@Tex_77 Thank you and lol, its like the answer to enlightenment lies at the end of this path. Though enlightenment is probably worth a lot more than the additives breakdown chart!

not a fan of carrot fiber I have had better results from soy protine

@North what @twilliams said was spot on. Make sure you are leaving dampers open for that first hour and when you are using wild game you should use Sure Gel meat binder. This will help keep everything where it is supposed to be and prevent it from fatting out. Your process looks good for everything you have listed. I would point out that you should mix a lot! You are trying to get the fat to mix in with your meat as well as get your meat to extract the proteins so it is really really sticky. For a 12.5 lb batch you can use 1 qt of water or 3/4, the 1 quart might take a little longer to cook. Since you are having a specific problem I would recommend that you use the 3/4. Then if this is a little dryer than you would like you can increase that up to 1 qt. Im guessing that adding the extra water while mixing was your main issue. Mixing is supposed to be tough and the closer you get to it being mixed enough it will get tougher and tougher. Try it with just the 3/4 qt and see how it goes!

ECA melts and activates around 135F, you should be fine for a few hours

@Jonathon I have used beer with the jalapeno for some burgers! I posted about it previously on the Keto bun thread. Jalapeno High Temp Cheddar patty, pulled pork and french fried jalapeno with horseradish aioli. [image: 1565894335677-burger2.jpg] [image: 1565894344103-burger3-resized.jpg]

@North biggest difference between H Summer and Ton’s is that H summer has whole mustard seeds where Ton’s has ground mustard seeds. Either would be great but I’d probably go with H Summer, it is a best seller and with good reason! For Breakfast links adding pure maple syrup is a better idea, I don’t have good luck with adding bacon,m gets mooshie (sp?) whenever I try to use it. Regular hot dog seasoning (or closest we have) that gets great reviews Hot dog & Bologna then there is the Reduced Salt Frank & Weiner or the Chili dog is really good to but out of those I think the Hot Dog & Bologna will be the closest to what you are looking for. For summer you can absolutely use the H or the Ton’s as a base, people do it all the time with good results. The gigawatt will give you a nice amount of heat but it shouldn’t be burn your mouth hot. I like to add ghost pepper hi-temp cheese to it so people sweat when they eat too much, it keeps people from treating them as “samples”! For the salt the breakfast with probably the least salty taste would be the maple, so you are good there. I might stay clear of the Italians as I seem to remember them being salty but I love salt so it is hard to say for sure. For hotdogs, they are all going to have about the same saltiness aside the reduced salt frank and Weiner (linked above). On your last bit, you said “mix spices with seasoning” did you mean with the meat? If so never mix the seasoning and cures in and then hold before stuffing, if you are using sure cure (or any cure really) then mix, stuff and then hold if necessary. If you wait then everything might start to “set” and you could break your stuffer, not to mention it will be much much harder to crank. If you aren’t using cure then just stuff, if you are using sure cure (and no accelerator) the stuff and hold in a fridge overnight to allow the cure time to work! Good luck!