Congratulations, John!

For years I smoked butts on an electric bullet-style smoker. It had a water pan that I used and my understanding is the water pan wasn’t so much to add humidity as it was to help control the heat. That smoker had no temp controls at all, you just turned it on. Apparently the water kept things from getting too hot. Some guys put sand in the water pan, but I always ran water. Don’t waste your money on adding wine, beer, spices or whatever, just plain tap water.

When I got my first electric “box smoker” about two years ago, I had to shift gears because the box smoker is sealed tight and doesn’t need water at all when smoking butts.

Haven’t used a propane smoker, but I’d try a butt using no water, temp at 225, and don’t spritz. Just use your remote thermometers and try to keep the temp at 225-240. Butts usually stall at 160-170 for me. An 8-pounder takes me 12-14 hours at 225. I do rub my butts the night before if I remember it. If I don’t, then rub 'em right before the smoke. I wouldn’t swear it makes much difference.

Don’t be opening the door, unless you absolutely have to in order to add more wood chunks. Close it up, watch your meat/smoker temps and don’t worry about it. As others have said, butts are very forgiving.

Using the standard-size Kitchen Aid, I get 5# of meat/fat/spice mix in the bowl. I tried both the dough hook and the paddle and the paddle gives me better extraction. Can’t remember times exactly, but I think I start seeing good extraction at about 10-11 minutes on speed 2-3. I know it’s right when the mixer starts jumping around and the meat wants to climb out the top of the bowl. That’s the best way I know to describe. I do watch the mixer pretty close and work the meat off the sides often with a spatula. With just a stainless steel bowl and the paddle, cleanup takes no time at all.

Jonathon You’re exactly right. If I hadn’t chosen that particular time to go get that sausage, the outdoor temp would have gone back up, the refrigerator would have warmed and kicked on the compressor, and that sausage would again be hard as a brick, as expected. I’d never have suspected thawed meat because outdoor temps were running 10-20 degrees. I think there was just enough salt and fat in the sausage to cause it to soften while the solid-muscle venison all around it was still frozen hard. Point is, if you have a refrigerator/freezer in an unheated area, you need to be aware of this possibility. Regular freezers, both chest and upright, do not have the same problem.

Cabelas90

Can we not edit posts? Here’s how that last one should read:

Well, it turns out, newer refrigerator/freezer combos get all confused if they are in an unheated garage and the temp falls below about 20 degrees for several days. The thermostat is checking the fridge temp, not the freezer temp, so if the fridge is cold enough, the compressor never kicks on. So, instead of keeping your freezer around 0 or a bit above, the compressor never kicks on and your frozen food slowly thaws. Might not be a problem, but very well could be, and you’d never know your “frozen” food had thawed to 35-40 and then was refrozen when the garage temp got back up to the 30-35 range. Who knew? Here’s a good video that explains it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy36fKlIwD0

Well, ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy36fKlIwD0s it turns out, newer refrigerator/freezer combos get all confused if they are in an unheated garage and the temp falls below about 20 degrees for several days. The thermostat is checking the fridge temp, not the freezer temp, so if the fridge is cold enough, the compressor never kicks on. So, instead of keeping your freezer around 0 or a bit above, the compressor never kicks on and your frozen food slowly thaws. Might not be a problem, but very well could be, and you’d never know your “frozen” food had thawed to 35-40 and then was refrozen when the garage temp got back up to the 30-35 range. Who knew? Here’s a good video that explains it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy36fKlIwD0

Made six pounds of venison breakfast sausage using Excalibur spices bought here and adding bacon trimmings for the fat. Some I’ve made in the past was way too lean, so I think I bumped the fat up to 30% in this batch, but I’m sure it wasn’t higher. For what it’s worth, the bacon trimmings came from the freezer and were hard as a rock. I kept a pound or two of the sausage in the fridge after making it. The rest I patted out, put between waxed paper, then inside a Ziploc bag and into the freezer. This was 4-6 weeks ago. I just went to the freezer to retrieve some of the sausage and was shocked to find it wasn’t frozen, at least not like the other meat in the freezer. I went ahead and fried up a pound of it and it was fine in taste and appearance … and I didn’t die.

I moved the remaining sausage to a different part of the freezer and made 100% sure the door sealed tight. That was 3-4 days ago. Today I checked and that sausage still isn’t frozen hard. Can someone tell me what I’ve run into here? Thanks in advance.

For fresh breakfast sausage from venison I’ve used Holly, #110 and Maple, and all are excellent. I add pork fat to get 25-30% fat. For snack sticks the buddies who seem to consume most of my snack sticks really love Willie’s. High temp pepper jack cheese and Willie’s makes a killer snack stick.

I usually only do maybe 4-6 pounds at a time, Tex, so I’m patting them out by hand. Mostly my question was about taking the mixed sausage straight to the freezer vs. “resting” it in the fridge overnight, whether that would make any difference in flavor. I know when I smoke whole chickens or super-thick porkchops, the smoke flavor seems to work its way even deeper into the meat when it’s had a rest in the refrigerator. Maybe it’s all in my head, but I don’t think so.

I just made up six pounds of fresh breakfast sausage using venison, pork fat and your Excaliber seasonings. I then go ahead and make patties, put parchment paper between them, bag 'em and freeze 'em. As I was working, it occurred to me that with a lot of my meat processing and smoking, I seem to get more flavor if the meat rests in the refrigerator at least overnight. My question is this: In regard to fresh breakfast patties, has anyone tried mixing the seasonings in and letting the meat sit overnight in the fridge before making the patties and freezing. I’m wondering if that would enhance the flavor or perhaps make it more consistent throughout the meat. If I’m wondering this, then I bet someone else has actually done a comparison.

Hmm, so you’re saying using cure in ground jerky may not be enough for safety, that a high salt content is needed as well? I’m not shooting for "shelf stable at room temp for six months, " as I keep jerky in the fridge or frozen. I’ll check out those videos for sure. I made a recent batch of teriyaki jerky that was real good, mostly I think because I extruded it a little thicker and didn’t cook it bone hard.

Well, my first attempt at using carrot fiber in ground venison jerky didn’t turn out too well. I made one 2-pound batch using breakfast sausage spice mix (Southern), cure, and the appropriate amount of carrot fiber by weight. That batch went into my dehydrator at 160 degrees. The other 2-pound batch got teriyaki flavoring, cure, and about half the carrot fiber called for. That batch went into my electric smoker, but got finished in the oven because of a smoker glitch.

The dehydrator batch is pretty acceptable, still a little flexible and not hard to chew. Not overcooked/overdried, which I think is the key.

The smoker/oven batch came out overdried, hard, and crumbly in the mouth rather than having a nice chew. Just the opposite of the tender jerky I was hoping to get via the carrot fiber. In all fairness, the fault may be mine for not checking this batch often enough and pulling it earlier. I may sprinkle this batch with some soy or Worcestershire, seal it in a Zip-Loc and see if I can plump it up a little. Can’t hurt, I figure.

So, for me, the jury is still out on whether carrot fiber can be used to hold moisture and get a ground jerky that’s tender and has a nice chew. I’ll definitely try it again, trying to make the extruded product a little thicker, and checking more closely during the thermal processing. I will mention here that I don’t think the carrot fiber affected the flavor at all; seems to be pretty neutral in that regard.

I used some Sure Gel in my last batch of ground venison jerky and it really helped. The jerky stayed much more flexible, like commercial jerky, instead of being rock hard. Loved it. I want to make some more today, but found I’m out of Sure Gel. I do have carrot fiber. Has anyone tried that? I do realize that it’s not required.

Looks like a fatal shot on the hay bale, too. Did it go far?

Congrats!

Agree with TexLaw , I don’t see any way 20% fat is too high at all. The other suggestions made here are all good possibilities.

The Walton’s instructions call for 1.2 oz of Sure Gel per 5# of meat, so i’d use 2.4 or 2.5 ounces for 10 pounds of meat.

Are you weighing your spices and other additives or measuring? Since all your sticks are coming out bland, I’m wondering if you’re just getting the amounts wrong. I bought a really sensitive kitchen scale off Amazon for $15-$20 and I’m frequently surprised how far off I am when I guess the weight on something, especially small amounts. Just a suggestion.

Smoke powder? Well, that gives you another piece of equipment to ask for next Christmas or for your anniversary. Honestly, your jerky will be fine with the smoke powder, but you’ll have to take some C-R-A-P from guys like me. Ha!

Also, I have a Cuisinart mixer that’s a Kitchen Aid clone. Bowl is plenty full with 5# of meat/fat/water, but it does a dandy job. I run mine on setting 1 (slowest), using the flat paddle rather than the dough hook. Takes me 10-11 minutes to get the stickiness I like.

Lube up that stuffer and tube because it takes all kinds of pressure to force that meat into a 19mm casing, which is what I use also.

Jonathon Thanks! On these sticks I’m running 4 pounds of lean venison and adding 1 pound of bacon ends, so 20% fat, plus Sure Gel and then ECA at the end of mixing. I think you’re right that much of the solution could be simply stuffing the casings just a bit tighter. On this last batch I was using a new manual stuffer by myself, so I was cranking with one hand and tensioning the casing with the other. Since blowouts mean stopping and tying off the two ends, my subconscious probably caused me to let the casing slip off the horn a little too freely.

I’m glad you agree that my idea of rotating the snack sticks on a dowel isn’t whacko.

I’ve made 3-4 batches, mostly snack sticks, but also summer sausage. Product comes out pretty good, but I still struggle a little to keep the 19mm smoked casings taut after cooking and water bath. I’m using Sure Gel and get good protein extraction.

This question, though, deals with dowel rods to hang my snack sticks in the smoker. Right now I’m using an electric MES clone and I have have a good set of electronic thermometers to monitor both smoker temp and meat temp. Currently I’m smoking the sticks in coils laid flat on the smoker racks. Like most smokers, mine has hot spots, so sometimes a section of a coil on the outside is ready before the rest.

I want to try hanging the sticks to see if that evens out the cooking some. If I tie the ends of each sausage “rope,” then I can rotate them not only left to right on the dowel, but I can also rotate the loop top to bottom, to even out that variable as well.

If I’m making any sense, has anyone else tried this? Does it help, or am I being waaaay too picky and technical? I know some folks add fans and take other measures to even out the temp, I’m just looking for something a little simpler. If someone else has explored sliding “ropes” around left to right and vertically, what can you tell me?

Thanks!

It’s been several years since I’ve made these and I’ve forgotten a lot. I followed the recipe here at Walton’s and have a couple of questions:

1. I did a 3/8 grind on 4# of venison, followed by a 1/8 grind. My 1hp #8 grinder did just fine with the 3/8 plate, good particle definition. But when I did the 1/8 grind it really slowed down and darn near emulsified the meat and fat (I added 1# fat trimmings from bacon). The consistency and appearance were almost like bologna. I’m smoking now, so I don’t know how they’re going to be, but I want to know if the bologna-like consistency is correct? I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have just done a second grind with the 3/8 plate.

2. I started out trying to stuff with my grinder but it’s way slow. Is that a common problem when stuffing with a grinder? I ended up using a PVC hydraulic stuffer that I MacGyver’d a few years ago. It does great, but has so much “horsepower” that it’s kind of hard to throttle it down for snack sticks. So, my question is “Does everyone eventually gives up on stuffing with a grinder or am I maybe doing something wrong?”

Thanks!