I joined the U.S Navy right out of high school in 1987, worked as an Aviation Boatswains Mate Handler ABH for short. I worked on the flight deck of U.S.S. ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) aircraft carrier for 6 years, got out of the service and went into heavy construction building bridges until 2001 when I was diagnosed with epilepsy. I have undergone 24 surgeries in 18 years time and I’m now 100% disabled, not because of the surgeries but the epilepsy. I now work when I can doing odd jobs to make extra money. I GO CRAZY IF I’M NOT PRODUCTIVE!!

fallis10 There is a site called eplastics.com they carry polypropylene sheets that you can cut to size. These sheets are USDA approved and the last time I bought from them a 0.030 thick 24"x47" sheet was about $9.00 I’m just going to make a suggestion as I cure and smoke a lot of bacon at home. I have used pork belly & pork butt you will save a lot of time and money if you leave the bacon in pre cut slabs I cut mine into 6" wide x 10" long stick in a vacuum seal bag a seal it up. Leaving the bacon in block form makes it easy to stack, is a better product in my opinion, I have never had a complaint from anyone having to slice their own bacon before cooking it. Especially when it’s given to them, and they understand the work you put into it.

I use my unburned charcoal all the time because as a disabled veteran I live on a fixed income. I use dryer lint, or cotton balls coated with petroleum jelly, they both work great but the cotton balls burn hotter and longer. I also keep both in my bug out bag, in my truck, in my camping gear, etc. in case of emergencies. Another little trick is instead of paying an arm and a leg for waterproof matches make your own, all you need is a box of stick matches and a bottle of clear finger nail polish it takes a little bit of time but will save you a lot of money. Simply dip the strike end of the match into the clear finger nail polish and lay the match on a table or something else flat with the strike end of the match hanging over the tables edge so the polish can dry. You now have a water proof match that will burn longer and hotter even if it is windy.

As a veteran I would like to join this group. I served from 1987-1993 in the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) I worked on the flight deck as an Aviation Boatswains Mate Handler (ABH).

Jonathon there are several calibers out there that will get the job done. I have a .270 WSM, 30/06, .300 Win. Mag. I shoot Federal Trophy Bonded Tip ammunition in all 3 rifles, I have harvested game of all sizes with all 3 calibers. My go to deer/elk rifle is my .300 Win. Mag. I shoot 180 grain Trophy Bonded Tip ammo out of this rifle, and I have harvested game from pronghorn antelope, to elk with this rifle and everyone of them were 1 shot kills, and I feel this combo of caliber & bullet will harvest anything on this continent. Every animal I have harvested with this bullet acts like they have been hit right between the eyes with a sledge hammer. If I can give you a bit of advice, it doesn’t matter the caliber/bullet combo, if you can’t shoot your rifle well, and put the round where it needs to be, neither caliber or bullet type matters.

Excalibur dehydrators are tops in my book, I own 2. Mine are the 9 tray model # on their Excalibur’s site is 3926TB it has a 26 hour timer, and a thermostat on top as well. It is very affordable and IT GET’S THE JOB DONE!!! I have dried fruit, made granola, I do all my jerky & beef sticks on it (much quicker) I use a jerky gun and you can make 9 trays of jerky in about 6 hours, I also make my dog treats on it. I will tell you this I bought mine off of E Bay and saved about $125.00 on each machine, Excalibur’s web site is pretty pricy. You can also buy replacement screen inserts, etc. for the machine on E Bay at a much cheaper price. These dehydrator’s are the best I have ever owned nothing digital, or fancy, it simply does what it is suppose to do. Hope this helps you out!!!

I don’t own a butcher shop, but as a disabled veteran living on a fixed income I do most of my own butchering, curing, etc. with my game meat, pork, beef. I make brat’s every year and have found that if you have a favorite brat recipe the only thing I change is what meat I’m using. I make brat’s with duck, venison, pork, goose, beef. The only thing that I may add is cure, and what dictates that is if I’m cold or hot smoking. PR butchering I’m sure I don’t have to tell you but I have found out in the years I have been processing at home that when I find something that works I stay with it, because processing meat on any scale is hard enough so I try not to make it any harder.

I have a pellet smoker that is in a Z pattern, when filled you get an average of 12 hour of smoke. I barely crack my damper on the top of my smoker, just enough for the smoke to move up through the smoker. When I smoke pork belly for bacon usually I will run at least 12 hours and I smoke between 4 & 6 bellies at a time, after the 12 hour smoke I use my eyes, if it looks good to my eyes and has good color on the outside of the belly it’s done. To me your eyes will tell you if the belly’s have enough smoke. I use the same routine for pork hocks, feet, Canadian bacon, etc. Although it may not take as long to smoke these pieces of pork I still use my eyes.

I agree 100% with you mdseaside, I cold smoke pork products year round. Rusty72, you have to remember the smoking the meat is adding flavor, your cure whether it is dry or a brine is what cures the meat.

Surg Another thing you can do is make you a few more hangers that you are sticking through your belly for hangers, and if your belly pieces are to long you can cut them in half and then hang em in the smoker vertically. Cutting your belly in half will not affect your final product.

Jesser I had the same problem many years ago with hog casings & smoking but I solved the problem. I can not stress enough about using a water pan in your smoker. Instead of drying out the casing with a dry smoke, by using a water pan in your smoker it gives moisture to your smoke and in turn produces a much better product in my opinion that is not dried out.

Kyle, I have been i your position when doing private parties etc. You are already setting up the smoker to smoke pork butt so smoke them all, put 2 or 3 out for the party and keep the remainder in the oven to keep them warm and put them out as needed, when the party is over, cool any remainder pork butts, break them down, shred bag the meat up (VACUM SEAL IN BAGS IF YOU CAN) then put in your freezer. Use your leftover meat for tacos, nachos, sandwiches, etc. I SURE YOU WILL HAVE A GREAT PARTY!!

We do this every year with our left over green tomatoes WE MAKE PICKLES. If you have a favorite pickle recipe use it the same way you would if you were using cucumbers. We also make tomato relish. Hope this helps you out.

Jamieon22 cure and smoke my own bacon, hog jowl, pigs feet, pork hocks, etc. and unless your plan is to completely cook your belly 180 degrees is way to high. You may have a different method (and if you do I’m interested) but smoking these types of meat are usually to flavor them not cook them. I always use cold smoking for flavoring this type of pork cuts, and I do the same when making beef bacon, buck board bacon, etc. but I’m allows open to new ways to smoke and cure meat.

This is what happens to chickens that free range on THE NEW GREEN GRASS THATS APART OF THE GOVERMENTS “NEW GREEN DEAL”

GWG8541 I make a lot of breakfast sausage 25 lbs. at a time and I do this when I package bulk, or sausage patties. I save my foam trays from grocery shopping (meat, vegetables, fruit) come on them, or you can buy a case from a web site called WebstaurantStore for about $25.00, I use boxed deli waxed paper sheets you can also buy these from the fore mentioned web site. I place half of the sheet on the foam tray, weigh out my bulk sausage place on the tray and fold the other half of the waxed sheet over the top of the sausage and then vacuum seal, no need to pre freeze, the same process works for patties. I hope this helps you out.

What I do is take the belly out of my smoker, let it come to room temp. place in fridge for a least 12 hours, even over night. Next day I cut my belly into whole pieces (slab) that I vacuum seal seal then put in the freezer. I don’t slice my belly into strips until I’m ready to use. I actually find it easier to slice if the slab is still some what solid, I also make sure that the belly is fat side down on my cutting board, as the belly meat starts to soften up the fat side being down helps the belly from sliding while slicing, kind of a safety thing.

Joseph I would go ahead and make it 8ft high as well. We built a cooler this past season for processing deer business and we used 4x8 foot sheets of insulation, made the job much quicker, and no waste which will save you money.

Jesser when I am finished with my beef/venison sticks I always let the sticks cool to room temp. then I make sure there is no visible moisture on the sticks (I check each one) if there is any moisture I wipe of with a towel, then I arrange drying racks that are stackable (like the type used for cooling cookies, or loaves of bread) over a sheet pan, place the beef sticks on the racks, place in the frig overnight. The next day I vacuum seal, and place in the freezer. I have never had to use desiccant bags using this process.

I have used Midway USA in the past. I found a web site called “AMMOSEEK” it’s the best in my opinion these days to find out who has what, and at what prices. It’s simple to use. Enter caliber, grain of bullet, etc. it will bring up what stores have in stock, and prices are shown cheapest to most expensive. This site is great for handgun, and shotgun ammo as well.