deplorablenc1
I always eat my mistakes.
Nobody can find them that way. :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes:

It depends on how much you are grinding.
If just a pound or two, a dinner plate might do.
But for larger amounts you may need a platter, or even a tub.
Since I use my wife’s Kitchenaid, I do my first grind into the mixing bowl (5 pound batches), then mix in the fixins.
After chillin the villin in the cooler, I will regrind but usually right inta the stuffer can.
Then roll out the big longin.
So yeah, plate size matters if you want your meat off the table.

Got to be careful or somebody like me will give you a really silly answer…

deplorablenc1

Ha, Ha, I still have my beer on hand.
I do remote monitoring. I have 3 different thermometers that remotely report what’s going on. (But I usually only use one of them at a time.)
But now I sit at the computer, or TV, and watch the temperatures.
But I’m not one to go traipsing off shopping for underwear or other items while cooking.

Beer is an important safety accessory for BBQing. It is important to have a “cold one” on hand in case of burned fingers.
You can immediately grab your cold can of beer to take the heat out of a burned finger.
Beer has natural anesthetic properties, and can have a numbing effect before the actual accidental burning. So there is that two-fold advantage of cold beer in hand.
A side effect of Beer at the BBQ is it can make you more entertaining to your guests. Especially if they, too, imbibe.
So the next time your spouse complains about having beer with your Bar-B-Que, point out the safety advantages of cold beer on hand.
To me, being safety conscience, it was important enough to put my Curing/Beer Fridge at my Outdoor Kitchen. Because I find my beer has a tendency to evaporate. So having more on hand where it is apt to be needed quickly made sense.
And the little fridge is a good place to put my smoked Bacon to age after smoking to mellow out. Having a ballast of 12 ounce mini kegs for temperature balance, the mini kegs also take on the wonderful aroma of smoked bacon.

I think having separate monitoring is better because if it fails, replacing the thermal probe, or the entire thermometer is better than fiddling with built in sorts of units.

I’m Mr. Smallbatch. I mostly make things for me.
So in reality, 5 pounds is a big batch for me.
I am a pig, so I do gobble it up. But 5 lbs. is a big amount for an old guy who mostly eats it myself.
So… I use the wife’s KitchenAid, make 1-5 pound batches, stuff with a 5 pound stuffer.
So I only use the stand mixer as my grinder/mixer.
I like Willie’s Snack Sticks Mix, but also like home mixed ingredients, and Hot Italian Sausage Mix for snack sticks.
But the underlying theme for me is I do smaller batches. So I cannot justify to myself having the mass quantity type of equipment for my piddly needs.
Being retired, I tend to have more time than money or volume needs.

The MB’s I have start at 100° F, and Range up to 275° F.
But the controllers are not very accurate, nor reliable. But if allowed to run for hours, they will tend to stabilize and run more consistently.
In my experience’s smoking my snack sticks, I can get better results using my PID controller to get better temperature controls. And leaving the vents wide open.
Having the vents wide open allows the moisture to vent out better, and lets the smoke travel in and through better. But my MB’s are both highly modified. I use what is called a “Mailbox Mod”, and dissolve my pellets into sawdust and burn it in a tray. It makes a much better, milder smoke flavor, and a much thinner blue smoke. The smoke is cold, and most creosote and tars get condensed out in the “mailbox” and the aluminum dryer vent tubing connecting my “mailbox” to my smoker.
I use this modification all the time to make the smoke, and my PID controller so I can do cold smoking of a variety to things like Bacon’s, nuts, seasonings, fish, and such.
I don’t use Liquid Smoke, but rely on seasonings and real smoke for flavoring.
I also add enough cold water to my mixing to make my meats into a paste consistency, and rely on the heat to dry that moisture back out. I generally judge my finish point on the casing beginning to wrinkle.
After pulling, ice water bathing, and drying, the snack sticks will often smooth back out to a point.
For my Jerky though, I use my dehydrator and rely on the marinading for the flavoring of the end result.
Two different products, two different procedures, But great tastes.

A 5 pound batch of Willie’s Snack Sticks…

mikeihuntr OK, that helps explain the color of the sausages.

For most of my days I’ve made one sort or another of home grown smokers. So I have a natural appreciation for home made smoke boxes.
Early last year I ran out of Bradley Pucks for my Brinkman UDS converted to a Bradley smoke generator, I did order a box of my favorite, (Hickory) pucks, but I did not like the price.
Long story short, I’ve gravitated into Masterbuilt Smokers, but after my first attempt, I modified it into a working smoker.
Where I am now, I should have, again, built my own smokerbox. But it’s nice having what I have.
I see you have a double electric hotplate and burn your chips on one side. I did that for decades, too.

I came to be here because I’m gravitating into Snack Sticks, and hopefully Kielbasa in the future. And Walton’s has everything I’ll need as I sink into the mire of a new vain in smoking meats.
I’m sitting growing spider webs on my elbows waiting for FedEx to drive their 20 mule team from Kansas to California with my first order.
My intended first trial will be some Willie’s Seasoning Snack Sticks in 19mm, Pork Shoulder.
I also Cure and Smoke my own Bacon’s (Slab and Canadian).
But I have a hare brained idea to make a Pork Belly Bacon into Snack Sticks. (I cold smoke my bacons after curing. So basically be seasoning and grinding a slab to stuff.) Hense, a Hare Brained Idea. LOL!

Enjoy your Home Grown Smoker Box. I really like it!

Jonathon
Hi Jonathon!
Yes, it is entirely possible to blow up a mixers gearbox. A friend of mine did that when he added ice to meat he was grinding.
Destroyed the gearbox of his wife’s mixer.
I tend to err towards the other side, and I’m very careful to not over tax the KitchenToy mixer. I run it at the lowest to lower speeds.
Still learning, (always learning) I’m not in a hurry, but so far the mixer has worked great for my micro brew batches.
And the wife has been cool about it. She actually suggested I look into a grinder attachment for it. I found a stainless steel aftermarket I liked and got that.
I’m always mindful to avoid forcing it.
A Friend of mine once told me, “A Poor Man has Poor ways. But they can work.”
I did catch some of your live stream, but unfortunately, it was moving to slow for me to stick around. Hint, hint…

deplorablenc1
Yep, the MB’s are a natural for using 3" venting tube and dryer discharge vent hose.
I had the 30" as my first (ever) commercial made smoker. For over 50 years all my smoke boxes were adaptations of re-purposed things. Large electrical equipment boxes, Porcelain interior refrigerators, or modified bar-B-ques.
I wished I had a 40" MB, and one day a guy posted (elsewhere) he had a 40" with a dead control to give away. It was Providential, he lived about 10 miles away. I scored a 40", and put my PID to control it, and use it as my Cold Smoker to do…
Well… cold smoked stuff. Bacon, Nuts, anything I don’t want to “cook” while smoking.
No matter what short-comings there are with MB’s controls and electrics, the boxes work fine.
They should market boxes, sans any controls, for folks that want to DIY a smoker with heat and controls that actually can work.
If I knew now, what I didn’t know then…

But for me, using dust definitely gives me the flavor I crave, and the control I require.

rhjbarney

Interesting. I ripped the guts out of my two Masterbuilts because the gap between the chip pan and the element failed to keep the wood chips smoldering.
But going to a modification has allowed perfect smoke control, and perfect temperature control.

The word Perfect being used very ambiguously here. Nothing is perfect, that is why engineering spec sheets are nice. It gives you the tolerances outside of middle of the broad brush strokes.
Most “Consumer Grade” anything is going to be ballpark at best. And bare in mind that ballparks have fields of room for errors.

Congratulations Joe!
Awe sum work you put in there man!
And awesome pictures, too!

PapaSop
Yep, Papa.
I removed all the chip feeder stuff from both of my MES’s.
If you ever think you might want to cold smoke things (Bacon, Salmon, Nuts, Spices, Salt…), you might be interested in a Mailbox Mod. I use one exclusively now for all my smoking. Hot or cold.
It gives me control over both the smoke, and the temperature. (I do my cold smoking at ~68-78° F )

Mailbox Mod: https://www.google.com/search?q=mailbox+mod&rlz=1C1CHBH_enUS779US779&oq=Mailbox+Mod&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i60j0l4.6087j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Happy Smoking Papa!

I second Jonathon’s advice.
Willie’s is a great taste by itself, and how to is right here.

I like to do a 50/50 Beef/Pork Shoulder mix.
Course grind, mix in the Willie’s, Refrigerate over night. (Gives the cure time to cure.)
Then regrind with a 3/16" plate.
Refrigerate for a couple hours to rechill. Then put the batch in my 5 pound stuffer and make rope.
At that point, into the smoker to smoke and bake to 165° IT. Ice water bath. Then whack into ~8" sticks and package in 5’s.

I like 17 mm collagen casing for mine. Gives it a “snap”.
I use Apple Wood as my smoke. I typically eat a package of 5.
That’s why I like 5’s. If I did 10’s, or 20’s, I’d likely eat them all.
And since I share, my dog would get to danged full.

Jonathon, could you please give him the link to the reducing page for lesser than 25 pounds of meat? Thanks!
(I’m off to go drag a trailer around in L.A. traffic.)

deplorablenc1

Looks Great to me, Deplorable!
Or should I say nc1? LOL!
My first run was with 19mm Collagen Casing.
I do 17mm casings currently, but in all honesty, don’t see a difference size wise.

My idea was to get more footage to the poundage.
So far, I like Walton’s Willies mix the very best.
Snak stix… Too Much Fun!

JohninPa
LOL! Just did a 4 pound load yesterday. (I’m Mr. Smallbatch, I do 5< loads generally.)
I mixed my meat at a 50-50 ratio, Beef/Pork shoulder. Works for me.
I use Waltons, Willies Snack Stick Seasoning. Tastes just right. I ground my mixture with my course plate, then mixed in the Willie’s with my Pink Salt added (Proportioned by weight of the meat) while mixing.
Then reground through a 3/16" plate, and let the mixture chill down again. After a couple of hours, I stuffed my collegen casing using my stuffer. That snack stick rope got put up over night to let everything work.

Using my MES 30, this time I decided to cut some pieces out of some old SS oven racks I saved from a bygone kitchen range. Worked good with some smallish S-hooks to hang it from one of the MES racks. The oven rack was thicker bar, and wider spaced, and worked out just dandy. Plus, I could load my folded ropes from the small baking pan onto the new hanging rack easily. I’ve used 1/2" copper water pipe before, hung in my smoker. But I think this new thing works betterer.

So the rope is hung nice on a rack I’d already pre-fit to my MES 30, I hung it up in my pre-heated MES (125°), and started my sawdust burn using an Amazen tray in a Mailbox Mod*. Apple Wood is my preferred wood, about 2 hours works for me.
The “Program” ia 125° for 1 hour. 140° for the next hour. 155° for the next 2 hours. And 175° for the remainder until the internal temperature reaches 165°. I got that right here from Austin’s Meatgistics video.
Now, typical for MES smokers, the temperature in mine runs high. I use one of my leave-in meat thermometers for the Snack sticks, with an oven probe to monitor the MES box. (Thermo Pro TP-08)
If you do that, you can set the “Food Probe” alarm to let you know when the snack sticks reach 165°, bingo, Done. ;^)

• = I did >1< Salmon smoke in my Brand New MES 30 and knew I needed to modify it. I’m a smoker, not necessarily a cooker. I cold smoke Salmon, Bacon, Nuts, Butter, Etc.
  Things I cold smoke are cooked after, or blanched before, they are smoked.
  If you are interested in this modification, I suggest watching this Video on YouTube.

I got the Willie’s Snack Stick Mix to do 25 pounds. But I dole it out in batch weights for the pounds I have available to do. Hence, Mr Smallbatch. At nearly 70 YO, I’m not sure I could handle doing a full 25# batch. And if I did, I’d probably be pooping Willie’s mix trying to eat it all.
25 Pounds of Snack sticks is considerable cord wood to gnaw on.
Ergo, Mr. Smallbatch here. With MES smokers on hand to do Smoking. But processing Snack Sticks in a MES is a great way to make them, using Walton’s Meatgistic’s video for referance.

Inna tray: (Small baking pan)

Inna Rack:

Inna a Vac Bag ready to Snack:

Hope this helps.

deplorablenc1
I was looking for a Slim Jim sized stick.
But don’t care really. I’ll eat anything…
Except Rutabagas and Lima Beans.

Well, I don’t know what happened here. But my lengthy post got wrecked.
Cold Smoking is described as smoking items at less than 100° F. I cold smoke a lot of what I make, Bacon’s, Salmon, Nuts, Salt, Butter, etc.
My bacon, snack sticks, and sausages, all have cure added to be sure they are done properly. I feel cure and it’s use if fine when the finish product is finally cooked to the point the cure remaining is neutralized by the heat.
I haven’t found any complaint with Walton’s Seasonings, and suggest you begin here. I also have a shelf of other seasonings I like to employ to make my own variations on seasonings. I did that with Meat Snack Sticks, but came back to enjoying Willie’s Snack Stick Mix.
I don’t know what a Breakfast ring sausage is supposed to taste like. So cannot recommend there. Austin or Jonathon should be able to help you.

I use an Amazen Tray to burn pellets or sawdust in for all my smoking. I’ve come to prefer using sawdust in the tray, and get 6 hours of smoke from a full tray of sawdust. I dissolve wood pellets with a bit of water, then dry them back out into sawdust for my smoking fuel.
To me, pellets have a stronger flavor, maybe a more bitter end result. I don’t taste that with sawdust.
My current favorite is Apple Wood Pellets. That is after using Hickory wood for ~ 50 years. So it’s a big change for me.
I used a Bradley Smoke generator for about 12 years, but Bradley priced their fuel out of my realm of “reasonably priced.”
So I’ve transpired into pelleted wood for my fuel. Available everywhere, and cheap.

Cold smoking can be done in any of a variety of ways, from a cardboard box, to a BBQ, or any sort of thing. (But not in the house!) I use one of two Masterbuilt Electric Smokers I have modified to do my smoking in. (Modified because they did not work for my type of smoking)

I smoke cured bacon for 6 hours with Apple Wood Sawdust. Everybody seems to love the bacon I make. And everybody is still alive. So I count that as a success. LOL!

I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, it’s what I have. My wife suggested I try using it, and getting a meat grinder attachment for it.
I was on that like stink on dog-doo. I went shopping and found a Stainless Steel grinder attachment for it.
It works OK, but I think a real meat grinder would be much better.
Once I’ve ground my meat, I put it into the 6 quart SS bowl with the paddle type mixer. I use the OEM paddle, and leave my wife’s fancy cookie paddle alone. (My Momma didn’t raise no fool!)
I typically do 4-5 pound batches, and they work great in the mixer. I just did a 4 pound batch of Willie’s Snack Sticks last week. (Because I found two packages of 50/50 Beef/Pork I had put up in the freezer.) They each had 1 pound of each meat. LOL, My 50/50 freezer pack of grind fodder.
I course ground the meat, refrigerated it for a couple of hours, then did the mixing adding my proportioned Willie’s Mix with some Prague Powder added and mixed into it. Mixed it long enough to get it gooey, then reground it with a medium plate (3/16", I think?), anyway, reground it finer.
I did something new for me when mixing my small batch, I kicked up the speed towards the end. The meat separated from the paddle nicely and was able to get some boogy in the mixin. But it didn’t fly out. Whew!
Then I stuffed it in my sausage stuffer (5 pound) and made rope with it.
But I think using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer is the cats meow for small batches like I always make.
Seems to work good.

johnsbrewhouse said in Kitchenaid mixer for 5lb batches of sausage?:

The corkscrew is a doughhook and won’t mix well.

Well, it would probably mix dough ok.