Meat Processing

@Weathered100 First, great question! Second, @Parksider , as usual, is correct. Adding cure to a meat product is going to retard the growth of botulism spores but it is not going to make the meat safe to eat by itself, it still needs to get to 160° to fully kill off any harmful bacteria growing inside it. The same is true with Smoked Meat Stabilizer, it speeds up that conversion of Nitrite to nitric oxide faster than E. Coli can grow but it won’t kill it on its own, it still needs thermal processing to make it safe to consume. As far as moving it to water, I have never done it but there is no reason it would not work and with a summer sausage the only “smoke” you would lose is what has accumulated on the outside of the fibrous casing. As you don’t eat a fibrous casing, this will not affect the taste. I would vac pack it first just to be sure but I also don’t think finishing cooking it in water would make it watery. In fact, I think I would more worry about the opposite, that it would cook too much of the moisture out of the meat by cooking it directly in water. Having said that though, if @Parksider has done it in the past and has not seen any noticeable deficiency in his finished product I would say it is probably fine to do it that way!

I have tried a TF 34MM processed casing I got from Quality Casings. A 32MM HF and a 30MM TF, both clear processed, I got from Mar-Co Sales. Devro Is the brand I have now. I have been hanging them. the 30MM has been the best but still tougher than I want. Ideally I want a 32MM processed casing for my brats. Does Walton’s send out samples? I do have to order some other items.

After Googling the word Pink Slime this is two articles I found . 1.Pink slime Food “Pink slime” is a meat by-product used as a food additive to ground beef and beef-based processed meats, as a filler, or to reduce the overall fat content of ground beef. In the production process, heat and centrifuges remove fat from the meat in beef trimmings. The resulting paste is exposed to ammonia gas or citric acid to kill bacteria. In 2001, the United States Department of Agriculture approved the product for limited human consumption. Lean finely textured beef" (LFTB prepared using ammonia gas is banned for human consumption in the European Union. 2.“Pink slime” (ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings) is the nickname earned by a formerly inedible byproduct of the beef industry. Once used in pet food, it’s now a cheap additive in ground beef. Pink Slime is an additive that the federal government has approved to be mixed in with ground beef. Please, please GRIND YOUR OWN the United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA ) does not seem to care what the general public eats. [image: 1536968979181-3be659fa-85c1-4df9-b3fc-7a0f5cf1c5b6-image-resized.png]

Hello all, I am hoping someone can help me out. I acquired a Gander Mountain meat grinder. There are 2 bolts on top, one is an oil stopper. I remove that bolt, look inside the grinder and see oil, when running the oil level goes down when stopped comes back up. Does anyone know what oil to use and how much? Thank you for any advice

@jf549 Thanks for the clarification! I don’t think it would have ruined it had you cold smoked it for 6 hours, I just wouldn’t have recommended it!

@lateasusual I prefer Carrot Fiber to Potato Starch but @tbone is right, it is more readily available in stores and the fact that it begins to gel at around the same temperature that meats starts to really excrete water is a huge benefit. Super Bind gives you the best of both worlds as it has Carrot Fiber and Potato Starch but I don’t know if it is twice as good as carrot fiber as it is almost twice the price!

@parksider A lot of people mix in the seasoning either before they grind or between the first and second grind. If I didn’t have a mixer, and I was making a cured product where I needed protein extraction, I might add the seasoning after the first grind and then grind it again. I don’t do it this way with a cured product because it is usually a while until I can get to cleanup and seasoned meat seems to be harder to clean than unseasoned. I wouldn’t do this if making a fresh product as I’d worry about the protein extraction starting too soon but that is probably me just being overly careful. Mixing the water in with the seasoning before the meat is fine and plenty of people do it. In the end, it really shouldn’t make any difference as long as you mix the meat enough once it is all added. However, I always tell people if they have found something that works for them don’t change! If that process works for you (and considering the sized batches you do who could argue with it?) then stick with it!

I really dont think the temp had anything to do with it. I do about 200lbs of bacon a year and I smoke cook mine till I get an internal temp of 155 and then shut it down and let them hang in the smoker for 30 min after and my finish temp is at about 158-160. Mine always turns out tender. I would say it wasn’t the best of pork that was sold.

@jonathon I put them on before I seal so maybe that is the problem…I’ll give it a try after sealing. I use Avrey weatherproof labels and run them through my HP color laser printer.

@tbone Glad that the taste was great! If you are using a non-stuck casing then yes you do want to perforate it, this allows for the sausage to bleed out of the casing and then the casing to form tightly to the meat. What sort of casing were you using? If it was a fibrous casing you still shouldn’t have had this issue but if it was plastic I can see that happening. The time it took to get there seems pretty high but you weren’t in any danger there, the cure had you covered. It sounds like too much water was used in the mixture, I know you used carrot fiber, how much water did you use for your 10 lb chub? I would suspect that the correct level of protein extraction was not reached, the water should have been bound up in the meat better than that. Now, I know that some people reading this will be saying to themselves, or maybe even out loud, there he goes blaming protein extraction like he ALWAYS DOES! Well, that is because it is so often the issue with any cooking problems you might have. Seriously, if you are making a cured product, once you have gotten what you think is good protein extraction mix for another 3 minutes or so, it will help! I’d also try using a probe thermometer and check the actual temperature of your smoker. If you set it for 150° is it actually there or did it only reach 140°, the easiest way to do this is with a probe thermometer system like the GrillEye or the GrillEye Pro Plus, they come with a clip that allows the probe to not touch the metal so it will give you an accurate reading. So, in short I think you are right in what happened though, I think the meat released all of the added water and then that created a barrier and it was having problems passing meat through that and then into the center of the meat. That should never have happen to that extent though and I think protein extraction was more of the culprit! Hope this helped, let me know if you need anything else.

I have found that putting some vinegar or lemon, will definitely help with the smell, but I have found that the addition of either or helps soften and make the casing more pliable and much easier to work with. After some trials, I’m hooked on using lemon juice, about 1/4 a cup per qt of water.

MMMMMM I was going to add Citric acid so maybe I’ll adjust and maybe do half one way. Thanks for info.Tarp.

Save your money and don’t spend a dime on that machine. I got the Weston #22 1.5hp pro series and it’s worrh every penny. Walton’s carries and sharpens every size plate and blade. Not the throw away ones from big box stores. Keep in mind they supply processors so you are getting pro level equipment. Buy with confidence!!!

@renaldo Thanks for that! We always appreciate people helping each other and pointing them to the right info on our website! @lateasusual Another good tip would be to watch the corresponding video in the Learning Center for the product you are making as it will tell you how much water to use per batch. Hope your sausages came out great! I always make patties out of the left over in the tube and the bottom of the stuffer. I am working on a video now to go over a few different things to do with that, if anyone has any suggestions other than Patties, or skinless sausages let me know!

@Gary-T The first test batch we did was a little over the top sweet, however in the second one we tumbled it a little longer and made 100% sure all of the sugar was dissolved before adding the meat. Those two things seemed to help, the only reason for that that I could come up with was it prevented it from sitting on the outside of the meat and creating a film where it was the first thing you bit into because when we tumbled it long technically the meat took up MORE of the sugar but it deffinitely had slightly less of a sweet taste. If anyone is looking to do this I can recommend the bold as a good base but if you are wanting to branch out and try a different seasoning I would recommend you stay with something with some heat to balance the sweetness.

@skipdiggidy If you aren’t drying in that time at that temp I would think it might have something to do with how much water you added to the meat? Just a thought, it could have been anything (including the humidity outside that day) that caused it to have issues drying.

That sounds like a winner I will have to try it.

@parksider I’d agree with pretty much everything, the Parm Garlic is a more basic taste then what I was hoping for but I guess Parmesan might be a hard flavor to make really stand out in meat? I am making more and more Inferno and adding Ghost Pepper or Sriracha Cheese to them. Philly Cheese Steak is an awesome one, play around with adding different cheeses to this, huge difference if you add Swiss or Mozz or Cheddar and all are good! I like the Medium #1 Best Seller (we call it Holly Regular in house) more than either 1504 or #10 but thats all just personal preference. The Supreme Pizza and the Habanero Mango are two that I love that yoi didn’t mention!

This is my tounge recipe. I get the tounge usually from people I work with that buy freezer beef from a farmer. They usually throw them out or feed them to the dog. NO WAY. Here is how I process the tounge. Rinse the tounge well as it is dipped in a antiseptic. State law I think. Lay it out on your cutting board. Cut the tounge into at just back from where it tarts to narrow as the narrow part of the tounge has very little meat . Now take your sharp fillet knife and skin the little well marbled roast. Now lets make the juice. I like to use Mrs. Smiths dill pickle / Jalapeno mix follow the directions on the mix. Then smoke it with your favorite wood till the internal temp for beef reaches 160 degrees . I then remove from the smoker and let cool for 20 minutes. I then cut the tounge into chunks about the size of sugar cubes and pack into a qt. jar. I then slice a Vidallia onion into rings and add to the qt. jar. I pour the pickling spice over it covering all of the tounge and onion. Install a lid and refrigerate for 2 days and enjoy. I take this to work and always bring home a empty jar. Another version is brad and butter pickle mix.

@syno5 If you aren’t using a cure accelerator then I would always shoot for 12 hours, longer doesn’t really do anything and you do run the risk of the cure not being as effective in fighting off nasty bacteria and microorganisms if you hold it too long. Different Jerky Seasonings have different flavor profiles but the Bold is a fairly strong tasting seasoning that should give you a good strong jerky flavor though. So an important thing to keep in mind is to drag the slices through the seasoning and cure and make sure they are fully coated on both sides. Then I like to add the meat to a container without a lot of wasted space so that I can add as little water as possible, just enough to cover the slices. As for drying before marinating that is not necessary but if you are looking for more smoke flavor in your jerkyand are using a smoker then you might want to pat it dry before laying it out on your screens. If you are using an oven and a dehydrator then this won’t make a difference.