New Groups to Help Everyone on Smokers
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Jonathon I would think there would be more value if you broke them out by category of smoker. At the end of the day the recipes that would be discussed can be used across the brands, with some idiosyncrasies here and there based on pellet, ceramic, stick burner, sawdust burners, and full-on commercial units…
ClaytonD I agree. Some people have propane or electric. Some people might have a small electric smoker and some people might be in the commercial business.
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samc Sorry, I’m not familiar with that book. What glen is saying is what I am more familiar with. If you have the time and want to you could snap a pic and email it to me at jonathon@waltonsinc.com ? I don’t think posting a pic from a book here would be right but I’m curious as to what this is.
Actually, when I was looking the book up on Amazon (got awesome reviews by the way) I think I see part of the issue, I was able to view the first few pages of it and I think I see an issue. On page 2 or 3 under “THE BASIC DRY CURE” he says to use 2 oz/56 grams of the mixture for 5 lb of meat, it seems he would be talking about using 2 oz of the mixture he is talking about below that paragraph for 5 lb of meat, not use that entire thing for 5 lb of meat. That would be closer to what we would recommend as the total mixture there would be 26 oz with enough cure in it to 50 lb of meat. So for 5 lb divide that by ten and you get 2.6 oz, so not exact but pretty close.
I swear I’m not trying to come down on you hard here or anything, we all make mistakes, and it’s possible I am wrong here… but 2 oz of pink salts (a common name for what we call sure cure) for 5 lb of meat is so over the top that I can’t reconcile it in my mind. Dry curing isn’t my specialty and with Charcuterie in the title maybe he is talking about a different method I am unfamiliar with but when we did some lomo and some dry cured sausage we were still using 1 oz of sure cure to 25 lb of meat.
This is a good example of why we recommend premixed seasonings, it eliminates or at least reduces issues like this popping up. I know of no way of removing nitrites from the meat once they have been introduced.
Jonathon I have the Ruhlman book, and I agree with your reading (2 oz/56 g of the mixture for 5 lb of meat).
samc, I can see how you read it to mean use that whole recipe for only 5 lbs. It would have been helpful to say something like "cures 50 pounds of meat) or something like that where they put the recipe. I’ve even made myself a note to that effect so I or someone else doesn’t go back and make the same mistake.
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Possibly difference between brining, injecting and dry cure?
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I did use the salt box method and it appears that was the mistake next time I will weigh and measure. I do see where it says 2 oz per 5 pounds but it also said if you use salt box method there was no need to measure. That seems not to work well and I will be the first to not recommended that to anyone. Lesson learned
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samc We have all been there for sure, I have FINISHED stuffing snack sticks before and then realized I never added cure! Luckily everything had kept super cold so I just cut the casings, added the cure, remixed and restuffed. Now everything is double-checked when I think I am done with mixing!
TexLaw Thanks for checking in on that! As we get more into charcuterie I’ll be wanting some books (and HOPEFULLY attending a short course at Iowa State…I can’t emphasize how badly I want to do that, if you are reading this Austin ) is that a good one?
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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Charcuterie and Salumi by Ruhlman are both books that started my journey into cured and smoked meats. Highly recommend for entry level.
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We are testing out creating new groups based upon what smoker you own. Right now I have 1 for the Pk-100 and 1 for Masterbuilt. If people want I can split masterbuilt into a few different categories (but I don’t want to go totally nuts here) as I know they make a bunch, but to start this will make things easier. So, now if you have a question on a Masterbuilt or PK100 you can simply Masterbuilt or PK100 and it will notify everyone in that group!
So, to be useful people would have to go and join those groups. Let me know if you guys like this idea and what other groups for smokers or other pieces of equipment you want. Right now I have the badges showing but we can hide that if it starts to get too many badges next to our names.
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Charcuterie and Salumi by Ruhlman are both books that started my journey into cured and smoked meats. Highly recommend for entry level.
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What about us diy’ers? I built a custom smoker from a commercial all stainless and aluminum refrigerator. Its 30+ cu.ft. At this time it works on 2 1000 watt hot plates which is my issue I am running short on getting it up to temp. Would like any thoughts
smokin greg i have a diy stainless cafeteria hot holding box . Was having same problem long time getting it up to temp. I converted it to 240 Volt and have two 2100 watt burners in it and a separate 110 volt burner to produce the smoke because the 2100 colt burners run off of a thermostat and dont stay on long enough to produce a good steady smoke.
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samc We have all been there for sure, I have FINISHED stuffing snack sticks before and then realized I never added cure! Luckily everything had kept super cold so I just cut the casings, added the cure, remixed and restuffed. Now everything is double-checked when I think I am done with mixing!
TexLaw Thanks for checking in on that! As we get more into charcuterie I’ll be wanting some books (and HOPEFULLY attending a short course at Iowa State…I can’t emphasize how badly I want to do that, if you are reading this Austin ) is that a good one?
Jonathon I actually haven’t finished (or even gotten very far into) it, yet. I just happened to pick it up a couple of days before the question came up.
Judging by the other reviews and the fact that the other Ruhlman books I’ve read have been terrific, I expect this one is one everyone ought to have on the shelf.
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Does anyone have any experience with a large stick burner smoker (the one in my picture profile)? While I can maintain a reasonable temperature control of the beast, I would love some system that could control temperature / fan so I wouldn’t need to baby sit so much. it is 30" diameter by 10’ long with a 2 x 2 x 4 foot smoker on the end.
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Does anyone have any experience with a large stick burner smoker (the one in my picture profile)? While I can maintain a reasonable temperature control of the beast, I would love some system that could control temperature / fan so I wouldn’t need to baby sit so much. it is 30" diameter by 10’ long with a 2 x 2 x 4 foot smoker on the end.
Chef I think I have heard of FireBoard’s being used for this sort of thing. You might look into them.
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I contacted their customer support, but they were of no help. I was hoping someone just might have tried to use one. My fire box is a 2’ insulated cube. fairly effecient, 2 to 3 sticks of wood will maintain temperature for about 3 hours.
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I contacted their customer support, but they were of no help. I was hoping someone just might have tried to use one. My fire box is a 2’ insulated cube. fairly effecient, 2 to 3 sticks of wood will maintain temperature for about 3 hours.
Chef I think a Fireboard would work, go on Facebook and join the Fireboard group, there are probably people on there who use it on smokers of similar size. A lot of people are selling there first generation Fireboard’s at a good discount, to up grade to the second generation so there might be a deal to be made. Weather you go with a Fireboard or different controller and fan, the results should generally all be about the same I would think, you are basically just using a temp probe to turn a fan on and off to stoke the fire.
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I have 2 30" Masterbuilt smokers, the 2nd one is yet to be used. Smoke has always been a problem. I converted to a Smoke Pistol smoke generator and wasted more cartridges trying to get them lit than one that I used. I obtained and installed a Smokin-It cold smoke generator smoke problem solved! I also have a Masterbuilt propane fired one, both temp control and smoke are problems. An inexpensive unit that is tall enough to hang 20" casing would be ideal. If I was not in my mid 80’s I would design and build one,
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Masterbuilt you all talk about opening a closing dampeners during the smoking. My anslog electric MB35 has no dampeners is it something I should consider adding?
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Masterbuilt you all talk about opening a closing dampeners during the smoking. My anslog electric MB35 has no dampeners is it something I should consider adding?
samspade I would stay with what your unit has been designed. If it was a unit that has been self built then I’d say yes.
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