Having trouble with all the juices cooking out when baking my Excalibur Lebanon Bologna mix. Tried twice. HELP.

Jonathon I was making a 5lb. batch using all beef . I used 7 oz Lebanon Bologna Mix, .3 Sure
Cure , .6 oz Capsulated Citric Acid, 12 oz Water . I don’t grind the ground beef after adding the seasonings. I mixed the meat by hand thoroughly, the meat got tacky. I stuffed the all the meat in one 4 inch casing The first time I tried making this recipe I poked a few holes in the casing . I baked the bologna in the oven at 125 degrees for 2 hours, 2 hours at 140 degrees, 2 hours at 200 degrees. The first batch the juices cooked out of the pinholes starting halfway through baking the bologna ,all the juices cooked out , I still finished baking it . After cooling the bologna was dry crummy.

The second time I did the same recipe, but I DID NOT put any pin holes in the CASING. I baked the bologna at the same temperature. The only difference this time is , At 5 hours of baking everything looked good . At this time I wanted to check the temperature with a probe. THAT WAS A BIG MISTAKE. When I inserted the probe all the juices sprayed out. The temperature was 149 degrees. I finished baking the bologna and let it cool. IT IS DRY .

I feel I followed the instructions on the Excalibur Lebanon Bologna Seasoning Bag ,except it does not say anything about how much water. I CALLED WALTON, they said that you should add 3 OZ . PER POUND. I ONLY ADDED 2 OZ . PER POUND BOTH BATCHES. Why wouldn’t the seasoning mix tell me the amount of water ?

ANOTHER QUESTION IS , WOULD USING EXCALIBUR COLD PHOSPHATE WORK ? I would hate putting any more money
in it if not sure what I’m doing wrong.

THANKS FOR WRITING BACK

Jonathon THANKS for the information, first
thing I did not hold the bologna over night.
With your information and the video, I think
the problem is hand mixing. I never had
problem with my home recipes.
I HAVE NEVER USED CITRIC ACID.

I WILL WRITE BACK AFTER I TRY THE
NEXT BATCH, IT MAY BE A MONTH OR
TWO . I WILL PROBABLY TRYING THE
CARROT FIBER . AND MIXING BETTER

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!