Smoking & Grilling

@glen that is a crazy amount of info. Thanks for the post.

@chef If you haven’t already check out niche meat processing

@shoprat53 powdered milk is the actual binder in suregel. Phosphate retains moisture, but it also acts as a meat preservative by raising the PH of meat. There are several binders available and they do have their places depending on what you are doing. I use suregel and carrot fiber depending on what I’m doing, but in a previous life I used some of the other binders and moisture retention products as well.

I started out with a Louisiana pellet, switched to Traeger. Both ended up at son-in-laws houses. They both worked fine, but… end up with a Yoder ys640s and I can say this’ll be the last one I’ll need

@ron-parrish I’m not sure why I haven’t done that yet. Sounds great

Ok that sounds like a plan. I have a #32 grinder so I can have the meat near frozen and grind it so it doesn’t smear

@fractured-fitness Sounds like you are well on your way to perfecting your system, if there is such a thing for jerky and sausage making. I think I have something figured out and then I read something new on this sight or get a suggestion from a friend and it’s back to the drawing board to try something new, but that is the fun of homemade product, you can always improve or modify to suit your desires!

@cdavis thank you

@processhead Last time I was in Cancun at the resort we stayed at, I ordered oso bucco and the lasagna. I then just dumped the oso bucco over the lasagna…boy howdy talk about a power move!

Made 6 pounds each of chicken fajita and smoked jalapeno sausage yesterday. They turned out great I think I like the chicken better than the pork now. If you use chicken for cured sausage always use sure gel add about 20 to 25 % more seasoning than you do with pork. Also I mix mine for at least 6 to 8 minutes with hand mixer. After stuffing just smoke as you would pork except bring internal temperatures to 165.

Cover it… check! Looks great

@jamieson22 Jonathan forgot to tell you to also join team ORANGE, I am sure it was just an oversight on his part.

@chef Thank you young man.

Agree with the above. Vac sealing and freezing the finished product would be most convenient later. If you don’t mind thawing and cooking, then I do that a lot of times with no issue. Frequently I buy enough thighs for 4 or 5 competitions at a time, trim, and then seal and freeze to save work week of. Can’t tell the difference.

@shoprat53 YEah, I tend to see that to really get that oat look gone you need to add a little more water. Maybe that would be something we could go over on a Weekly Livestream?

@texlaw doesn’t the instructions say to wet the sawdust?

@kimari Check out the learning center video. @Jonathon does a pretty good video explaining the process. My hams and turkeys have come out great. Make sure you get adequate cure into the hams since they are such a large muscle group.

@dennyo I guess you can never rule out the possibility of malfunctioning smoker controls and resulting in the temp swings. The control systems for pellet smokers/grills are more complicated than systems for other fuels. They are controlling pellet feed rates and an air blower to try and maintain temperatures.

@gchart I do a 2-2-1 @ 240 and have never been disappointed

@jamieson22 said in Questions for PK 100 Owners: When I look at online dimensions for the PK it shows H 48" x W 21" x D 21". Just checking your 22.5" cover width is accurate. I got out my tape measure and measured the thing, and those dimensions were what I ordered. As I mentioned, the only thing I would change is the length. That was tricky to estimate because I didn’t know how the cover would hang over the control panel.