@angel4us Absolutely you can…I need to find a way to make this a well-known thing as we get this question very often and seems to be coming up more and more recently. Yes, you can absolutely use Jerky Seasoning to make Snack Sticks and vice versa. If you use a seasoning that is made for snack sticks, summer sausage or brats it might give a slightly stronger taste in jerky so if you want to back it off a little that’s fine. I wouldn’t back it off too much though, perhaps 5% or so. Personally I just add the regular amount and enjoy the slightly strong taste.

@angel4us I’d always heard it was liquid but I never looked into it…until now! Snopes (so take it or leave it) says it’s fake. Apparently they are shipped in bags that have a liquid broth and they have a soft texture to them which probably lead to the liquid meat theory. As for what probably IS in it to let you slice it so thin, I’d imagine there would be a high level of stabilizers (same thing that lets soft serve icecream be so smooth), phosphates and injectable binders.

@angel4us Yes, those brown spots are areas where the cure was not mixed in with. The other possibility is that something you added interacted with the cure and causes it to turn the meat brown/green around it. As good as you mixed it with your hands this will sometimes happen when hand mixing (can even happen with machine mixing) as the cure didn’t get every little bit of meat. Personally, I don’t think it causes too much of an issue as long as everything was cooked to 160° and is kept refrigerated.

For those that walked thru the meat markets in the 50’s every morning the butcher would add a little magic power to the ground beef and pork ( cure#1) … Mixed it up. Ground meat looked great. Bright red every time. Happy Dance.

@angel4us Yes, Pa’s Black Bull does have phosphate in it so do not add any more as too much phosphate will give it a soapy taste! You should not us Smoked Meat Stabilizer in anything you are going to add water too as it will quickly gas out and could create a dangerous gas, so stay away from that product when marinating!

@angel4us Prague #2 has both nitrates and nitrites in it whereas sure cure has nitrites but no nitrates in it. The addition of nitrates makes it a better choice for slow or cold curing where as Sure Cure or #1 cure is what you use for things you are going to smoke with heat like snack sticks. Unless you are cold curing something then use Sure Cure. Adding more cure isn’t going to give you more shelf life. FSIS/USDA regulates the amount of ingoing nitrite into a sausage, and the maximum allowed is 156 ppm, so you would not want to go above this. Our formulations are designed to be within the limits as regulated by the USDA. Let us know if you need anything else!

@raider2119 First of all, more cookies is always a good thing, especially if you don’t have to bake them! Second our eggs peeled incredibly easily when we smoked them and yes we were very worried about them bursting as that would be a pain to clean up, not sure if we got lucky or just had the smoker dialed in perfectly but we did not end up with any of them bursting. Once I try this I will let you know how it turned out and thanks for the instructions!

@angel4us Great question! You can use any seasoning like a Bratwurst Seasoning that is designed for a fresh product for a cured product like Jerky or Snack Stick Seasonings as long as you add the cure. The same is true vice versa as long as you do NOT add the cure. This is part of the reason that we do not have the cure mixed into the seasonings and instead have it in a separate package. Just go into it knowing that often if you use a Brat, Summer Sausage or Snack Stick seasoning as a jerky seasoning it is going to have a stronger taste, which isn’t necessarily an issue depending on your preferences!

@angel4us Smoked Meat Stabilizer is used in smoked and cured sausages (i.e. snack sticks, summer sausage, etc.) only. You do not want to use this in a fresh sausage, and not in a cured product that uses a brine (i.e. ham or turkey). You could use it in other smoked and cured sausage like a german, polish, kielbasa, etc. Most commonly would be snack sticks and summer sausage though. Usage is at 2 ounces per 25 lb of meat. (measuring per pound is 0.08 ounce, which is really hard to measure for individual pound increments, so hopefully you are making a decent size batch) It does not add smoke flavor. “Smoked” is in the name just because it is used for smoked and cured sausages. You can use smoked meat stabilizer in place of ECA for the cure accelerator properties. It would not end up with the same level of tangy flavor that ECA provides though. If you add both, it might make things a bit tangier though, since smoked meat stabilizer has some ascorbic acid and sodium citrate in it. I will try to find out exactly what to expect on the tangy flavor and pH level changes with smoked meat stabilizer and respond again though.

@angel4us 50 grain vinegar is the same thing as 5% acidity vinegar. Typical distilled white vinegar from any grocery store is usually right at or around 5%. If you already have some white vinegar at home, it probably is 5% acidity (and it should list what % it is), and if not, it should be super easy to find at any grocery store!

@angel4us Yes, I would use the same exact process and steps for Cotto Salami as I would Summer Sausage.

@angel4us Yes, it will work… I’ve done the same with the old enterprise stuffer since it comes with a strainer basket. but I’ve also used my 7# vertical manual stuffer, here’s the process: I tried cheesecloth but it’s not strong enough. Go to fabric store and ask for wedding dress material(2 yards)… i know…but it’s very strong and let’s the juice through. i cut 18"x18" or so squares of the material, ran the quartered apples through my grinder on the largest plate i had into a “China cap strainer”( used in restaurants to filter fryer oil) sitting on top of a large pot. Let some of the juice come out there then fill up the squares with the pulp. It works best when i pressed them one at a time in my vertical stuffer worked well, just be patient and take your time. Not as good as the Enterprise but didn’t take long to press a gallon of fresh cider with my own apples(not sure the ratio of apples to gallons). If you let it sit in a large pot or jug overnight then skim off the top and filter it will be less hazy but i didn’t mind/couldn’t taste the fine pulp. One of my holiday favorites is putting a gallon of cider in a crock pot with some cinnamon sticks or mulling spice and serving it with salted caramel vodka, warms the soul…Good luck!

@angel4us When you buy ground beef from the store it has normally already been ground twice so it should be ready to use to make Summer Sausage. We recommend once through a 3/16th plate and then the second grind on a 1/8th plate. It might be difficult to tell if Kroger did a second grind at 1/8th but even if they did it twice at 3/16th that shouldn’t cause you too much difficulty, you just want to make sure you are getting good protein extraction when you are mixing it. Remember, if you are adding Encapsulated Citric Acid go right to the smokehouse after stuffing as it acts as a cure accelerator. Let us know if you have any other questions.

@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!

@angel4us I love making Chicken Sausage, it’s a great way to have a healthier option. We actually did a post and a video on this check out the post https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/264/how-to-make-homemade-chicken-brats and the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYu5S8qtvEY . I listed out some favorites in the post but here is a quick list of some of the seasonings that I think work well with Chicken, Habanero Mango (if you like heat try this one, not all that hot but does have some kick to it) Supreme Pizza Bratwurst, Rueben Bratwurst, Feta Cheese and Spinach, Hot Buffalo Wing and the Sun Dried Italian. One thing to keep in mind is that since chicken is lower fat than pork or beef the taste will be toned down a little bit as the fat acts as a delivery system for the seasoning. You can combat this by using the full bag of seasoning but only using 20 lb of meat or you can add some fat but that sort of defeats the purpose of making a healthier brat! You should still check out the post and the video for some more tips like using a binder! I hope it works out well for you, post some pictures if it comes out well!

Hey @angel4us! The August Giveaway started today. Subscribe to WaltonsTV on YouTube to always be the first to know exactly when the monthly giveaways start, plus other sales and specials. Go here to enter this month: waltonsinc.com/win To find past winners, visit the waltonsinc.com/win page and scroll down a bit. There is a section that shows links to each of the past giveaways and you can see who won each giveaway. July’s winner has already been notified via email…