Meat Processing

If anyone is wondering what @M-Ski comment you can check out a few things from the USDA (https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing)and search for “Does bacon contain additives?” it will state that bacon does not/can not contain nitrAtes. We will be covering this more in future articles or “classes” but basically, if you char a piece of meat that is cured it can contain nitrosamines which are a carcinogen. This is also why we are limited to 120 ppm for injected bacon and 200 ppm for dry rubbed bacon of ingoing nitrites.

@akdave If you get the chance can you post a few pictures of your set up? It sounds interesting, I really like the idea of the fan going over the surface of the water. Check out this video https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing for an idea to raise your relative humidity, even more, I think the sponges, in combination of the fan, could make a huge difference. I might do some testing here with a fan now, what make and model fan did you use?

@loadpin dessicants in a vacuum sealed container in the freezer is really not going to do anything at all and would cause more problems. They are made with a cloth material and that material will get saturated with water/fat from the snack sticks and will end up rupturing when removing removing unthawed snack sticks from container. You do not want to use dessicants in that fashion and they really would not do anything for that anyways. If you vacuum seal your snack sticks real tight they should be great to eat without too much change in moisture for a few years. Many years ago i had dessicants and actually did this very thing for R and D and they dont work. What really are you going for?

@smokinbubba i hope its ok to post this here. If not, please remove. And accept my apologies.

@jonathon thanks for the input

@Jonathon and @Boudreaux. Thanks for the input. I was basically looking for a way to have some fresh sausage with smoke flavor and be able to cook afterwards on grill or crock pot. Never gave much thought that the cure would also defeat this plan. Didn’t think of adding something like hickory smoke powder to accomplish this and just freeze. Sounds like that is the perfect way to go to accomplish that! Thanks again!

Along the lines of the boudin you could also make a chicken and wild rice with mushroom casserole and stuff that into a casing.

@midgetracer31 Can you post a picture or something? There is no reason that that should be happening, they aren’t made of veg oil so it isnt that they are breaking down in the package. How were they stored, how old are they, when did you get them, is there any holes in the bag? Let me know and I will see what I can find out.

@parksider Like @Parksider is saying, make sure you keep it under boiling. 170 SEEMS to be the best temperature at this point. Also, Collagen Casings might struggle with being put directly into the water as they aren’t designed for that, you could either use a different casing or you can vac pack them before putting them in the water. I guess you could actually also put them in just a zip lock back with all the air forced out as well?

Thanks every one. Will look at the video. Might go up a size to the 21 mm based on daveomak’s post, too. Been using Lems brand, but will order some Walton’s on my next order. Thanks.

@Doug-Kapfenstein I’d think your biggest issue is that you cooked to 165 with beef when 160 would have been perfectly fine. That 5 degrees might not sound like much but it probably took you at least half an hour to get to that temp and that can have an effect. As to why they were allowing water between the casing and the meat I would imagine that is a protein extraction issue, if you don’t get a good bind you can let the fat render out of the meat and it gets trapped between the casing and the meat which would allow water to get in there as well. You wont really know until you try them though! It might be a purely cosmetic issue and the texture and taste might be spot on.

@ramt600 I mix by hand and I set a timer for 20 minutes. Anything less and it doesn’t turn out nearly as good.

Thanks for the quick response! I appreciate the help.

@Riney No, there is nothing that should cause any issues. When we first got it we tested its claim that it could hold 26 times its weight in water by putting an oz in a bowl and putting 26 oz of water, it created a thick paste, similar to apple sauce and we left it out for a few days. It never dried up even when by itself and exposed to the air so I can’t imagine you are going to run into any issues!

@1GRINDER I typically use 50% venison to 50% pork butt. great flavor and texture for sticks and breakfast sausage. If you want to go a little leaner then 60/40 venison to pork butt is fine, our original bologna recipe calls for this mix.

@jonathon thats good information. So when your done cooking jerky either dehydrator, smoker or oven you should pull all the meat and put it into a food safe/usda container. For home use a large ziploc bag will do. Let it sit in that container for about 6 hours covered slightly but allowing excess moisture to escape and come back. But do this at room temperature, do not immediently package, eat, or put in a cooler right after its been cooked. It needs time to finish itself and even out. Moisture is going to return to the meat and the jerky will heat up a bit and help even all the meat out so its roughly cooked and dried to the same level. After that 6 hour mark is when a good time is to package the meat. Preferably a vacuum sealer or a tight package with a scavenger. Only after the meat is packaged should you put it in a cooler. Never put freshely made jerky directly into a cooler/refridgerator it needs that time to rest at room temperature.

I’ve never seen that either, they just get smashed down with the vacuum hits especially in the chamber vacs.

It meant PINK SURE CURE not #2, sorry about that. Is there an amount that I can add to 50Lbs. of salt and them use it freely in a rub to cure pork belly? What amount should I use for 1 gallon of water? If I add too much cure and keep the protein in it too long, is it harmful or bad, what is the outcome? Thank you, Jay

@ttinidaho That’s GREAT !! I am happy for you !! I only used the citric acid the very first time I ever made snack sticks . I usually make a batch from 12-18# and with my equipment it takes about 3 hours start to finish and with the citric acid you need to begin your cure immediately after stuffing which makes for quite a long day and also the citric acid added quite a " TWANG" to that first batch . I found it works better to do my complete processing the night before smoking and here in Florida l allow the product to rest in the fridge overnight………

@parksider I might have to do a small batch of something this week to test out my ‘sous vide’ cooker. Since I quit drinking beer (insert sad face) my brewing setup has sat mostly idle. I’m excited to fire it up!