Austin Good afternoon after mid-term hangover from the outer limits of the people’s republic of Oregon! (Dayville, to be exact) My name is Matt…been hunting since I was a little boy (appx 40 years) and have always processed our own game, but just started into “meatgistics” for about a year. I have a great walk in cooler and meat cutting setup, recently purchased Vacmaster VP215 chambered vacuum sealer, and since I’m about the only small processor around I do quite a bit with my buddies…(we barter for beer ) I was smoking on my traeger but recently completed my 1956 Zenith Fridge conversion and it seems to work pretty well. Brats are my favorite, but dabble in a little bit of everything. I really want to get into dry curing but there seems to be less of this sort of thing going on than there used to be (instant gratification society so it would seem) and I know that dry curing takes lots of patience.
Favorite brat seasoning that Excalibur offers is the Andouille Cajun…it makes outstanding brats! Also like the chorizo made with lamb, and the Parmesan Garlic mix is top shelf.
Looking forward to learning and sharing with the Meatgistics Community!

I smoked many a summers on my traeger. Turning them a few times during the process will ensure that you won’t get “cooked product” on the side that is facing the grill.

My question regards the use of ECA…Tomorrow, I will be grinding and mixing and stuffing 100 lbs of product for Summer Sausage and snack sticks for Christmas presents, however saturday and sunday will be dedicated to smoking and packaging.
I’ve been doing this for awhile and never used ECA for my stuff, but decided to give it a whirl (I will only be using it on (1) 25 pound batch of snack sticks). With cleanup being the worse part of all of this, I do not want to dirty up my mixer again on saturday morning.
I know that re-grinding with the ECA is a no-no and I have no intentions of doing that anyways. However, if I do not over mix the meat and keep it super cold when doing so, is it entirely possible that there will be no issue with the ECA dispersing into the meat before I actually get around to smoking it, and if so, if it’s already in the casings, what can actually happen to the final product if it indeed does?

Thanks you for the quick response, Jonathon…Interesting experiment that you performed; it would stand to reason that under normal circumstances that the cottonseed oil doesn’t break down until it reaches a temperature of 130 F, therefore keeping the temp down would be paramount in keeping it intact until the final stage of smoking/cooking.
Cleaning up the mixer and stuffer is such a pain in the ass which is why we always try to do a minimum of 50 lb batches when it’s possible. I might just try it and see what happens. Protein extraction is so critical, so not sure how easy its going to be to mix in the ECA in the last 60 seconds without rupturing the oil casing…Quite the dilemma, and I hate wasting any meat.
The mixer I bought that attaches to my grinder has made life SO much easier and I wouldn’t trade it for the old method of hand mixing, especially when doing 25 pound batches product.
One more question: How quickly does the ECA permeate the product when it does rupture, and is there any real difference between letting it sit for a few hours before smoking, or going immediately from stuffer to smoker? I tend to overthink these things.