Meat Processing

am looking for a Hawaiin summer sausage mix and or kit for a 25# batches, seen before but cant find, anyone able to point me in the right direction

@Papa-Al You should inject the Hams first and then vacuum tumble it for the best dispersion of the cure and seasoning. If you are wanting to speed the curing process you should still add a cure accelerator like Sodium Erythorbate and hold it overnight, this will give you the best color to your ham. You could inject with cure and sodium erythorbate, tumble and then go straight to the smokehouse but we would recommend holding overnight to let the cure work in the meat and “burn” it a nice pinkish color. You can add a meat stabilizer but it’s not necessary. Check out our youtube ham video for more tips at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5awR77SQmbg

@BigJohn72 The best way it to break it down by pound and then multiply that by the number of pounds you will be using. So if you have a 1.5 lb bag of seasoning that will season 25 lb of meat you divide 1.5 / 25 and get .06. So that is .06 lb of seasoning to 1 lb of meat. If you are doing 5 lb then you would use .3 lb of seasoning. For more information check out Austin’s post here https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/174/using-a-scale-to-measure-seasoning-for-smaller-batches. Two quick tips, if you are making a cured product don’t forget to portion out the cure the same way and shake the bag before you divide out the seasoning so the different spices are as mixed as possible. Let us know if you need anything else!

@Papa-Gale You could loop them over smoke sticks if you have a smoker with the vertical space? The picture is on a larger scale but I just smoked 5 lb of chicken brats by linking them and then hanging them over stacks like in this picture. [image: 1507556895605-brats-uncooked-7.jpg]

@KnucklHed-BBQ I agree with Jonathan, 6 of one half dozen of another. We usually debone venison and store in muscle groups so when we are ready to make a batch we’ll grind venison, then the pork separately. I make a slurry of spice and ice water, 50/50 meat mix into the mixer and directly to the stuffer. I don’t like letting the mix sit long before stuffing, it really stiffens up. Over the years i’ve honed my process. My rule now is I make it the way my crew likes it, if someone wants us to make some-we make it our way. I will also add I’ve never stuffed off the grinder, always use a 3-step process: grind, mix, stuff. I will admit that I have 3-6 people helping so I don’t have to run the manual mixer but I did take pity on them this year and added the large Weston mixer to the stable, we’ll see how it works.

Newbie Waltons has great products and Meatgestics is an amazing resources. I would like to recommend a book you should get Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas. It has a wealth of information for a Newbie. Enjoy your sausage.

@geo315 If you end up trying make sure you post pictures so we can all see! I personally love Beer Brats and haven’t had any in awhile, I might need to fix that!

@jeff cutting down on the lb of meat you use but still using the entire package of seasoning is a great way to increase flavor! I usually do this when I am making something like Habanero Mango where I really want a very strong taste. Another possible option would be to add MSG as long as you don’t have an issue with MSG, MSG gets a bad name but I love it, kicks up the flavor of whatever you put it in! For more information on MSG check out our post https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/299/msg-and-umami-how-are-they-related

@angel4us The carrot fiber usage is 4 oz to 25 lb of meat, we sell a few different sizes of carrot fiber but if you have the regular sized one it should already be 4 oz so if you are doing 25 lb batches use the entire bag. Let me know if you have any other questions!

@Bruce56BB one thing to look at is if any of the hogs were boars or possibly cut late. They can give off a strong taste in fact old boars are sometimes condemned for it at slaughter.

Apparently I have got to give this Bulgogi a shot, that was the first thing another guy we work with suggested! George Washington Jerky huh? Yeah, i’d love the recipe, I am always wanting to try new things. Careful though, if it comes out excellent I just might have to do a video on it!

@renken58 Might take a day or two longer. Cold brine works a little slower than hot brine.

There is a chance that the dimensions on the Talsa stuffing horns match what you have. The outside diameter of the flange of the Talsa stuffing horns is just over 2.25 inches, if yours is similar we might be able to help you out?

Austin & Parksider - thank you very much for your responses. We are selling our jerky, and are conscientious about customers needing a low-sodium option, while simultaneously wanting a minimal ingredient label. Anymore, so many consumers are wary of artificial preservatives, but many fail to consider that a product like jerky is most convenient when it is shelf-stable. Thank you again!

@mammaj Absolutely! It is totally fine to use frozen meats for making snack sticks or other meat snacks. Some things to keep in mind though would be related to how long it has been in the freezer and how it was packaged in the freezer, which will not affect your ability to make meat snacks or the safety of eating those products, but it could affect the quality. If the meat has started to oxidize or get freezer burned, your final product may not be as perfect as if you used fresh meat. The quality is much lower, but can still be safe to consume at that point. Vacuum packaging will maintain the best quality of meat, while using meat bags and then butcher/freezer paper not quite as long. Somewhere around 6 months, packaged in freezer paper, is around the longest time I’d suggest to store meat in the freezer before using it to maintain a high quality product. And probably around 12 months of shelf life or more for vacuum packaged meats in the freezer. Again, this is mostly just a quality issue though due to oxidation and freezer burn and it can still be safe past that point, and just the quality is degraded with any longer storage of frozen meats.

@joshua425 Yes. Only a certain amount of brine can soak into the meat, so as long as the ratio is right, you’ll end up with a properly cured bacon when it’s all said and done. The ratio is more important than the amount of cover brine.

@dennishoddy The easiest way is with a chambered vacuum sealer. Not everybody has one or can get one of the chambered sealers though. If you are using a non-chambered vac sealer, there’s a couple other things to try. First, keep the package of meat/marinade below the vacuum sealer. If they are laying flat on a counter, it can be easy for the liquid to run back up into the seal bar and vacuum area, so just prop up the vac sealer a couple inches to keep the bag of meat further below it. Then you can also try using the manual vacuum/seal process. Most vac sealers have a manual method to start/stop so you can vacuum just long enough to where the liquid starts to move back up the package towards the seal bar. Or, you also try to add a barrier between the meat and seal bar, like a paper towel in the package so the liquid has a harder time making its way back up into the seal bar and vacuum area. You may not get a full vacuum with liquid in the package and using the manual vacuum/seal mode, but at least some vacuum will be better than nothing.

@djc51 We will have the Pumpkin Pie Bratwurst Seasoning on April 14th. Price will be $9.99 per package to season 25 lb of meat. Once we get it in, we’ll also update with new pictures of the seasoning as well on the product’s page. If you do want some, you can order it whenever and the day we get it into our warehouse, we’ll ship your order straight away to you. https://www.waltonsinc.com/pumpkin-pie-bratwurst-seasoning

Thanks Austin. I’m probably going to give the 50/50 a shot.Like you said, I think they should turn out fine. Plus I got a lot of Pork Butt in the freezer.

Austin is right. Ice bath until temp is below 100 or even cooler 9 to 20 min. Hang in the refrigerator to allow to completely cool. Try adding water to your smoker as well it might be way to dry this should help with smoke pen as well. Make sure you soak your cases before you syuff this will help with air pockets and case capacity ( the moist case will aid with a better case fill). Turn the top of the case a few times to squeeze out the air and seal with a hog ring don’t tie off.