on them here is the real link https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing

@mcgreggr It has to be either not enough protein extraction (doesnt sound like it from your 8 minutes back and forward) or smoke schedule. So, I think you are probably going too hot too quick. What is happening is the fat is rendering out of the meat and being pushed out, it then gets trapped just like you are saying. Also, beef fat tends to have a yellowish tint to it so I’d recommend pork, that has a nice white color to it and it is creamier. THe other thing I would do is to add a binder like sure gel!

Biggest issue with stuffing off of a grinder, in my opinion, is that you are going to get air pockets. In a 32 mm casing thats no big deal but in a 19mm casing…that gets tough in my mind. It can be done but my suggestion would be to use a larger casing.

@uncowboy (great name!) We can add some information on casings for each product in a list format but as far as printing and laminating that, that’d be on you! How does this basic format look? Summer Sausage: 1.5 Mahogany Pre-Stuck Casings 2.4 Mahogany Fibrous Sausage Casings etc. Snack Sticks: 19 mm Smoke Collagen etc., Hot Dogs: Tubed Sheep Casings And so on and so forth? Let me know and I will get something put together when I get back into the office next week?

@glen Yes, I have used them both at the same time in the past. Check out this https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/393/how-to-make-juicier-chicken-brats-recipe and this https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/415/how-to-make-a-juicy-homemade-turkey-bratwurst Just know, that if you add Cold Phosphate you are increasing the pH which is great for water retention but not good for shelf life, so make sure you are treating everything else with extra care.

@Parksider nice, great idea on the walk-in cooler. Pound some more brown.

@Jonathon will do thank you.

@mark60 Awesome, thanks for letting us know. If you do it again could you try to get a pic of it coming out of the Champion Juicer? Im just curious about it, thanks!

When you are a Mr. Smallbatch, 19 mm casings tend to use up your hard won stuffin. So I think I’ll stick around the smaller casings, and Willie’s Snack Stick mix.

@chippewa Mailbox Mod is awesome! Yeah, I feel like once they start to go you can tell by the tone of them, when they start looking more tan rather than mahogany/red you can tell they should be tossed. You can leave them uncovered in the fridge overnight to rehydrate them a little bit and that will help, nothing is as good as fresh casings though!

Here is the link to the instagram video https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Zv6k6iuIz/

@FlamingAntlerOutdoor Excellent job ! It all looks great. And I really like your smoker!!

@Jonathon the one on the left package said 2.5 x 20 on the package. The middle one is what I would get from the local store last year. But I didn’t save any of the packaging. They only carry two sizes 2.5 and 1.5. Last year it seams like they had 2” by lem but I can’t find them

@Parksider the same reason some people like venison and some beef and pork. it is all a matter of good taste…or lack thereof

@blackbetty61 Yes, my assumption is that you are running into case hardening if the casing is getting too hard, try lowering temps and that should be better! Good luck!