Jonathon I tried a new oven method over the weekend that turned out great. I once again used the stew meat sized chunks and cooked at 350 for 10 minutes then turned the oven to my lowest setting of 170 for a few hours. They turned out perfect!

Jonathon
My family always called it souse but the ones that take the pig heads in this group call it head cheese. When I’ve seen it already made it looked to be the same so I’m assuming it is.

Tex_77 no its all metal

Jonathon I clean and reseason my smoker every fall but the grates get washed every use

blackbetty61 Yeah, I dont know what settings that would be (I’m one step away from being a Luddite!) but I have an older Iphone and dont have those issues.

twilliams Yep. Will be a couple weeks before I get the chance to use it. Busy this weekend. Throwing a couple briskets on my RecTec next weekend. Hopefully I can get everything lined up for the following weekend.

twilliams Most untrimmed butts are going to be closer to 75/25. Or the ones I checked one day all were, next time I am at sams or local supermarket I will check again. I just did it by finding out how mans grams of fat each serving had and then converting the total weight in a serving to grams.

roblavanway it depends on whether you add a cure accelerator like encapsulated citric acid or not. If you do not then yes, stuff and let it sit for 12 hours if you do use a cure accelerator you can go right to smoking.

jthompson123
With 73mm casings it takes me 10-12 hours and 5-6 hours with 43mm casings in the smoker to get 156 degrees. If you are in a hurry try the water bath

Zombini Glad you tried it and that it came out well! Your pic didn’t post, I am assuming becuase it was too large of a file. If you want to email it to me @ jonathon@waltonsinc.com I will get it edited into your post!

Derek_D Ys, the PK usually goes freight. If you need any help cs@waltonsinc.com would be the best people to contact, I have vague memories of how to track freight but they are vague at best! You could email them with your order # and tracking information and they could probably give more detail.

Joe Hell mccullen What about using the gylcerol? It works great in jerky, Joe Hell turned me onto it.

No sand just concrete, yeah it was 75deg. Christmas day. But I did Colorado for 25 yrs ,enough with the snow,but miss the big game hunting. I got everything about 2inches off the floor for the moisture.

Ho Ho Ho and a safe new years to all. 🎄 :bottle_with_popping_cork:

AdamCA
Thanks AdamCA i will do that

Jonathon That is an impressive stat I did not know. Here to learn the best ways not just “a way” to do it so I will switch to the recommended overnight refrigeration after drying. Thank you!

twilliams Interested to see your thoughts but from what I have done I would prefer the pork fat one. Now, it is not as big of a difference with venison as it would be with say, goose or pheasant but I still think you will like it better! I’ve been wrong a time or two before though!

deweymeats I had the same thing happen. Cases are use able but now shorter than we’re used too. Mine wasn’t even caused by the Christmas rush.

Jonathon I cooked them up to 165 in the bag and then to an ice bath

denny66 yeah the modern trend is to butcher at 250 or 300. In some pig breeds though going over isn’t going to hurt anything. These pigs are pure berkshire so it won’t make a ton of difference it’s a bit like a wine age does make it taste better☺ . Unfortunately this boy has just gotten to big to breed with my sow so it’s a sad day to see him go.

denny66 This is where you update the circle image. Let me know if you already did that and it still isn’t working. I just changed mine and it seems to be working.
profilepic.PNG

@Jonathan My GF recently gave me a Weston jerky slicer for my birthday… I see this uses the same frame as the cuber/tenderizer… Is it possible to buy the cuber assembly without rebuying the entire tool?

Jonathon Hmm. Not sure. Would have to relook but no big deal. Thanks.

chrisndee2.
I have the 20lb mixer too and I split the 25lb seasonings in half as well as the cures and additives to 12 1/2 lbs of meat and was a perfect amount for 20lb mixer. Much more easier and efficient than doing by hand. To do the full 25lb mix, best with the bigger mixer

Deepwoodsbutcher Yes it is!

Dog weighs at least 140 at this point and I am 180 something so we can’t find a scale that will weigh us together!

PapaSop maybe you could try a piece of smoked ,cured and dried beef ,like Hormel makes !

beekeeper84 You can follow https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/393/how-to-make-juicier-chicken-brats-recipe and add cure and use the same smoke schedule. They turned out great!

I would highly recommend that you use the cold phosphate as it made them much moister. However, know that using cold phosphate is going to raise th pH of the meat and therefore shorten the shelf life. Even though you are going to cure it I would recommend treating it like a fresh product.

Joe Hell
Wow those look great. Good Job!

PapaSop Yep, all promotions are scheduled to go through today. The last day the dehydrator is at that sale price will be today.

coladad I had the same issue last week.

I just clean the rack, and the temp probe, never the interior. when it starts to flake, I take the vacuum to it. I have a Traeger, so I clean the pellet ash out on every smoking session.

Parksider Can you give us your home bologna recipe? And how much tender quick you use vs how much sure cure? Because it is everyone’s belief here that tender quick(tq) is simply sure cure with more salt and some sugar. So, that shouldn’t change your process unless you are adding a lot more of the tq than the sure cure and the lack of salt from the tq is effecting your bind.

Jonathon
Thank you, just what I was after.
Alan

after doing Canadian bacon which tasted like ham as Jonathon stated it would , has anybody tried smoking a ham using this process ?

Jonathon my wife loves salmon and wants me to make her own private salmon stock it will be interesting to do

yeah I still got ring bologna but thanks.
J. Thought so maybe that’s why I bought them from you.
Must be a senior minute uh Hour. LOL
Thanks

Probably not a bad time to just make a quick point and say if you are having issues with something on meatgistics or even waltonsinc.com to a certain extent please don’t let it fester or annoy you and certainly dont let it stop you from using the site or posting! Let us know, Austin is very good at the tech side and I am sure I have some value too, though what that might be is still a mystery…

denny66 No adjustments necessary, with a smaller diameter casing one of the benefits is that you will be done more quickly as there is less distance for the heat to have to pass through, so you “should” be done with your smoke schedule faster. Let me know if I misunderstood?

mcherbies Remove them from the bag to let them air dry.

Placed an order just now. Can’t wait to make some bologna!

Jonathon Good tip!

angel4us Absolutely you can…I need to find a way to make this a well-known thing as we get this question very often and seems to be coming up more and more recently.

Yes, you can absolutely use Jerky Seasoning to make Snack Sticks and vice versa. If you use a seasoning that is made for snack sticks, summer sausage or brats it might give a slightly stronger taste in jerky so if you want to back it off a little that’s fine. I wouldn’t back it off too much though, perhaps 5% or so. Personally I just add the regular amount and enjoy the slightly strong taste.

Jonathon beer??? nope still no

Joe Hell
Right there with ya!

AdamCA
That’s great. Good for her. And good for you for getting her into this. That’s what it’s all about.

Capnbubb Can you remember how long you soaked them and how hot the water was? Only other thing we haven’t mentioned yet that could a contributing factor is how tight they were stuffed, with Summer Sausage I hold that casing on pretty tight as I am not worried about blow outs!

What are you making?

raider2119 Sounds good, let us know how that goes, I’d hope they’d be receptive to that !

If you got to the product page on any of those you can scroll down and click on the “additional info” tab and it will show you the ingredients. However, even if no gluten is listed they can’t be considered truly gluten-free as they are processed in a facility that contains gluten, so depending on the severity of the reaction it could cause an issue.

craigrice
Lol. That’s what everyone tells me.

Yes,that’s all I use.have a 40 in. Masterbuilt,with it I use the Amazn tray,with a mailbox conversion.you can cold smoke with this setup.it consists of a rural mail box,some dryer venting elbows,and the tray. A full tray of pellets will smoke for at least 7 hrs.

Okay, so I tried this again with my miter saw and got a cleaner and straighter cut, it was also a cleaner cut, no little strands of PVC curling up around the edge. The bad news is that the PVC pipe only sits in there because of a knob on the side of the PVC, not that it sits there on its own. I should be trying this in the next few days.

PapaSop Not long ago I made a chili using a ‘bean sized’ diced zucchini for diet reasons. It turned out surprisingly well. The texture of the zucchini was very close to That of the real thing.

@everyone Taco Snack Stick Seasoning is on order! I’ll send out a few things when it comes in!

geraldr622 If you are asking about how much pork you get to make sausage vs the bone then I always buy about 10% more than I need as I figure I am going to lose about 5-10% in the weight of the bone and meat that I either dont want to spend the time taking off the bone or pieces that I don’t want to use because of fat oxidation or some other visual defect.

leanne kaukola There won’t be any gluten in either Collagen or Natural Hog or Sheep casings and I believe that Fibrous casings are gluten free as well. If you add hi-temp cheese that does not have gluten.

FYI this is a good reference for gluten free foods https://health.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/gluten_free_food_labels.pdf

AdamCA Yup, grinder head in the freezer for a few hours first is always a good plan. We have an ice tray in our freezer that we use specifically for this to speed up the cooling, unfortunately sometimes ice cubes get stuck to it and then I have to freeze my hands trying to pull them off. The first time that happened I litteraly ran hot water over it to get rid of them…not the dumbest thing I’ve ever done but close.

knifemaker3 Thanks man, the livestreams are getting better the more we do them. Hopefully, we will eventually have another one where we dont start with technical issues!

Tex_77 100% full grain leather on the apron and straps, with a metal buckle.

no_eyes_processor " I’d love to say I eyed it up but being blind that doesn’t work. I am impressed with the way it came out." Thank you, I needed that this morning, I practically cried I laughed so hard! Good job man, that sounds awesome. How was the full bag of Cajun to 25 lb of meat? I made some Cajun recently at the normal ratio and even though I added cheese I wanted more of a cajun flavor. Now, that might be because I also made our NEw Jambalaya Brat and those things are crazy! The Jambalaya seasoning will be available soon, they are CRAZY and I can’t wait to see what people do with them.

The instructions call for cured ham to be added to the grind, rice that has been cooked in chicken stock and seafood and or chicken with Pork as the main portion of the meat block. They are awesome!

I got a brutal appetite looking at your photos, and I’m still at work, it hurts so much, I feel I won’t live up to dinner.

I thought he might have been combining Sous Vide and the Butter aging? For anyone who doesnt know that is when you put a THICK layer of butter on a cut of steak (usually a subprimal) and sit it in your fridge to age. Has anyone here tried that?

Is anyone using this smoker or the 260,360 models? I’m having issues programming. Quite frankly, their manual and their videos suck.

Jonathon Nice. Let us know how it turns out!
and thanks for the pic help:)

armyguy I use pellets in mine…seems to work just fine. I’ve found that it doesn’t take much!

joduff have you considered inedible collagen? It takes some special preparation but it after that it does a good job on dries sausage. If you don’t want to do that I’d suggest beef middles, it’s what we used when we made a bunch of dried salami at waltons and they worked well for the most part. Just watch the strings when you truss them, dipping the strings in vinegar or something will help prevent unwanted mold, also using a “good” mold isn’t the worst idea!

Good luck and as always, take pictures!

angel4us I’d always heard it was liquid but I never looked into it…until now! Snopes (so take it or leave it) says it’s fake. Apparently they are shipped in bags that have a liquid broth and they have a soft texture to them which probably lead to the liquid meat theory.

As for what probably IS in it to let you slice it so thin, I’d imagine there would be a high level of stabilizers (same thing that lets soft serve icecream be so smooth), phosphates and injectable binders.

KLee Sweet! (Literally speaking) I’m going to seek out some serious maple syrup based on your suggestion. I’ve seen many in the last couple of years that are aged in whiskey barrels…there is no way that wouldn’t enhance bacon, ham, chops, etc… It’s pretty easy to obtain toasted oak chips, cubes or small used whisky barrels these days for home production.

Jonathon I’d like to add that until recently I haven’t had the luxury to ‘spread out’ as you see pictured but you can still apply the same technique at home. Just apply the same principles in shorter lengths. You will lose a bit in regards to casing but a consistent product is worth it. Collagen has many benefits but the real deal is…the ‘real deal’.

Parksider I had the same thought about the burger press but I wanted a smaller diameter so I put a slider maker on this order

Although this is unrelated. Picked up T-bones for 5.98 a lb. Usually a ribeye for my go to but this was a no brainier. Averaged 1.4 lb each. There was a line at the butcher counter. Freeze seven and have one tonight.
IMG_20190906_144407.jpg IMG_20190906_145845.jpg

Departing Contestant Need to find a way to scrub my eyeballs from reading that and my brain from thinking about it! Alcohol sounds good for both I think!

ffmedicman Sure Gel can be used in any type of cured sausage, but I wouldn’t use it in fresh sausage. If you want to use carrot fiber in fresh sausage, it will work great there. I wouldn’t add more water than we normally suggest though with any binder. We typically recommend adding 1 quart per 25 lb of meat as that would be the proper amount with a binder added.

Dave R I will have something set up!

PapaSop Original movie was okay the remade for TV (which they actually filmed at this hotel) was pretty terrible.

Joe Hell Yeah, that guy is a fireman and builds houses for a living, two things that tend to build strength. The real problems come from when I try to keep up with him drink for drink!

raypete I really need to get better with excel. It would help me in so many projects.

Joe Hell great job!

companies like IBP will back the product up to 30 days from kill date. at work I age hung beef usually 60 to 90 days. but it’s not wet aged.

macsinsac That’s how I normally do it. I have an idea of what I want and I know what goes in it. A descriptive menu item is generally all I need to recreate many dishes!

beekeeper84 At the time we are good, I ordered some from another site and to make it worth the shipping I ordered a bunch. But, when I run out of those I will contact you!

macsinsac Well it IS today at 4 pm so if you can join us we will be having a few beverages, announcing new sales & giveaways (though we have already released the monthly video on that) picking a winner for July and discussing meat processing!

My brother in Florida has successfully shipped frozen fish to me here in Nebraska!
Start with a good thick foam cooler, like the ones Omaha steaks uses. Line the cooler with hard frozen ice packs, tape in place. Then a layer of lightly wadded newspapers on the bottom and all sides of the product, for insulation. Make sure to freeze the sticks as cold as you can. Another layer of newspaper on the top and tape the seam of the cooler lid with packing tape.
Do all this as close as you can to last shipping times. We used 3rd day priority USPS and it arrived with only a 1/4" of the top package starting to thaw. Vacuum seal packaging works best. We did this in mid-fall. You may want to use 2nd day or next day in the summertime, if you can spare the expense.
Saved us a ton on shipping compared to shipping with dry ice, next day.

Jonathon I don’t see any questions out there for this. I saw the review and it should be published now, but nothing for a submitted question there…

craigrice I do appreciate a meaty pizza!!!

Jonathon sure did, and so did the other 11 out of 12 people conpared to that half hog i did. They said that both were delishous but like the black bull better. Now with that said the 1/2 hog had alot more hours of smoke time which gave it alot of smoke flavor where the black bull had more seasoning flavor. 1/2 hog was 23 hour cook with approx 6 hours smoke and one 8 lb pork butt only had 2 hours smoke. Took both meats up to 160° then cut off smoke, wrapped in foil and finished cook to 200°. Both were extremely juicy

Jonathon thank you very much. I will try what you told me in the next batch. I will be using a new vegan casing that is kosher and halal friendly for our customers. The casing is yet to arrive. I don’t plan on using binders or cure, just simple fresh ingredients at least that’s the plan. I will update more once I get the casing and make new batch. Really appreciate the detail reply

djc51
Thanks. It does. Trying to get more info since my last grainy batch.

folsomwest This would have been a fine time to use the urgent category by the way! Any time you are getting ready to process and have a time sensitive question, especially over the weekend, you can use the urgent category and it will alert Austin and I to check in on it right away.

Bacon taste booster gives you more of an old-world flavor when using modern curing methods, so using 1/3 of what you would normally use isn’t going to cause you any real issues, it might just not taste as strong and bold as you are used to. I am not aware of anything you could use that would replace this additive. If you were looking for a way to increase the taste you might consider rubbing the outside of the belly with something, like your favorite rub, or dehydrated jalapenos before smoking it!

Thanks for the info! Just need to order a few things and see what I can do at my first try at bacon.

raider2119 LOL! I bet more than a few would be willing to take a bite!

raider2119 Pastrami will be happening soon as well!

KansasDad Ill bring it up with Austin today!

Dave R For the time being we will not be getting anymore High-Temp Bleu Cheese, sorry!

As for doing the tests I was happy to do it, it allowed us to get what happens when acid is introduced to meat on video! It was interesting to see and we will be using it in future videos!

craigrice Swamp Donkey is quite fitting! Marsh Mule works too!

Riney If you are planning on going above 212 I would recommend either the Red Meat Netting (any size) or the Polyester Elastic Meat Netting. Both of those are good to over 400°.

KansasDad Like Joe Hell said i wouldn’t recommend injecting butter directly. If you were looking to add a butter flavor then the Butter Flavored Seasoning is a good one to inject. For most of the injectable marinades, you don’t need to add additional sodium phosphate as it will already be present in the necessary quantities but if you were making a homemade marinade I would suggest sodium phosphate for sure.

Guess I picked a good county. I’m the vice president of the P.O.A ( property owners). so we just keep our road up and trailers houses out. I have my water, boat dock, and lots trees . My biggest problem are deer, but this year I put a 8 ft fence around the garden. Can’t wait to make a Bloody Mary just to try those out. lol