Cross over on recipes

[wvhunter1965]

Good morning all,

Yesterday, I made 6.5lbs of venison bologna using 5.5lbs venison and .94lb of pork trim with the Sweet Maple Bacon Snack Stick Seasoning. Since I was making it in a larger size, I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe. I am listing below what I used in order to get input on safety of the product (not that it matters since I already sampled it. Should have asked first)

I followed the recipe for the snack sticks but added the smoked meat stabilizer per guidance derived from the ring bologna recipe. The one item I inadvertently messed up was the water. I forgot to convert the amount and ended up adding about 1 quart of water for 6.5 lbs of meat/fat. I was worried that the product would be really bad texture, but, I actually love the moist nature of it.

Does anyone see any reason this would not be a safe product? I am wondering about the increased water contributing to bacterial growth but any inout is appreciated!

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 No, there is no reason that this product wouldn’t be safe to eat from what you have listed. Always better to be safe than sorry though. Just curious, what made you choose the Maple Bacon for a bologna?

[wvhunter1965]

Jonathon

I had made the sticks using the Sweet Maple Bacon Seasoning and liked it. I have also had venison bologna from processors in my area that have a bit of sweet in their recipe In addition to some Caraway seed so I decided to attempt a sweet bologna with a variation so it was not quite the same as what they made.

For the variation, I added a teaspoon of caraway seed and two teaspoons of coarse black pepper in addition to the Waltons seasoning. It is quite good and the only thing I think I will change on the next batch is add 1lb I’d my maple bacon instead of the pork trim.

I figure everyone likes bacon so I can only be off so far!

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 sounds awesome! We like to see people try new things with seasonings, so we are glad it came out so good for you!

[wvhunter1965]

Jonathon,

Just a quick question. I am going to be making some more Venison bologna along the same lines as mentioned in this thread (Sweet Maple Bacon snack stick seasoning) and am curious about adding in some bacon taste booster along with bacon instead of pork trim. Any suggestions on this? Should I use at same strength as for bacon or maybe a little less?

My thought is to add it to the water that I put in the bologna mix instead of adding it to the meat dry. Hoping to get easier and better dispersion through the product.

[Jonathon]

Jonathon Lots of people add bacon and like the results, it’s not my favorite thing to do as I think it makes it a little greasy. As far as adding the bacon taste booster…I honestly don’t know, it is not at all what it is designed for so the safe answer is that it won’t help. However, I used to say this about imitation bacon booster as well and then I decided to try it and it is actually very good with the imitation bacon. I have a bag of it open…maybe if I had some bacon and fried up some normal and then some where I sprinkled on some bacon taste booster that would let me know if it would work or not. Unforutnately I don’t have any bacon at the moment and won’t have time to run to the store today.

I can try this next week maybe?

[wvhunter1965]

Jonathon ,

Thanks for the input. Don’t make the extra effort to try this.

I will split the batch and do half with booster and half without. Will let you know how it turns out. May not be this week but soon!

Just as a conversation item, exactly how does the bacon taste booster add flavor to the bacon? Is it actually flavored or is it simply an enhancer such as MSG. I have not tasted just the taste booster alone.

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 I don’t know the mechanics behind it but I DO know that it doesn’t taste good on its own…I just learned that over lunch today! There are 2 versions of the booster, 1 with and 1 without msg so it is not only MSG at work. The one without it has Sugar, Salt, Dextrose, Spice Extractives (Including Celery). so I am guessing one of those spice extracts is paprika as people have said before that it adds a bacon flavor, but that’s honestly a guess on my part!