Venison Hot Dog Issue
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@NDMike I was on the fence for a while with getting a horizontal (Green Mountain Grill) with a bull rack system vs the Camp Chef XXL. In the end the capacity and the price of the Camp Chef along with the updated controller ended up making my decision. I haven’t done a lot much smoking on it other than processed products. I do have a couple of pork butts on today and so far it’s working very well. I am curious how well it will work with wings. I’ve done wings on a Trager and Green Mountain and the horizontal format works very well to turn up the heat at the end and crisp them. I do believe Jonathon has done wings on his XXL and said they turned out well so we’ll see. I can always finish them on my Komodo if need be. I tell my wife you really need a couple to do everything properly
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@NDMike I was on the fence for a while with getting a horizontal (Green Mountain Grill) with a bull rack system vs the Camp Chef XXL. In the end the capacity and the price of the Camp Chef along with the updated controller ended up making my decision. I haven’t done a lot much smoking on it other than processed products. I do have a couple of pork butts on today and so far it’s working very well. I am curious how well it will work with wings. I’ve done wings on a Trager and Green Mountain and the horizontal format works very well to turn up the heat at the end and crisp them. I do believe Jonathon has done wings on his XXL and said they turned out well so we’ll see. I can always finish them on my Komodo if need be. I tell my wife you really need a couple to do everything properly
slyoder yeah it sounds like we are similar. I also have a BGE that I love smoking things on. I find for wings though I really like a Weber kettle. I crack the lid and can get it to almost 600 degrees. The wings crisp up really well. I also have a Grilla Grills Chimp pellet grill that does a great job on wings while using their jerky/wing rack.
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slyoder yeah it sounds like we are similar. I also have a BGE that I love smoking things on. I find for wings though I really like a Weber kettle. I crack the lid and can get it to almost 600 degrees. The wings crisp up really well. I also have a Grilla Grills Chimp pellet grill that does a great job on wings while using their jerky/wing rack.
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This is a good post. I am still on the fence as to a replacement for my Bradley smoker. The more you guys are using the XXL Camp Chef the more promise it is showing. I was all hot and bothered to get a Pitts and Spitts with sidebox but the sidebox is kinds small. Now I’m back to the PK 100 or maybe the XXL Camp Chef. Also still thinking about making a homemade one out of a 40s era fridge that I can get. I really want to try hotdogs now too…lol! This site may cause me to spend lots of $$$.
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@ndmike please let us in the loop on what you decide. I also want to upgrade, but can’t make up my mind because none of the units really do what I want. I guess I’m just too picky and cheap! I want the Cadillac but only want to for the beetle! LOL
Pivodog will do…I’m with you. $ is hard to part with at times!
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@NDMike If you need a grill/smoker combo then I can highly, highly recommend the Camp Chef Woodwind, I absolutely love mine at home. However, if you are doing snack sticks and summer sausage and other things you’d want to hang then the XXL or the PK100 are great. The PK is obviously much more expensive and it doesn’t have wif-fi or the ability to use pellets but it does a really really good job in both smoke flavor and color development and obviously, the insulation is great.
Anyway you go I think you will be happy!
slyoder Any reason you laid out instead of hanging? Did it make it easier to move around to avoid that back corner too much (didn’t know it was the corner, just the back so thanks!) or is this just the way you prefer?
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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@NDMike If you need a grill/smoker combo then I can highly, highly recommend the Camp Chef Woodwind, I absolutely love mine at home. However, if you are doing snack sticks and summer sausage and other things you’d want to hang then the XXL or the PK100 are great. The PK is obviously much more expensive and it doesn’t have wif-fi or the ability to use pellets but it does a really really good job in both smoke flavor and color development and obviously, the insulation is great.
Anyway you go I think you will be happy!
slyoder Any reason you laid out instead of hanging? Did it make it easier to move around to avoid that back corner too much (didn’t know it was the corner, just the back so thanks!) or is this just the way you prefer?
Jonathon yep I have liked the Camp Chef XXL since it came out. I also have an old 40s-50s fridge that I might convert to a smoker with an electric element and PID controller. So many options out there!!!
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@NDMike If you need a grill/smoker combo then I can highly, highly recommend the Camp Chef Woodwind, I absolutely love mine at home. However, if you are doing snack sticks and summer sausage and other things you’d want to hang then the XXL or the PK100 are great. The PK is obviously much more expensive and it doesn’t have wif-fi or the ability to use pellets but it does a really really good job in both smoke flavor and color development and obviously, the insulation is great.
Anyway you go I think you will be happy!
slyoder Any reason you laid out instead of hanging? Did it make it easier to move around to avoid that back corner too much (didn’t know it was the corner, just the back so thanks!) or is this just the way you prefer?
Jonathon, good question. I think the reason I laid out is because 1, I have very little experience with this smoker and was worried about cooking unevenly and 2, I was smoking several different products and was not sure how to get everything to fit in using the included hooks. My goal is to be able to hang products to smoke, I just need to figure out how to best do this.
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slyoder Hanging them is fairly easy to do, your XXL should have come with a smoke stick that you can use to hang them. We don’t close, crimp or tie off the endings when we hang. You might get some bulbing at the open ends but it should be a very small amount if you got proper protein extraction.
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I have found that fat out is caused by 2 things mostly. Not enough protein extraction or not stepping up temp SLOOOWLY when thermal processing. I think you had plenty of PE but you really need to find a way to step up your TP very slowly. I start at 125deg for 30-45min then go to 135,145,155,165,175 until internal temp is 160. Never go above 180’F or you risk fat out. I have been skipping the smoker altogether and sous viding my bambi dogs and bambi bologna. Add recommended ammt of hickory powder and put them in naked (the dogs that is) ice water bath and strip celulose. I make a good bit of bambi dogs and bologna. To me, the smoker puts a “rind” on the outside of by bambi dogs that I dont care for.
Oh, 30% pork fat minimum. Fat is flavor! and the venison needs it.If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy - Red Green
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I have found that fat out is caused by 2 things mostly. Not enough protein extraction or not stepping up temp SLOOOWLY when thermal processing. I think you had plenty of PE but you really need to find a way to step up your TP very slowly. I start at 125deg for 30-45min then go to 135,145,155,165,175 until internal temp is 160. Never go above 180’F or you risk fat out. I have been skipping the smoker altogether and sous viding my bambi dogs and bambi bologna. Add recommended ammt of hickory powder and put them in naked (the dogs that is) ice water bath and strip celulose. I make a good bit of bambi dogs and bologna. To me, the smoker puts a “rind” on the outside of by bambi dogs that I dont care for.
Oh, 30% pork fat minimum. Fat is flavor! and the venison needs it.smokinbubba sounds like a good method.
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Hey guys! I believe this is the first time I have posted. I made 27 pounds of venison hot dogs this past weekend and am not pleased with the result. I’m sure you guys will be able to tell me what went wrong, so here is what I did.
I followed the Bearded Butchers recipe from YouTube. I used 22 (due to the amount in the bags selected) pounds of clean venison and 5 pounds of pork fat. I mixed in 12 ounces of Bearded Butchers Original Seasoning, 4 ounces of Hickory Smoke powder, 4 ounces of minced garlic directly to the meat prior to the first grind. Ground it a total of 5 times through my Waltons #32: first time through 3/8" plate, 2nd - 5th through 1/8" plate. I added 2.5 pounds of ice in the mix for grind #5. Grinder handled it awesome. Moved it to the 50# mixer attached to the #32 grinder. Added 1 ounce of sure cure (Waltons) and 16 ounces of water. Mixed it for 4 minutes, added another 16 ounces of water, mixed for additional 4 minutes (total 8 minutes of mixing). Loaded up the Waltons 11 pound stuffer and stuffed Waltons cellose 26mm hot dog casings. European -style linked. Refrigerated for about 20 hours. Cooking was done with the Traeger Ironwood 885. First 2 hours at 165 degrees. Then, 1 hour at 185, then turned it up to 205 and cooked to internal temperature of 165. Pull them out at 165, placed them immediately into an ice bath for 1 hour. Pulled them out and dried them off.
The issue is… it looks like most of the fat came to the outside of the meat and the dogs seem kind of dry (even though you can see the meat is moist) and the texture is grainy.
Where did I go wrong and what is the solution?
Thanks in advance.
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I have found that fat out is caused by 2 things mostly. Not enough protein extraction or not stepping up temp SLOOOWLY when thermal processing. I think you had plenty of PE but you really need to find a way to step up your TP very slowly. I start at 125deg for 30-45min then go to 135,145,155,165,175 until internal temp is 160. Never go above 180’F or you risk fat out. I have been skipping the smoker altogether and sous viding my bambi dogs and bambi bologna. Add recommended ammt of hickory powder and put them in naked (the dogs that is) ice water bath and strip celulose. I make a good bit of bambi dogs and bologna. To me, the smoker puts a “rind” on the outside of by bambi dogs that I dont care for.
Oh, 30% pork fat minimum. Fat is flavor! and the venison needs it.smokinbubba said in Venison Hot Dog Issue:
I have found that fat out is caused by 2 things mostly. Not enough protein extraction or not stepping up temp SLOOOWLY when thermal processing. > Oh, 30% pork fat minimum. Fat is flavor! and the venison needs it.
Regarding fat out, I would add that another significant contributor is too high of temperatures due to inaccurate thermal control or processing sausages in smokers intended for hot smoking and simply can’t be set for lower temperatures.
Sausage is much less tolerant to overtemperatures than ribs, brisket, or a pork butt. If you are going to process sausage on a high temp smoker, you better be watching closely and have a good thermometer to monitor internal temperatures.
Having a known, accurate thermometer to check against the internal probes on a smoker is essential, IMO.
My $.02 worth.
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I made a latch for the door of my propane smoker. I can keep it around 100 degrees with the door open about an inch
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Hey guys! I believe this is the first time I have posted. I made 27 pounds of venison hot dogs this past weekend and am not pleased with the result. I’m sure you guys will be able to tell me what went wrong, so here is what I did.
I followed the Bearded Butchers recipe from YouTube. I used 22 (due to the amount in the bags selected) pounds of clean venison and 5 pounds of pork fat. I mixed in 12 ounces of Bearded Butchers Original Seasoning, 4 ounces of Hickory Smoke powder, 4 ounces of minced garlic directly to the meat prior to the first grind. Ground it a total of 5 times through my Waltons #32: first time through 3/8" plate, 2nd - 5th through 1/8" plate. I added 2.5 pounds of ice in the mix for grind #5. Grinder handled it awesome. Moved it to the 50# mixer attached to the #32 grinder. Added 1 ounce of sure cure (Waltons) and 16 ounces of water. Mixed it for 4 minutes, added another 16 ounces of water, mixed for additional 4 minutes (total 8 minutes of mixing). Loaded up the Waltons 11 pound stuffer and stuffed Waltons cellose 26mm hot dog casings. European -style linked. Refrigerated for about 20 hours. Cooking was done with the Traeger Ironwood 885. First 2 hours at 165 degrees. Then, 1 hour at 185, then turned it up to 205 and cooked to internal temperature of 165. Pull them out at 165, placed them immediately into an ice bath for 1 hour. Pulled them out and dried them off.
The issue is… it looks like most of the fat came to the outside of the meat and the dogs seem kind of dry (even though you can see the meat is moist) and the texture is grainy.
Where did I go wrong and what is the solution?
Thanks in advance.
ToddDSheppard What kind of fat did you use? Suet will render out at a lower temperature then regular fat. I personally use much more fat I’m my hotdogs, closer to 40%. Either way it’s possible it got too warm during the process.
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Got to be pure white pork goodness for dogs. accept no substitute.
DWB, I like your 40%. I bet Oscar uses more than that!
If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy - Red Green
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Got to be pure white pork goodness for dogs. accept no substitute.
DWB, I like your 40%. I bet Oscar uses more than that!
smokinbubba said in Venison Hot Dog Issue:
Got to be pure white pork goodness for dogs. accept no substitute.
DWB, I like your 40%. I bet Oscar uses more than that!
The USDA regs doesn’t allow more than 30% fat in commercial hot dogs.
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Got to be pure white pork goodness for dogs. accept no substitute.
DWB, I like your 40%. I bet Oscar uses more than that!
smokinbubba It was the pure white pork goodness that I used. Question for you, though. Do you step up the temperature when you are sous viding the bambi dogs? If so, what is your schedule?
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I did the same thing you didn’t mix it enough to mix the fat it should be a slurry when you are done 8 min mix not enough.
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smokinbubba It was the pure white pork goodness that I used. Question for you, though. Do you step up the temperature when you are sous viding the bambi dogs? If so, what is your schedule?
ToddDSheppard I do ramp up the temp in the Sv. I start at 125,135,145,155,165,175. Prolly over kill but once u have a fat out u get real cautious!
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