gadahl I think you may be missing the spirt of making your own meats. Austin, Jonathon, Walton’s and Excalibur seasonings do a great job of giving us a starting point. However, that’s all it should be is a starting point. Trying different amounts and even types of seasonings is all part of the journey when making your own sausages, snack sticks, smoked meats or anything else cooked at home. I’ve never seen a supply company offer so many video tutorials outside of Walton’s. I make videos for our business and have an idea on the crazy amount of work that has gone into their training videos.

I wouldn’t want to make a large batch of anything without testing it in small amounts first. On every new recipe we make several ½ lb samples with the recommended amount of seasoning then more & less added. I use a slider press and bake each of the samples. After tasting them side by side, we often make more adjustments and then come up with a final recipe that works for us to make 5, 10 or 25 lbs at a time. Sure, it takes an afternoon to test but that’s why I make our own meats to get just what we want. It’s rare exactly what Excalibur, Austin or Jonathon recommend works perfectly for us. The best part of processing your own meat is getting everything right for your family. I’m not talking just seasoning amount but also deciding what casings to use our how fine or course to grind the meat for each sausage.

Next time you grind a pork shoulder save some meat and package several 1-2 pound bags for testing later on. It won’t take long to test a recipe when you don’t have to grind the meat. As for the conversions Google will easily convert any oz or lb into grams for you. Grams really should be how you measure your spices. Then it’s a very simple formula in Excel to covert for any size batch. I save each recipe with its own Excel spreadsheet and just input the amount of meat we plan to use that day. It instantly tells me how much seasoning, water, binder, accelerator, cheese and any other ingredient needed. Since I adjust every recipe amount the conversion charts wouldn’t work for us anyway.