With mead based wines in mind if you want to be technical about it champagne yeasts really are not the best and most wine type yeast will detract from the actual flavor. Yes there are specific strains for mead and I have used them they work well. Capturing a wild strain is really the best way to make a mead as that is going to produce a low-medium abv with alot of flavor. Just kinda depends on what you want in the end for taste.
It’s an Aroma rice cooker. I line the pot with foil and fill it up. I make a foil lid for on top and then fold the sides over and close it all up. Set on warm with a sticky note to remind me what day to turn off. The smell changes a couple days before its done. They are the texture of a prune in 2 weeks. I seperate all the cloves and out in a container with paper towel on bottom and leave on the counter w/o a lid for a week or so to dry a little more. Just bought multiple pounds of butter from the Amish not far from here to make compound butter for steaks and chops. The rest gets saved for pasta and pizza. Now you need to try cured egg yolks. I make linguine with clam sauce with black garlic and grate cured egg yolk on top. Fantastic stuff right there.
@Jonathon once you’ve blanched it to remove the surface acid it’ll bind better to the protein. If you run it back to the grinder you’re just going to cut another surface area and release more acid so it won’t bind as well
@beekeeper84 check with any candy making companies you might have near. They store liquid sugar and have to clean their silos. Most of the time the pump the waste down the drain. Brown and Haley here took the waste and gave to beekeepers to feed their bee’s saving the bee’s plus reducing disposal costs.
I have been cutting my snack strands double the length I can hang in my smoker with out the ends being too close to the heat source and always keeping the length divisible by 4" or 5". When finished smoking I then cut them in either 4" or 5" length then my Dear Wife vacuum seals them in pint size Pre-cut VACMASTER vacuum sealer bags in our home sealer as we do not have a commercial sealer. She has had tremendous luck with these bags and gets almost 100% seals that last. With a home sealer we have never had much luck going over a Quart bag for dependable seals regardless of the brand of bags. Can’t wait till I can get a commercial sealer. I also love using scissors for trimming my smoked products
@craigrice 11# is the way to go. I have a 5#. It works great. You just fill it more times. But an 11# Is better, because I usally, make no less then 10# of meat at any one time.
@denny66 yeah the modern trend is to butcher at 250 or 300. In some pig breeds though going over isn’t going to hurt anything. These pigs are pure berkshire so it won’t make a ton of difference it’s a bit like a wine age does make it taste better . Unfortunately this boy has just gotten to big to breed with my sow so it’s a sad day to see him go.
@beekeeper84 You can follow https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/393/how-to-make-juicier-chicken-brats-recipe and add cure and use the same smoke schedule. They turned out great!
I would highly recommend that you use the cold phosphate as it made them much moister. However, know that using cold phosphate is going to raise th pH of the meat and therefore shorten the shelf life. Even though you are going to cure it I would recommend treating it like a fresh product.
@beekeeper84 At the time we are good, I ordered some from another site and to make it worth the shipping I ordered a bunch. But, when I run out of those I will contact you!
@Departing-Contestant good advice, keeping it
cold, semi frozen, is a key. Many of the commercial processors I have worked with use bowl choppers for the emulsification process.
B
