Meat Processing

Awesome, exactly what I needed. Thanks!

@retired-railroader Yes, you can absolutely use Jerky Seasoning to make Snack Sticks and vice versa, many people do this! If you use a seasoning that is made for snack sticks, summer sausage or brats it might give a slightly stronger taste in jerky so if you want to back it off a little that’s fine. I wouldn’t back it off too much though, perhaps 5% or so. Personally I just add the regular amount and enjoy the slightly strong taste. Enjoy!

@jonathon THANKS for the information, first thing I did not hold the bologna over night. With your information and the video, I think the problem is hand mixing. I never had problem with my home recipes. I HAVE NEVER USED CITRIC ACID. I WILL WRITE BACK AFTER I TRY THE NEXT BATCH, IT MAY BE A MONTH OR TWO . I WILL PROBABLY TRYING THE CARROT FIBER . AND MIXING BETTER THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

@ndkoze There is no question you are correct, they can sometimes taste different because of differences in the cook cycle. We don’t have an exact scientific answer for you but this is what we believe. With Patties generally you are cooking faster at a higher temperature and that tends to draw more moisture out, that can do two things. First, it is going to bring more salt to the surface of the meat so you will get more salt with the initial bite, which is what your mouth immediately registers and sticks with you more. Second, the more moisture you remove from the patty the strong the remaining salt taste is going to be. Let us know if anyone has a differing opinion.

@Bluemtnman If you’re using a seasoning blend it’s definitely best to use pink salt instead of tender quick - here’s why - Tender quick is mostly salt with 0.5% nitrate and 0.5% nitrite, their package calls for 1 Tablespoon (3 Teaspoons) per lb of meat. Cure #1 is also mostly salt, but is 6.25% nitrite and calls for 1 Teaspoon per 5lbs of meat (or 0.2 tsp per lb of meat) If you used tender quick AND a seasoning blend it’s gonna be way too salty! Plus, depending on what you’re making with your spice blend, pink salt gives you the option of using cure #1(nitrite) for quick cure items like snack sticks & summer sausage (nitrAte is not usually needed for these items, but there might be times you would want to add it) or cure #2(nitrate) (nitrAte converts to nitrite over time and acts as a “time release” cure) for long cure items like prosciutto, pancetta & fermented sausages like salami etc… Best of luck!

got a few pics from sausage making this weekend we did some volume… 40# bologna (50% venison/50% pork) using Walton’s 32mm smoked casing my own spice mix, half regular and half hot with habanero powder and Walton’s pepperjack cheese. 20# fresh sausage (50% venison/50% pork) using walton’s fresh 32mm casing and basil, feta cheese, and basil + some randon spices 20# maple breakfast sausage using Walton’s 26mm fresh sheep casings and Sausagemaker spice 30# regular breakfast sausage Walton’s 26mm casing and Sausagemaker spice mix, in coils in the smoker I use the Weston #22 grinder, fine plate, and the Weston 44# mixer that attaches to the grinder. I use Walton’s 8x12" chamber vac bags        image url)

@Ishmael Doing test batches in 1# is very small, I’d do 5# test personally. I’d also recommend a digital scale in .1 oz increments and converts to grams. If you want to do 1# tests, convert the recipe to grams and do the math from there it’s more accurate in smaller amounts. Convert the recipe in relationship to the meat not the other spice.

Last time I made pepperoni, the taste was great. It looked more like summer sausage, than a dried stick of pepperoni. I smoked it up to a temp of 160. What did I do wrong? Do you have a video on making pepperoni? Thanks for any help you can give me.

@Jonathon Thanks for the quick answer. I’ll try it that way and let you know how the jerky comes out,

@butch Other than paprika, the most economical way to add a color and signify a hot or spicy sausage would be to use red collagen casings. These casings look awesome when making hot links, or other spicy sausage. It doesn’t color the meat itself but the casings in red make the sausage look great! You might be able to use a food safe food coloring. I don’t know if it would have any effect on the texture of the meat, and we’ve never tried it here, but it could be worth doing a small test batch on to try and test it out. Other than those options, there is nothing else that is cost effective for making small batches of homemade sausage. My personal recommendation would be to use the red collagen casings.

@Retired-RailRoader Always happy to help, if you make them and they turn out well take picture and post them!

@semo63936 What exactly are you looking for in salami? To make a simple salami, you can follow the same recipe as summer sausage, and just substitute a different salami seasoning. If you are looking for something else, let us know what you are thinking and we’ll help out the best that we can!

@ksand I’m always happy to help! As for what plates to use I do 3/16" then 1/8" on anything I am going to smoke. There is a few reasons for that, we think it gives a more even product it seems to make protein extraction a little quicker though that might be up for debate. When I am doing Brats I use a 3/8 twice since I want that a little coarser. Like you said though, it is up to what you want really! Happy new year to you and everyone else as well, 2018 is gonna be a lot of fun here!

@ctressler Protein extraction definitely sounds like it could be a problem. I have not used a kitchen aid, but I’ve used another style of stand mixer, and I think it does a good job of mixing small batches of meat. The Weston meat mixers will work better if there is a slightly larger batch size. I would assume the kitchen aids have enough power to mix the meat fine, but maybe someone else has tried it and could chime in for confirmation? If your sticks are fatting out, the other possible problem could be too quick of a temperature rise, too high of heat, and too fast of cooking. Depends on what your cooking schedule was like. Carrot fiber is not going to help with binding from a protein extraction perspective. It will help bind and hold water though. You can add a different binder like Sure Gel or Soy Protein Blend, which will have a better effect on helping increase protein extraction during mixing. Either of those two will slightly increase your protein content, and the more protein in the meat, the easier it is to get protein extraction and the protein extraction is what helps bind the fat in the meat. To quickly compare the 3 binder options, Sure Gel and Soy Protein are better for added protein and protein extraction (I’d choose Sure Gel over Soy Protein), but Carrot Fiber is probably better at water retention

@butch Glad they came out that good! If you have any pictures of them make sure you post them! We use carrot fiber all the time now, easy and inexpensive binder that works great in our opinion.

@dennishoddy The best answer would be to just use a smaller stuffing tube, or use a larger casing that fits better on your stuffing tube. Using fat would be better than vegetable oil, but still the best answer is to match up the stuffing tube and casings for a better fit.

@rodneycaudill Hey Rodney, glad they came out tasty, if you are looking for a dryer pepperoni the first thing I would do is try cutting the water a little. It’s the simplest way to make a less moist product. If that doesn’t work you could try dehydrating them after the thermal processing but I don’t recommend that as your first solution.

Perfect. Thank you. -11 and the sun is setting…

Thanks I have sure gel just didn’t know if it would hurt to use it.

@craigw9292 Since we are still working off of the same usage ratios I would say for each 10 lb of meat you should use 13 oz of water, 0.175 lb (.28 oz) of the country brown sugar, .078 oz of California ham spice and .8 oz of cold phosphate. Again this is for a 10 lb batch so just make sure you correctly adjust for how much meat you are doing. Let us know if you need anything else.