YooperDog absolutely. There are many fine small processors. My all-time favorite just closed shop. There are problems in the small processor industry today that there are limited ways to address. Capacity limits is one. I called to get the cow processed and nobody ( about five local slaughter.houses) could take it for months. A couple of them no longer take anything with horns. And two others have always seemed to extract a fairly high “butcher’s tax.”. Rather than pay that " tax" I can cut what I can and know I got my meat, all of my meat, and what conditions it was cut under.

I did laugh when I read your post! No. I normally work outside for the rough stuff and in the kitchen for the finer work. But it was in the teens that morning and I am too old for that. By the time I was ready to grind, season, mix and stuff sausages on Monday my wife was using the WHOLE kitchen to can chicken. Since I had not taken the table back out yet, I just stayed.

It is a 1942 South Bend 7" shaper. I used it a lot years ago primarily to cut dovetails in muzzleloading rifle barrels. I have since gotten a Cincinnati Toolmaster C that has largely replaced the shaper. I like using it though. It is hypnotic. I used to get some of my best naps watching it work! I also have a 1942 South Bend heavy 10. Stick with the classics.

The old cow hasn’t come home yet! Once you are retired (and old) everything feels like a lot of work.

All I use is kosher salt, brown sugar, white pepper, and cure #2. Sometimes I take out the aitch bone and sometimes not. These four had two done each way. Salt to sugar was four to one. Have to calculate cure based on weight. Every spec has to be salted. I lost one to bacteria last year because I did not get enough cure in curs deep around aitch bone. In May I will scrub them clean and smoke them in net for two fays. Then they will age until January 2023, if we have that date! Just give it a try. Well worth it. Not overly salty. Sliced cheese him it could be sold as prosciutto.

Oops did.mot mean to post the old guy in four wheeler. Sorry

This is the time of year to fan tasize about hams! Killed hog (and a cow) Saturday
Got four hams in cure and hung in the smokehouse. I will touch those again in May. Tuesday I made two big long heavy sticks of hard salami and hung them in the root cellar to ferment. We will get to eat mid April. Then I ground thirty pounds of pork and fat from the primal cut butchering, skinning, and trimming. I made ten pounds each sweet Italian sausage, garlic sausage, and breakfast sausage. Nearly all of it caused. The first two in natural hog casings and the breakfast sausage half in sheep casing (I hate doing those) and half loose. My sweet (Italian) wife vacuum sealed it all. The rest of the hog is in primal cuts in the deep freeze waiting for me to be ready. The cow went away a few days to hang. [link text](```
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calldoctoday simple tongue and groove white pine from a local mill.

Jonesy mostly. I have had it to 190 degrees, but it was a long time getting there.

Where is the fire built? I am guessing that is the home behind it (with the light fixture).

For $5 a knife, I would be happy to buy a second set. Keep one on the table and one in the mail. I HATE to sharpen.

Today I did two belly bacon sides and one full pork loin for Canadian bacon that had been in cure for about three weeks. But the next project will be some pepperoni and some hot dogs using a couple steers we just killed. I may do some more hard salami after that.

glen who said Afghans developed IEDs? That was a chunk of concrete.

Gravity Storm it looks great but I would have been buying bleach by the drum before it’s first use!! I’m the end though, it looks very functional.

Hog Pen the photo did not upload. Would like to see it.

glen yeah i have electric 10 feet away at the dog lot but would just do the floor thing. i have a stack of the thin firebrick for stoves i could put down. i am smoking Canadian bacon and belly bacon right now and it is 160.

YooperDog not using the remote firebox setup. It does have a poured concrete floor with three and four course of block behind the stone. Theoretically I could put a small fire in the base but have not. I really enjoy smoked Turkey and would like to do that. Sort of afraid of burning it down though! It can get warm enough to get an internal temp of 140 on a pork loin cured as Canadian bacon.

processhead that is pretty cool. I would imagine that where he is, the snow load would quickly destroy a small fixed building.

Jonesy no I do not have racks, but I did include a “step” both high and low inside the smokehouse that could hold racks, though I envisioned them more for cheese, salt, or small items than jerky. The humidity is mostly controlled by God, though I could probably place a lot similar to yours directly in front of the smoke vent. It is pretty slick how the racks slide out to be supported at the far end by that upright\crosspiece part.

gus4416 I really like hearing stories from people honoring or fondly recalling their family’s past. I assume he raised his own hogs. Do you remember what he kept? Modern breeds are a much different animal. The reduced lard and leaner meats make a real difference in the products we can produce.

gus4416 thank you. I really was looking for pictures of other’s smokehouses. I read these posts a lot and hear about using the Mammothmeatmonsterpropane pellet burner Z1000, but seldom ever see of anyone smoking meat with anything low tech. Maybe I am just a genetic throwback. Lol.