25lb 80/20 beef trim
Additives1 package Excalibur Hot Dog Seasoning
1oz Sure Cure (packet included with seasoning)
6oz Sure Gel Meat Binder
2oz Smoked Meat Stabilizer1
2 to 3 lb High Temperature Cheese (optional)
26mm Cellulose Hot Dog Casings
1 Quarts Ice Cold Water 1
Grind the meat 3 times. 1st through a 3/8in (10mm) grinder plate, then the 2nd and 3rd grind will be done with a 1/8in (3mm) grinder plate.
Always use a sharp grinder knife and plate to help retain a better particle definition, color, and help prevent any smearing of the meat.
Using a meat mixer is preferred to hand mixing when making hot dogs. Many other products like a fresh bratwurst can be adequately mixed by hand, but we need to make sure we get a lot of protein extraction for hot dogs. That is a bit more difficult to achieve in hand mixing but still a possibility to do if you don’t have an actual meat mixer. We are going to mix for about 8 minutes in total. When you start the mixer, just start adding all the ingredients, except the High Temp Cheese. This last ingredient can be added in the last 45-60 seconds of the cycle, or just long enough to evenly disperse. Over mixing the cheese can lead to smearing and loss of shape. When you are done mixing the product should be extremely sticking, which means you are getting a lot of protein extraction.
Sausage StuffingLoad your sausage stuffer and be careful not to create air pockets. Begin stuffing until the casings are full with a smooth exterior. Stuff into as long of ropes as possible, and then you can cut them to length when you are ready to place them in a smokehouse or oven.
Stuffing Homemade Hot Dogs Into Cellulose Casings Processing NotesWhenever possible, try to separate the lean meat from the fat prior to grinding and mixing. Mix all of the seasoning in with the half of the lean meat and don’t add the remaining lean meat and fat until the second half of the mixing cycle. This will give you a temporarily higher salt content in the meat which will help with the emulsification of protein in the meat and the binding of the rest of the meat, fat, and water in the final product.
(If you do not use a cure accelerator like Smoked Meat Stabilizer, then hold in a refrigerator for approximately 12 hours or overnight before cooking)
Either hang on smoke sticks or lay on racks in your smokehouse or oven. Just be sure to leave a slight gap between the snack sticks. A simple cooking schedule you can follow is here:
120F for 15 minutes
130F for 30 minutes
140F for 30 minutes
150F for 30 minutes
175F until internal meat temp of 150F and hold temp for 5 minutes (or 160F)
(keep humidty as high as possible; add water pan to smokehouse)
To help prevent wrinkling we need to shower the hot dogs when they are done cooking or put them in an ice water bath. It should only take around 10-15 minutes to get the temperature to drop down. After they are cool, you can easily strip the cellulose casings off the hot dogs. Then, we’ll let them set out for about 1 hour before moving to the refrigerator/freezer. After we are totally done with the cooling process, then we will package in vacuum pouches for longer term storage.
Grilled Homemade Hot Dogs Wrap upWalton’s has everything you need (except the meat) to make great hot dogs at home, plus we have the knowledge to help you perfect your own processes. If you have any questions or need help in your process, please share your questions or comments below.
Other Notes1. For Home Processors 2 Qts Will Make Stuffing Easier (Return to text)
2. If you do not use a cure accelerator like Encapsulated Citric Acid or Smoked Meat Stabilizer, then after it has been stuffed into its casing hold in a refrigerator for approximately 12 hours or overnight (Return to text)
Place a small pan of water in the bottom of smokehouse during entire cooking cycle to help increase humidity
If your smoker, smokehouse, dehydrator, or oven cannot reach temperatures as low as 120F, just start as low as possible and slowly increase the temperature over time
Hot dogs, frankfurters, wieners, or whatever name you are familiar with…Is just a sausage with a very small meat particle size, typically emulsified to where the fat and lean particles in the meat are basically indistinguishable from one another. Hot Dogs can be made from beef, pork, chicken, poultry, wild game, or a combination of meats. Another staple feature of hot dogs is to make a skinless product. This is usually done by using a cellulose casing, and then stripping it off of the final product, but this is not a requirement and collagen casings or natural casings can still be used.
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We are going to take the Andouille Cajun Seasoning and add cure to it as we wanted to smoke it. You could also simply use the Cajun Sausage Seasoning that comes with cure, but we wanted a more authentic Andouille taste.
Meat Block23 lb of Pork Butt
2 lb Uncooked Shrimp
1 Bag Andouille Cajun Seasoning
Sodium Erythorbate or Encapsulated Citric Acid
Sure Gel
If necessary debone your pork butts and cut into pieces that are small enough to fit in your grinder’s throat. I recommend that you put your meat into a freezer for about 30 minutes after it has been deboned but before stuffing. Cold meat grinds faster, especially on the second grind) and that will help protect the proteins in the meat and keep it safer from microorganisms. Oil your plates and knives before putting them on the grinder. You should have 1 knife for every plate you have and you should use them only with each other, this will ensure that your plate and knife wear at the same rate and it will increase the life of both.
Putting your grinder head assembly, including plates, knives, and auger into the freezer for at least 15 minutes before grinding.
GrindingGrind your Pork twice, first through a 3/8" plate and then through a 1/8" plate. If your second grind is taking too long put your meat back in the freezer 10 minutes freezing the meat will help speed up your grind. Grind your shrimp through the 3/8 plate once.
Meat MixingAdd ground pork, seasoning, additives and water to your mixer and mix for 4 minutes making sure to switch directions every minute or so. After 4 minutes add your shrimp and mix for another 4 minutes or until the desired level of protein extraction has been reached.
Sausage StuffingLoad the casings on to the largest stuffing tube that your casing will fit over. We chose Clear Collagen Casings but 32-35MM Hog will work just as well. Stuff until your casings are full, remember if you are wanting to link these you should slightly understuff them so that the casing does not burst during the linking process. We elected to just hang them in long lines in our smoker and then cut them down to size.
Thermal Processing110° - 10 minutes with dampers wide open (drying phase)
120° - 1 Hour (add smoke and water)
145° - 1/2 Hour
165° - 1/2 Hour
185° - Until internal temperature reaches 160°
If your smoker has a shower cycle go ahead and run that once the sausage has reached 160° or place in an ice bath for 20 minutes. Let it sit out for an hour before moving to the cooler overnight before vac packing.
What is Andouille Sausage?Andouille is a Cajun Sausage that can be made either Fresh, which would be without cure, or Smoked where cure is added and then it can be slow smoked. Andouille is sometimes double-smoked but we don’t like that method as we think it picks up all the smoke it needs the first time. It can be served lots of ways but it is very commonly added to Gumbo.
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10 lb Trimmed Flat Beef Brisket
Seasoning1 Bag Corn Beef Cure Twin Pack (3.2 oz per 10 lb)
CureSure Cure (included with purchase)(.4 oz per 10 lb)
AdditivesCold Water (1.6 lb per 10 lb)
Sodium Phosphates (optional)
Fully dissolve the seasoning and cure in the water, you want to have all particles fully suspended. Pump the brisket until it is 20% of its original weight, known as the “green” weight. Vacuum seal and hold in a cooler overnight or for a saltier taste create a 50% strength solution (just double the water) and hold it overnight in that solution. Both of these processes allow the cure time to equalize in the meat, this way everything will get the proper amount of seasoning and cure and the meat will be nicely pink throughout.
Process for briningAgain, fully dissolve the cure in the water. Using a food-safe container, place the brisket into the corned beef solution and cover with lid or plastic wrap. Place in cooler and let sit for at least 10 days, for larger than normal briskets, or for a saltier, stronger taste hold as long as 14.
Process for injecting and tumblingAgain, fully dissolve the seasoning and cure in the water. Inject your brisket until it is just 15% of its green weight. Take the additional 5% and place that in your vacuum tumbler along with the brisket. Set your speed at 15 rpm and pull a 20 vacuum. Tumble for 1 hour, if you cannot put your tumbler in a cooler you should add ice to the water before you vacuum.
CookingA very common way to cook a brisket is to do so in water. This drastically cuts down cooking times and allows you to add cabbage, carrots, and onions to the water during the second half of your cook. However, taking the advice of a Meatgistics fan we went ahead and did a combo smoke and sous vide cook. We smoked for 3 hours at 225 degrees with applewood chips. Start with the dampers open for 30 minutes and then closed them up. After the 3 hours, we took our brisket out and vacuum sealed it in a large vacuum bag. We set our Sous Vide Circulator to 210 degrees and cooked it for 3 more hours until the internal temperature was 190 or higher.
If you have the time, we highly recommend that after the first 3 hours you set your Sos Vide Cooker down to 195 and let it cook overnight. The meat will be perfectly tender.
If you are planning on holding this overnight and reheating (you should do this if possible) before serving, save the juice from your vacuum bag.
HoldingThis is the only part that we found to be “hard” in this process. Let your Corned Beef (it is no longer just Brisket!) sit in a cooler overnight before cutting it! This will be hard but try a slice or two after cooking and then a slice or two the next day and you will see why!
SlicingSlice across the grain as thin or as thick as you want! If you slice it while hot, as you slice the fat cap on top of the brisket should heavily leak down the front of the slices, try to capture as much as this as you can.
ServingReheat in an oven (With the leftover juices from the sous vide bag if you saved) until meat is at least 165 and enjoy! You are going to get people raving about this corned beef, trust us!
Wrap upCorned Beef can be an intimidating thing to cook for the first time but if you take your time it is a wonderful and way to enjoy Saint Patrick’s Day!
What Is Corned Beef?Corn Beef is Beef Brisket that has been salted and/or cured. The Brisket is a heavily used muscle so if you do not cook it correctly it can be very tough, this is why Corned Beef is cooked to such high temperatures. The collagen and connective tissue in the tough muscle will start to break down around 160 degrees (F). Brisket can be injected and then vacuum tumbled for immediate cooking, injected and held overnight for cooking the next day or it can wet brined, where you create a brine and let the Brisket soak in the brine for 10-14 days to allow the brine to penetrate the meat. Brisket is also a cured meat, which means part of the brine is sodium nitrites, in this case, it will be sure cure. The cure turns the meat a classic pink color, preserves the taste, keeps the food safe from botulism and imparts a cured meat flavor.
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Meat Block
10 lb Pork Loin
AdditivesBlue Ribbon Maple Bacon Cure
Bacon Taste Booster
Before we prepare our solution you need to be sure that you are using water that is between 40° and 45° and the water cannot be hard water, it must be potable and low in microbial levels. You can either buy distilled water or you can hold water in a cooler overnight to allow any gasses to bleed out.
Injecting -
We are going to inject our pork loin with the Blue Ribbon Maple Bacon Cure and we will add Bacon Booster to increase the bacon taste and to help fight off rancidity in the cooler. For regular Bacon we would use 2 lb of this cure for a 100 lb of bellies for a 10% pump, but since the fat content of a loin is so much lower than a belly we actually want to pump it to 18%. Our pork loin weighs 10 lb so we need to pump it until it weighs 11.8 lb and since we need a cover solution anyway we are going to dissolve 1 lb of cure and 3 oz of bacon taste booster in 2 quarts of water for our injection. After we inject it we are going to cover it in a 50% strength solution to allow the cure to equalize within the meat and make sure it fully cures.
To make a 50% strength solution we have two options, we can either dissolve another lb of the cure in 1 gallon of water or we can weigh what we have left over from our injection solution and add that weight in water and use that as our 50% strength cover. Since we injected it and this cure contains Sodium Erythorbate we only need to hold this product overnight in a stark bucket liner and then it will be ready to smoke.
Brining/Pickling -
If you want to brine/pickle we recommend you use Country Brown Sugar Cure, you just have to modify the usage a little to get the correct parts per million. You will want to use 1.52 pounds of the cure to a gallon of water to get 120 PPM of ingoing nitrite. Fill the container with the cure before you put the pork loin in, this will allow it to suspend and cure evenly. Move to a cooler at 38° degrees and hold for 3-5 days. After it has sat for 3-5 days fill a meat lug with clean cold water, let it sit in that for 20 minutes, empty the container and fill it up with more cold water and let it sit for another 20 minutes to rinse of any excess salt. If you try and skip this step your bacon is going to be too salty. If you are wanting a less salty product then repeat this step a 3rd time.
The Smoke Schedule will be the same for either curing method. There are 2 ways to smoke Canadian Bacon, we can cook it to 132° if it is going to be pan fried or cooked again before serving, if you are not going to cook it again before eating then cook it to 145°.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - 120° with no smoke and dampers closed for 30 minutes
Stage 2 - 135° close dampers down and add smoke
Stage 3 - 150° for 30 minutes
Stage 4 - 165° for 30 minutes
Stage 5 - 180° until internal temp reaches 132° or until 145° 1
Once it has reached the desired temperature remove it from the smoker, put it in an ice bath for about 20 minutes and let it sit out for an hour at room temperature before moving to the cooler. Now you can slice it into pieces as thick as you want and all it needs is to be reheated in a pan or oven to be enjoyed at anytime.
Wrap upMaking Canadian Bacon is very easy, it’s actually a fair amount simpler than making regular bacon as Pork Loins are more available to most people than pork bellies are.
Foot Notes1. I realize I said 158 degrees in the video but I meant 145. So to be clear if you are not going to be pan frying this, or heating it again before eating then you need to cook it until it is 145 degrees. (Return to text)
Additional Tips Try different rubs on the outside of your loin, doesn’t matter if you add heat or something sweet, either one will add a nice kick to the taste. Other NotesNext time I make this I am going to take the meatgistics user Raider2119s advice and try to coat the outside of the loin with ground up yellow peas, this would make it peameal bacon which is traditionally how the Canadians Make it.
What Is Canadian Bacon?Canadian Bacon is made from a pork loin that is cured, smoked and then used in everything from breakfast dishes to pizza toppings. It’s is simple to make and when done properly it will keep about as long as regular bacon but for best results should be used in about a week if kept in a refrigerator or 6 months in a freezer, after that it will start to break down. Some people will make this without a cure but doing this is not recommended and it won’t be true Canadian Bacon at that point.
Watch WaltonsTV: How to Make Canadian Bacon
24 lb Bone-in ham
AdditivesExcalibur Country Brown Sugar Cure
2 oz California Ham Spice
6 oz Sure Gel (optional and somewhat redundant if using cold phosphate)
0.24 oz Sodium Erythorbate
2 oz Cold Phosphate
2 gallons Ice Cold Water (38° F or less)
Water - Before you prepare your brine or pickle there are a few things we need to point out about the water you are going to use. At the time of preparation, the water needs to be between 29 and 35 degrees F, and it should not be “hard” water and must be purified or potable water, so very low microbial levels. We recommend using either distilled or purified water, but tap water can be used but it should be placed in the refrigerator overnight to allow it to cool down to around 35 degrees and allow any added chlorine to evaporate and not be added to your meat product.
Injection - To prepare the injection first dissolve 2 oz of Cold Phosphate and 6 oz of Sure Gel for every 25 lb of Ham you are curing in 2 gallons of cold water and mix until it is totally dissolved. The phosphate must be the first ingredient added for it to be effective. Then add 2 lb of the Country Brown Sugar Cure, .5 oz of California Ham spice and .015 lb (.24 ounces) of sodium erythorbate and inject the ham until it is 20% of its green weight. For example, a 20 lb ham should weigh 24 lb after pumping. We recommend a 14 point injection for a ham, starting at the thinner side inject near the end once on each side and then move up the ham making 4 more injections in a straight line until you reach the thicker end. Once you reached the thicker end, which should be your 6th injection, make 8 more evenly spaced injections around the end of the ham in a clockwise direction. Once you are done injecting you need to create a 50% strength pickle to cover your ham in while it cures in the cooler. To do this mix 1 lb of Country Brown Sugar Cure with 2 gallons of cold water and hold the ham overnight in a cooler around 38°.
If you are not injecting follow the below steps, if you inject you do not need to brine as well. Skip to HoldingBrining - Submerge ham into a solution containing 1 lb of Country Brown Sugar Cure per 1 gallon of water. Hold in the refrigerator or cooler for 5 to 7 days. Thoroughly rinse the ham, place in meat netting, and hang in the smokehouse to cook.
Holding - When we make products at Walton’s, we find the easiest container to use for any type of brining, curing, marinating, or soaking of meat products, to be done with a combination of our Stark Marinating Bucket Liners and our Food Safe Storage Containers and Marinating Buckets. Simply place a Stark Bucket Liner in the Food Storage Container, place our ham into the bucket liner, pour in enough cover brine solution to completely cover the ham, grab the excess part of the liner and squeeze out any air, and then tie the end of the bucket liner closed. Next, place the lid on the container, and then we can place the whole thing in our refrigerator overnight.
StuffingStuff the ham into a casing like Ham Tubing or Versanet and hang in the smokehouse. The Versanet is flexible enough to easily fit over the ham without needing a Roast Tyer.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - Set smokehouse temp to 120° F for 1 hour
Stage 2 - Start smoke and increase smokehouse temp to 140° F for 2 hours
Stage 3 - Increase smokehouse temp to 150° F for 2 hours
Stage 4 - Increase smokehouse temp to 160° F for 4 hours
Stage 5 - Increase smokehouse temp to 190° F and cook until internal meat temp reaches 160° F (145° is fine to cook ham to as well, leaving the 160 on there as some people still do this but 145° is perfectly fine)
Stage 6 - Shower ham with water to cool product quickly and lower internal temp to 115° F or less*
After showering or placing in an ice water bath hold at room temp for approximately 1 to 2 hours before moving to the refrigerator or vacuum packaging
Additional Tips To increase your humidity for a better looking final product, place a small pan of water in the bottom of the smokehouse or oven during the entire cooking cycle If you cannot shower the product, instead place into an ice water bath to lower the internal meat temperature If you are cooking in an oven and cannot add smoke, trying using Hickory Smoke Powder as a substitute While a traditional cover brine or pickle can be done with hams it is very difficult to do correctly because of the thickness of the ham. Often, the cure in the brine will “gas out”, which means before the cure and nitrites can fully penetrate to the center of the ham, the nitrite will break down into nitric oxide gas before it can penetrate all the way to the center of the ham, and then it is released from the brine into the air. The best way to make a properly cured ham at home is to inject it. Sure Gel and Cold Phosphate together aren’t really necessary and it can be argued that they don’t compliment each other well. We have used both together to good effect in the past but we want to point out that some don’t like this combination * Try Using Other Excalibur Seasoning CuresYou can use other types of cures for a different flavor profile. Use the same process as described above, but change the cure usage per the specific requirements of the other cures
Use Sweeter Than Sweet Cure at a ratio of 1.75 lb of cure to a gallon of cold water for 10% pump Use Extra White Sugar Cure at a ratio of 1.75 lb of cure to 1 gallon of cold water for a 10% pump What Is A Ham?Ham comes from the upper portion of a pig’s hind leg. It is made into a smoked and cured meat product by salting, curing, or injecting and then smoking. It can be made as a whole muscle meat product or it can be made into a boneless re-structured product. This recipe will cover making a whole bone-in ham.
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25lb 80/20 beef trim 1
Additives1 package Excalibur Snack Stick Seasoning
1oz Sure Cure 2
6oz Sure Gel Meat Binder 3
4oz Encapsulated Citric Acid 4
2 to 3 lb High Temperature Cheese
19mm Collagen Casings
1 Quart Ice Cold Water 5
Start the initial grind with a 3/8in (10mm) grinder plate, then grind a second time through a 1/8in (3mm) grinder plate. Always use a sharp grinder knife and plate. This will help you retain a better particle definition, color, and help prevent any smearing of the meat. If you cannot easily distinguish the lean from the fat when grinding, then it may be time for a new grinder plate and knife.
Meat MixingUsing a meat mixer is preferred to hand mixing when making snack sticks. We need to make sure we get a lot of protein extraction, and that is a bit more difficult to achieve in hand mixing but still a possibility to do if you don’t have an actual meat mixer. We are going to want to mix for about 8 minutes, and we’ll want to reverse the direction of the mixing paddles every 1 minute. When you start the mixer, just start adding all the ingredients, except the Encapsulated Citric Acid and High Temp Cheese. These last two ingredients can be added in the last 45-60 seconds of the cycle, or just long enough to evenly disperse. Over mixing Encapsulated Citric Acid could lead to breaking the encapsulate and over mixing the cheese can lead to smearing and loss of shape.
How to Make Homemade Snack Sticks Sausage Stuffing Sausage StuffingAvoid creating air pockets when you load your sausage stuffer and begin stuffing until the casings are full with a smooth exterior. We will stuff into as long of ropes as we can, and then we’ll cut them to length when we actually hang on smoke sticks in the smokehouse.
Thermal ProcessingFor information on adding humidity to your smoke schedule go HERE
Either hang on smoke sticks or lay on racks in your smokehouse or oven. Just be sure to leave a slight gap between the snack sticks. A simple cooking schedule you can follow is here:
125F for 1 hour
140F for 1 hour
155F for 2 hours
175F until internal meat temp of 160F
To help set the casing to the meat and also prevent wrinkling we need to shower the snack sticks when they are done cooking or put them in an ice water bath. It should only take around 10 minutes to get the temperature to drop down. Then, we’ll let them set out for about 1 hour before moving to the refrigerator/freezer. After we are totally done with the cooling process, then we will package in vacuum pouches for longer term storage.
Homemade Snack Sticks Meat Snacks Wrap upIt’s easy to get the basics on making snack sticks, but practice does make perfect. Walton’s has everything you need (except the meat) to make great snack sticks, plus we have the knowledge to help you perfect your own process. If you have any questions or need help in your process, please share your questions or comments below.
Notes Using a binder like Carrot Fiber, or Soy Protein Blend will not change how much water you put into your product. Place a small pan of water in the bottom of smokehouse during the entire cooking cycle to help increase humidity1. Or use 18 lb wild game meat and 7 lb pork fat or beef fat, though beef fat will have different texture and taste (Return to text)
2. Sure Cure packet is included with seasoning (Return to text)
3. Instead of Sure Gel also try 4 oz of Carrot Fiber (Return to text)
4. If you do not use a cure accelerator like Encapsulated Citric Acid or Smoked Meat Stabilizer, then after it has been stuffed into its casing hold in a refrigerator for approximately 12 hours or overnight (Return to text)
5. For Home Processors 2 Qts Will Make Stuffing Easier (Return to text)
Snack Sticks are a meat snack and semi-dried sausage that are stuffed into a small diameter casing. Typically a collagen casing is used, but it is also acceptable to use natural casings or even make skinless snack sticks. Most snack sticks have a low pH from around 4.5 to 5.2, which is what gives them that familiar tangy flavor and is what helps aid in shelf stability. Another aid for shelf stability is a low water activity, which means binding water in the meat snacks to make it unavailable to support microbial growth. Water activity is not something that can be measured by a home meat processor, but we still set up our process and thermal processing to attempt to achieve a lower water activity. Snack sticks can be made from just about any type of meat, from beef, pork, chicken, other poultry, wild game, or a combination of meats. Walton’s recommends using a lean to fat ratio of at least 80/20, and many times a 30% fat ratio, with a maximum of 40% fat. Fat is where most of your flavor comes from so changing your lean to fat ratio will change the overall taste and mouthfeel of your product.
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15 lb of lean beef
Additives9.1 oz of Dill Pickle Jerky or Snack Stick Seasoning
0.6 oz or 3 tsp of Sure Cure (included with purchase of seasoning)
1.2 oz Smoked Meat Stabilizer
First thing you might want to do is to trim off the fat cap, since we are grinding this and then extruding it this is not 100% necessary and is just a personal preference. I am going to grind this meat twice, first through a 3/8 plate and then through a 1/8 inch plate. You could also use already ground beef purchased from a store if you don’t have a grinder. I’ve cut the meat into small pieces for this smaller #8 grinder. Make sure your plates and knives are sharp and well oiled to reduce stress on both the machine and the meat.
Meat MixingNow I am going to mix in the seasoning, cure and Smoked Meat Stabilizer. Smoked Meat Stabilizer should not be used with water, so we did not add any. It will start to gas out almost immediately and this can be very dangerous to breath. With ground and formed jerky some people like to get protein extraction and some do not, I recommend you mix until you have protein extraction for a better texture. So I am using the Walton’s Meat Mixer.
ExtrudingSo now I am going to extrude this using a Waltons 7 lb sausage stuffer with the All Around Jerky Maker attached to it. This comes with a few different types of attachments, for this I am going to use the 2 slot die. As I extrude it the paper which sits underneath the Jerky Maker is going to move down the ramp with it. Now I am just going to keep extruding until I have everything in strips.
NoteSmoked Meat Stabilizer should not be used with water, so we did not add any. It will start to gas out almost immediately and this can be very dangerous to breath.
Thermal Processing & Smoking for Home SmokingStage 1 - 130° F 1 Hour with Dampers Wide Open
Stage 2 - 145° F 2 Hours W/ Dampers 2/3rds Closed
Stage 3 - 175° F Until Internal Temp Reaches 160°
Stage 1 - 110° F 10 minutes Relative Humidity (RH) 68
Stage 2 - 130° F 20 Minutes RH 20
Stage 3 - 135° F 90 Minutes RH 30
Stage 4 - 155° F 60 Minutes RH 30
Stage 5 - 155° F 90 Minutes RH 0
Stage 6 - 180° F Until internal temp is 160° RH 0
There is no need to put jerky in an ice bath as it is so dry and thin that it will stop the cooking process quickly enough by itself. It is important to let the jerky sit out at room temperature for about an hour before vac packing to prevent condensation from forming inside the package.
Wrap upWe started out with 15 lb of meat and ended with 8 lb of jerky so that is just about 50% loss so we are right where we would expect to be with the ability to control humidity in our smoker. The All Around Jerky Maker really made this entire process much easier than trying to do this with a Jerky Gun though that will certainly work as well, it will just take longer. The flavor of the Dill Pickle Seasoning is awesome, if you like Dill Pickles, that seems obvious but this does have a strong dill flavor!
Additional Tips Do not add water if you are using Smoked Meat Stabilizer If you do not use Smoked Meat Stabilizer you will want to hold your product overnight to allow the cure to work in the meat Other NotesJust to make sure that I put this in here as many times as possible, if you are using the Smoked Meat Stabilizer (which I did) do not add water to your product or it will gas out and create a gas cloud. You don’t need to be scared of this product just be careful with it.
What Is Restructured Jerky?The simplest definition of Jerky is just meat that has been cured and dried. There are many different ways to make and process jerky the most common being sliced whole muscle or restructured jerky. I am going to be making a restructured jerky using the Walton’s #8 Kitchen Grinder, a meat mixer, a Walton’s Stuffer with the All-Around Jerky Maker and a smoker to cook and dehydrate it.
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25 lb 80/20 beef trim (or 20 lb wild game and 5 lb pork fat or beef fat, though beef fat will have different texture and taste)
Ingredients1 package Excalibur Summer Sausage Seasoning
1oz Sure Cure (packet included with seasoning)
6oz Sure Gel Meat Binder
4oz Encapsulated Citric Acid1
2 to 3 lb High Temperature Cheese
2.4 in x 12 in Mahogany Fibrous Sausage Casings
2 Quarts Ice Cold Water
Grind the meat twice. The first grind can be done using a 3/8 in (10mm) grinder plate, and then the second grind should use a 1/8 in (3mm) grinder plate. A sharp grinder knife and plate are key to help you create a better meat snack by helping retain better particle definition, color, and help prevent any smearing of the meat. If you cannot easily distinguish the lean from the fat when grinding, then it may be time for a new grinder plate and knife.
Meat MixingA meat mixer is your best option for meat mixing when making summer sausage. We need to not only thoroughly mix the seasoning, spices, and additives into the meat, but we also need to achieve a good protein extraction. Protein extraction is visibly noticeable when the meat starts to get really sticky. What this does is allow the proteins in the meat to bind with water and fat giving your sausage a better consistency and mouth-feel when eating, plus it helps keep it from being crumbly in the final product. Hand mixing is possible, but difficult to achieve the same result as using an actual meat mixer. For the mixing time, we need to mix for a total of around 8 minutes. During the mixing process, reverse the direction of mixing every 1 minute. As soon as you start mixing, you can add all the ingredients except Encapsulated Citric Acid and High Temp Cheese. Those 2 ingredients can be added in the last 45 to 60 seconds, or just long enough to evenly disperse. Over mixing Encapsulated Citric Acid or High Temp Cheese can lead to breaking the encapsulate or smearing the cheese.
How to Make Homemade Summer Sausage Meat Mixing Sausage StuffingAvoid creating air pockets when you load your sausage stuffer and begin stuffing until the casings are full with a smooth exterior. Remember to leave a little extra on the ends of the fibrous casings so you can twist tight and clip them tightly closed with a pair of hog ring pliers.
Note(If you do not use a cure accelerator like Encapsulated Citric Acid or Smoked Meat Stabilizer, then hold in a refrigerator for approximately 12 hours or overnight)
Thermal ProcessingEither hang on smoke sticks or lay on racks in your smokehouse or oven. Just be sure to leave a slight gap between the Summer Sausages. A simple cooking schedule you can follow is here:
125F for 1 hour
140F for 1 hour
155F for 2 hours
175F until internal meat temp of 160F
To help set the casing to the meat and also prevent wrinkling we need to shower the summer sausage when they are done cooking or put them in an ice water bath. It should only take around 10 to 15 minutes to get the temperature to drop down. Then, we’ll let them set out for about 1 hour at room temperature before moving to the refrigerator/freezer. After we are totally done with the cooling process, then we will package in vacuum pouches for longer term storage.
Homemade Summer Sausage Meat Snacks Wrap upIt’s easy to get started on making a basic version of summer sausage, but practice does make perfect! Walton’s has Everything but the Meat to make fantastic tasting and looking summer sausage. Plus, we have tons of knowledge and assistance if you need it for perfecting your own process. If you have any questions or need help in your process, please share your questions or comments below.
Other NotesPlace a small pan of water in the bottom of smokehouse during entire cooking cycle to help increase humidity
If your smoker, smokehouse, dehydrator, or oven cannot reach temperatures as low as 125F, just start as low as possible and slowly increase the temperature over time
1. If you do not use a cure accelerator like Encapsulated Citric Acid or Smoked Meat Stabilizer, then after it has been stuffed into its casing hold in a refrigerator for approximately 12 hours or overnight (Return to text)
What Is Summer Sausage?Summer Sausage is a semi-dried sausage that is typically stuffed into a larger diameter casing, like fibrous sausage casings. Most summer sausage has a low pH, which gives it that familiar tangy flavor. pH values can range from 4.5 to 5.2, and this also helps aid in shelf-stability. Besides pH, water activity can also help determine whether a product is truly shelf-stable or not, which means in summer sausage we need to bind water in the meat snacks and make it unavailable for microbial growth. Water activity is not something that can be measured by a home meat processor, but we still setup our process and thermal processing to attempt to achieve a lower water activity. Summer Sausage can be made using a variety of meats and anything like wild game or venison, beef, pork, poultry, or a combination of meats. Walton’s recommends using a lean to fat ratio of at least 80/20, and many times a 30% fat ratio, with a maximum of 40% fat. Fat is where most of your flavor comes from so changing your lean to fat ratio will change the overall taste and mouthfeel of your product.
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2 lb of Ground Beef
2 lb of Ground Pork
4 lb of Ground Turkey
If you are using low fat wild game make sure you have at least 20% beef or pork fat
1 Bag Imitation Bacon #2 Seasoning
1 package of Carrot Fiber
Our process is going to be very similar for all of these other than the amount of fat that we are going to be adding, or not adding. If you are making this out of whole muscle you need to grind your lean product twice through a 1/8" plate and your fat once through a 3/16" plate. We have some 80/20 ground beef here and some fatty ground pork as well so we are starting out with an already ground product on these. For the Turkey we just stopped by the store and picked up some 85/15 lean to fat ratio pre-ground turkey to make turkey bacon. We’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating, whether you are making Bratwursts or Snack Sticks or whatever, there is nothing wrong with picking up a previously ground product at the store and starting from there if you don’t have a grinder. You won’t have as much control over the entire process but you can still get a great tasty product by doing this.
We have measured all of this out for 2 lb batches, so we have .075 lb (1.2 oz) of the seasoning (which already includes our cure), 4.8 oz of water and .16 oz of smoked meat stabilizer. We are adding smoked meat stabilizer because we don’t want to wait overnight for the cure to work in the meat, basically we are hungry and we want to cook it immediately!
Meat MixingSo we are going to mix all of this until we have protein extraction and the meat is nice and sticky. With a mixer, this would take about 5 minutes, but since we are doing such small batches we need to do this by hand, so it will just take as long as it takes.
NoteOnce you have it all mixed you can put it in 2 lb foil pans or form a loaf on a cooking sheet. We used the foil pans just because it was a little easier
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - 120° for 1 hour
Stage 2 - 140° for 1 hour
Stage 3 - 175° until internal temperature is 160°
Once it is done cooking you can either cut it with a knife and eat right away or you can allow it to cool down and then use a slicer to get a more traditional bacon look. Either way is fine, we’ve just been cooking this all day and don’t want to wait any longer. For the best results, slice the imitation bacon, and pan fry just like normal bacon. It will crisp up great and have a taste very similar to traditional bacon!
Wrap upWhile all of these are ready to eat at this point the best way to get a true bacon taste is to cook them in a pan or oven to the point where they are crisp before serving or using them in a recipe.
Additional Tips If you want to get real fancy with your imitation bacon, and start with whole muscle meat and grind it yourself, you can keep the lean meat separated from the fat to layer the lean and fat meat and truly create a more bacon looking product. We will be simply combining it all together, so we won’t get that separate and visible distinction between the lean and fat particles, so it won’t look as close to normal bacon. What Is Imitation Bacon?Imitation Bacon is any meat that has been ground and seasoned with Imitation Bacon Seasoning, then formed into a loaf and cooked or smoked. You can use Beef, Wild Game, Poultry or even just leaner cuts of pork. Today we are going to be showing you how to make three different types out of Turkey, Leaner Pork and Beef. Rather than a whole muscle product, our imitation bacon will be a ground and formed product. We are going to be making this out of three different types of meat.
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25 lb of Eye of the Round
AdditivesWalton’s Bold Jerky Seasoning Seasoning
1 oz package of sure cure
18% Additional Brown Sugar
20% Water
To do this we are going to be using 25 lb of eye of the round cuts with the fat cut off, a package of Walton’s Bold Jerky Seasoning and cure, then we will add 18% of the starting weight in light brown sugar and 20% of its starting weight in water. So this would mean we will be using 2.8 oz of brown sugar and 3.2 oz of water per lb of jerky. Because we need the water to dissolve as much sugar as possible we will be mixing that in first and then adding the cure and seasonings to the mix. You really need to mix this very well, my recommendation would be once you think you are done keep going for another few minutes.
SlicingSince the goal here is to keep the pieces tender we will want to avoid cutting the pieces too thin so we will stay in the 1/4 to 3/8 range. Since we have large eye of the round cuts we are going to use a slicer, this will make the process faster and give us far more uniform cuts. If we want, we can cut the slices into strips to give it more of a classic jerky look before we tumble it. If you don’t have a slicer the Precise Slice Adjustable Knife from Victorinox works well, it will just be a little bit slower. Now, I put my eye of the rounds in the our blast freezer for about 45 minutes first to make the slicing easier and more accurate.
TumblingOnce we have sliced this into pieces that are 1/4 - 3/8" thick we will tumble them for 40 minutes to allow the meat to pick up as much of the solution as possible. We will have all the data on how much of the solution was picked up in the meat, what the meat weighed before smoking and what it weighed after. Average loss in product when making jerky is between 50 and 75%, we are hoping to achieve much better results with this recipe.
We are going to tumble this using our KMV Vacuum Tumbler but you can use something like the Marinade Express Vacuum Tumbler-Pro. We have used that before and it works well, you just need to make sure you do not exceed the recommendations for the drum or it will not pick up as much of the solution as you want it too.
Now, if you don’t have a way to tumble this at home you will need to hold it in a container in a cooler for 12-24 hours to try to get the meat to pick up as much of the solution as possible. Without a tumbler mixing in all the sugar and seasoning becomes even more important so make 100% sure everything is dissolved.
NoteWe started out with 24.5 lb of meat, 11.35 lb of solution, after tumbling there was .35 of a lb left that the meat did not pick up. Our finished dry weight was 19.8 lb giving us less than 20% product loss.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - 20 Minutes at 110° (dampers wide open)
Stage 2 - 30 Minutes at 135° (begin adding smoke)
Stage 3 - 10 Minutes at 140° (dampers wide open again for drying)
Stage 4 - 30 Minutes at 150°
Stage 5 - 175° until internal temperature is 160°
Stage 1 - 20 Minutes Dry at 110° 0 Relative Humidity(RH)
Stage 2 - 30 Minutes Dry at 135° 0 (RH)
Stage 3 - 10 Minutes Dry at 140° 0 (RH)
Stage 4 - 30 Minutes Dry at 150° Wet at 126° 50 RH
Stage 5 - 30 Minutes Dry at 155° Wet at 130° 50 RH
Stage 6 - Dry at 175° Wet at 155 RH 60 until internal temperature is 160°
Allow the jerky to sit out at room temperature for an hour before packaging to avoid condensation inside the packaging.
Wrap upWe were very pleased with these results of this recipe, it gave us a nice tender jerky with a good (if somewhat sweet) taste and our product loss was minimal. We started with 25 lb of meat and after smoking and dehydrating we ended up with just about 20 lb of jerky giving us a product loss of only 20% which is outstanding when a loss of 50% is generally considered good.
Additional Tips It might be worth it to use a little more seasoning to cut through the sugar taste Other NotesOur water activity was below .85 so this is a shelf stable product but remember without a way to test water activity at home there is no way for you to be sure that yours will be and the main benefit to following this recipe would be that you end up with a soft and tender piece of jerky and far less product loss compared to traditional methods.
What Is Jerky?When you make jerky at home you are seasoning, curing and removing moisture from the meat by drying it out. Doing this helps prevent the growth of bacteria in your meat as it has a low water activity level, meaning that there is not enough water to allow bacteria to grow. Homemade jerky has a tendency to be a little dry and brittle, however it is possible to make a jerky that has low water activity but is still shelf stable like the store bought jerky from some of the better jerky making companies. To make this at home the best way to do it is to use a seasoning and cure package like normal and then add additional sugar. The sugar envelopes the water molecules and prevents it from being able to cook or dry out of the meat but also makes it unavailable for microbial or bacterial growth.
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3 lb of Venison Backstrap
AdditivesSoluble Pa’s Black Bull BBQ Seasoning
Wild Game Seasoning
We are going to inject it with our favorite injectable seasoning, Pa’s Black Bull and then we are going to rub the outside with Excalibur Wild Game Rub. Pa’s black bull has high amounts of sugar and molasses to help everything caramelize nicely and the wild game rub has just a hint of heat that should work well with it.
To inject this, we first need to mix up our soluble solution, so I have a pint of water here and I am going to dissolve 1.76 oz or 50 grams of Pa’s Black Bull into it. I am mixing for a long time because we want it all to suspend in the water so this will take a little bit of time. I’m using the Walton’s Automatic Syringe injector and I’m just going to pump it until it doesn’t seem like it will take anymore. Once the solution begins to leak back out of the injection holes we will know the meat has taken as much of the marinade as it can.
MarinatingVacuum seal the backstrap and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours to allow the seasoning to equalize in the meat. When vacuum sealing a piece of meat that you have injected, or are marinating, you need to watch the bag to make sure that water is not sucked up into the vacuum machine, as that can obviously create problems for the sealer. As soon as you see moisture start to get sucked to the opening of the bag hit the seal button on your vacuum sealer.
RubbingWhen it is finished marinating rub it liberally with the Wild Game Rub and make sure to fully cover all sides. With injecting and marinating it the Backstrap should be able to hold the rub on the outside easily. If it does not, you can add a light topical mustard rub to allow the seasoning to adhere.
NoteNow, we need to talk about proper cook temperatures. I know people are very picky when cooking venison. You’ve worked for the meat so you want the best taste you can get out of all that hard work. However, no matter how clean the deer was you should still be following standard food safety processes. That means cooking a whole muscle cut, like this, up to 145°.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - Smoke at 200° until the internal temp reaches 145°
CoolingPull your Backstrap out of the smoker once it reaches 145° and let it “nap” under tin foil for 5 minutes to allow the juices to be absorbed back into the meat. If you skip this step you will see a lot of the juice leak out of the meat once you cut it, if you let it nap it will absorb back into the meat.
Additional Tips When choosing a marinade you should look for something that already contains some form of phosphates as this will help give you a juicier finished product When choosing a rub for the outside of the loin you should either choose a complimentary flavor or something that will offer a different but strong flavor, otherwise it is going to get lost in the marinade Other NotesI know a lot of you like to stop it well short of 145°, but it’s like wearing a seat belt, yes your car will start without you having it on but eventually, something is going to happen and that seat belt is going to keep you safe. Same thing with cooking to 145°, if you don’t, especially with wild game eventually you are going to give yourself food poisoning.
What Is Venison Backstrap?Venison Backstrap is the tenderloin of a deer. These are highly prized as they are the most tender portion of the deer and work well with many different styles of cooking.
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Pork Belly
Additives5 lb bag of Dry Rub Bacon
ProcessFully coat both sides of the pork belly with the dry rub cure, you need to make sure there are no portions that are not coated but shake off any excess. Lay the bellies in a meat lug making sure to stack them fat side to fat side and meat side to meat side. Hold in a cooler for 5-7 days at 38°. At the end of the curing time, you will need to rinse off the bellies by filling a container with cold water and letting the bellies soak in that for 20 minutes, then empty the water, refill it with water and let that sink for 20 more minutes. This is to remove the excess salt, if you skip this step you will end up with an overly salty bacon.
Hang your bacon on hooks and move to your smoker.
NotePin through the flank end when hanging, this will give you a better looking finished product.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - 120° for 1 hour with no smoke
Stage 2 - 120° for 1 hour with smoke
Stage 3 - 135° for 1 hour with smoke
Stage 4 - 150° for 1 hour with smoke
Stage 5 - 165° for 77 minutes with no smoke
Stage 6 - 180° with no smoke until internal temperature reaches 138°
If your smokehouse has a shower cycle you should run it for 20 minutes with no heat and no smoke. If you do not have a shower cycle in your smoker then fill a meat lug with ice and water and leave it in there for 15-20 minutes to bring down the internal temperature. Allow your bacon to sit out at room temperature for 2 hours.
Wrap upBacon is one of the most commonly cured meats in America, being able to make it at home is really not very hard but it is a little time-consuming. One of the nice things about making bacon is all you need is the Cure a Meat Lug a cooler and a Smoker!
Additional Tips Hold 2 hours at room temperature before moving to cooler. Maker sure your cooler does not go below 32° F or the cure will not work Other NotesSome people will rub the outside of the bacon with an extra coating of a spice before smoking. This is becoming more popular but we decided to go with a traditional bacon. If you do decide to do this make sure that you do not use a spice or seasoning that has any cure or has a very high salt content.
What Is Dry Rub Bacon?Bacon is classically a pork belly that has been cured by smoking, salting or pickling, these are accomplished with either a cover pickle, an injection or a dry rub. The Dry Rub Cure is rubbed all over the surface of the bacon and then put in a cooler for 5-7 days to allow for the cure to fully penetrate the pork belly.
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15 lb whole turkey
AdditivesWalton’s Complete Turkey Cure
Cold Phosphate
Sodium Erythorbate - optional, see notes below
Cold Water - for best results place all water to be used in a container in a fridge overnight and do not use “hard” water
Food Storage Containers & Brining-Marinating Bucket
Stark Bucket Liners for Marinating-Brining
Marinade Injector
Two steps. First inject, then soak and brine overnight. This two-step process will help immediately begin to get the cure and seasoning into the turkey meat and then let it sit in a diluted cure solution overnight and let things equilibrate so the cure can adequately penetrate all areas of the turkey meat for a more even application
Prepare your injection solution first. For a 15 lb turkey follow these steps for preparing your injection solution. Start with 1.5 lb (24 oz) of cold water. Add 1.2 oz of cold phosphate to water and mix until completely dissolved. Then, mix 1/3 lb cure (5.3 oz) into the water and mix completely until dissolved and adequately dispersed (general usage - use 1.29 lb of cure to 1 gallon of water for a 10% pump). We recommend making extra of your injection solution, or on a single turkey, just double all the injection ingredients (cure, water, and phosphate) to make twice as much as is needed so you don’t run out during injecting. It’s always better to have a little bit of leftover injection solution. In this case, doubling would mean using 3.0 lb (48 oz) of cold water, 2.4 oz cold phosphate, and 2/3 lb (10.6 oz) of turkey cure.
Injection - We recommend doing an 8 point injection, with 4 injection points on each half of the turkey. Start with the turkey lying flat on a counter or cutting board and on its back with the bottom facing you. Your first injection will be in the middle of the breast and angled down towards the top of the turkey (repeat this injection on the other breast). Injection number 2 will be parallel to the counter, through the middle of the breast, towards the top of the turkey (repeat on both sides of the turkey breast). The third and fourth injection points will then be into the drumstick and leg and then inject into the thigh muscle (again repeat to inject both halves of the turkey). That gives us 4 injection points on each side of the turkey, for 8 total injection points.
Brining - Once your injection is complete, you can then brine the turkey overnight in a slightly diluted concentration of cure and water. To help the brine better penetrate through the skin and muscle, you can also slightly pull apart and create gaps in the skin and muscle. To make your cover brine, simply use twice as much water as the general usage that the cure requires. The size of your turkey and the size of container you use will affect how much solution for the cover brine that you will need to make. For a 15 lb turkey and the Walton’s Complete Turkey Cure, we need 10.5 oz (0.66 lb) of cure for each gallon of water. If you determine 3 gallons of cover brine is sufficient to fully submerge the turkey, then you would mix 3 gallons of water with 31.5 oz (1.96 lb) of cure. Simply take a Food Storage Container & Brining-Marinating Bucket, line the bucket with a Stark Bucket Liner, and then place your turkey in the bucket liner and container. Add your cover brine solution until the turkey is fully covered and submerged in the solution. You can then gather the excess of the top of the Stark Bucket Liner, push the turkey down into the solution so it is submerged, and then tie a knot in the top of the bucket liner so the turkey cannot float at the top of the solution and so it remains fully submerged in the brine solution. Hold the turkey in the brine solution overnight or approximately 12+ hours in your refrigerator or cooler (under 40° F)
After your injection is complete and the turkey has soaked in the brine solution for approximately 12 hours, remove the turkey from the cure and brine solution, discard the brine solution, and then you can begin preparation for cooking and smoking. You can also add an outside rub or seasoning for additional or different flavorings.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - 125° F for 1 hour with smoker vents open
Stage 2 - 145° F for 2 hours and begin smoking
Stage 3 - 200° F until internal meat temp of 165°
After smoking and cooking is complete, you can immediately eat the turkey
Or remove from smokehouse and cool at room temperature for 1 hour. Then vacuum seal and place the turkey or leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer for later consumption.
You can use other types of cures for a different flavor profile. Use the same process as described above, but change the cure usage per the specific requirements of the other cures
Use Country Brown Cure at a ratio of 2.0 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for injection and 1.0 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for a cover brine Use Sweeter Than Sweet Cure at a ratio of 1.75 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for injection and 0.875 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for a cover brine Use Blue Ribbon Maple Cure at a ratio of 2.0 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for injection and 1.0 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for a cover brine Other Notes While we do recommend brining overnight, if you do need to quicken your process for making a smoked turkey, you can skip the brining and add Sodium Erythorbate or Cure Excellerator to your injection solution and proceed straight to the smoking step after the injection and seasoning is complete If you only want to brine the turkey and skip the injection process, then hold the turkey in the brine solution for 2 days, but make sure that the holding temp in your refrigerator or cooler does not exceed 35° F for meat safety. What Is Cured & Smoked Turkey?Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the most popular times that you will find smoked and cured turkey from your local grocery store or meat market, but what about the rest of the year? With Walton’s and Meatgistics learn how to easily make your own homemade cured and smoked turkey so you can enjoy smoked and cured turkey all year long! Curing meats is a process of adding salt, nitrites, and seasoning, plus smoking to assist in meat preservation, plus affect the taste and appearance of meat products. Cured and smoked turkey has a tendency to develop a flavor slightly similar to ham and is a popular choice for many people when preparing a whole turkey for consumption.
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25 lb of Eye of the Round
Additives1 Package (1.4375 lb) of Salami Seasoning
1 oz of Sure Cure (Included with salami seasoning purchase)
Fibrous Salami Casings
2 Quarts of Ice Cold Water
Optional Additives:
Carrot Fiber
Encapsulated Citric Acid
Cold Phosphate
Since this is salami we want to see particle definition in our finished product. That means we want to get our meat cold and keep it cold through the mixing process, once the meat heats up the fat will start to smear and we will lose our chance at a nice looking finished product. This step would be even more important if we were doing a fermented product to allow everything to dry properly but I still want a nice looking product so I put my meat and my head assembly to my grinder in the freezer to get everything cold. I am also going to separate my fat from my lean and grind them separately, I’m just going to cut off the fat cap and then put that back in the freezer until it is time to grind it.
Before I start grinding I am going to soak my Fibrous Salami Casings in warm water to make them nice and pliable to make stuffing easier, they need to soak for about 30 minutes in warm water.
I will grind my lean twice, once through a 3/8" plate and then through a 1/8 plate with our WWalton’s #12 Processing Grinder. Always remember to oil your plates and knives to keep friction and heat down. The fat I am just going to grind once through a 3/8 plate. I ground my fat last so I can go right from the grinding to the mixing without the fat warming up. If I wasn’t able to do this quickly I would put my fat back in the freezer.
Meat MixingNow we need to mix the seasoning, cure, carrot fiber and water with our lean meat and mix until we have protein extraction. As soon as the meat starts to get sticky I am going to add my fat and then mix that in for a minute. Then I’ll mix in my Encapsulated Citric Acid and mix it for another 60 seconds.
Sausage StuffingNext just stuff them into fibrous salami casings until they are full and smooth. Make sure you leave enough room at the end of each casing to clip them with a Hog Ring. The easiest way to do this at home is to use the Walton’s Hog Ring Pliers
NoteWith Salami we will want a longer link than we would with Bratwurst, something around 12-18" each. Either hang your casings on smoke sticks or lay on racks in your smokehouse or oven. Just be sure to leave a slight gap between each salami.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - 125° F for 1 hour
Stage 2 - 140° F for 1 hour
Stage 3 - 155° F for 2 hours
Stage 4 - 175° F until internal meat temp of 160° F
To help set the casing to the meat and also prevent wrinkling we need to shower the Salami or put them in an ice water bath. It should only take around 10 to 15 minutes to get the temperature to drop down. Then, we’ll let them set out for about 1 hour at room temperature before moving to the refrigerator/freezer. After we are totally done with the cooling process, then we will package in vacuum pouches for longer term storage.
Wrap upMaking this type of salami is a simple process, anyone who has made summer sausage before can easily do this, it is very similar and if you don’t care about particle definition it is even simpler.
Additional Tips If I was doing this again I would have ground my fat through a 3/16 inch plate instead of 3/8 inch plate to make the fat particles a little smaller. Not because I disliked the size of the fat particles but because of some of the fat rendered out of the meat during the cooking process. The particle definition only affects the appearance though so if you do not care about that, feel free to mix and grind all meat together. You can use collagen casings if you want but it will be a non-edible version which means you will have to soak it for 15 minutes in water that is 15°C and it has to be a 15% salt solution. What Is Salami?Salami is a type of cured sausage that can be made from pork, beef a combination of the two and can also be made from wild game. It can be fermented and dry cured or cooked and smoked. We are going to use 100% beef so we are going to use our regular Salami Unit, if we were making this out of deer or wild game then the Cotto Salami might be a better choice. We are also going to be using Encapsulated Citric acid to give the meat that nice tang and carrot fiber to help with the bind. If you are making this out of Wild Game I would suggest you also use cold phosphate to increase the water holding capacity of the meat.
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Pork Belly
AdditivesFor Injecting
Blue Ribbon Maple Cure for Bacon
Bacon Taste Booster
or
For Pickling
Country Brown Sugar Cure
Bacon Taste Booster
There are two popular ways to cure bellies at home, pickling which is also often mistakenly referred to as brining and injecting. Brining is using just salt, pickling is the correct term for using an actual cure.
Injecting
Before you prepare your injection there are a few things we need to point out about the water you are going to use. At the time of mixing the water needs to be between 40 and 45°, it cannot be hard water and must be potable so very low microbial levels. If you can aerate the water that is preferable, if not then put the water in a cooler and hold it overnight.
To prepare your injection you are going to dissolve 2 lb of Blue Ribbon Maple Bacon Cure and 6 ounces of bacon taste booster in a gallon of water. Bacon Taste booster helps impart the classic bacon taste while using modern curing techniques and it helps fight off rancidity in the freezer. Then you want to pump the bellies to 10 % of their green weight. Green weight is simply what the bellies weighed before you injected them.
Since the Blue Ribbon Maple Cure for Bacon has Sodium Erythorbate in it you only need to hold this product overnight in a cooler at 38° before moving them to the smokehouse. While you are holding them you want to cover them in a 50% strength solution of the pickle you used. The easiest way to do this is to take the remaining pickle that you did not inject, weight it and add that amount of water to the pickle.
Next hang your bacon on 9-inch bacon hangers, making sure that there is sufficient flesh above the hooks to prevent them ripping through the top of the belly and hang them in the smokehouse.
Pickling
If you want to pickle we recommend you use country brown sugar cure, you just have to modify the usage a little to get the correct parts per million. You will want to use 1.52 pounds of the cure to a gallon of water to get 120 PPM of ingoing nitrite. Fill the container with the cure before you put the bellies in, this will allow the bacon to suspend and cure evenly. Make sure to stack the bellies meat side to meat side and fat to fat. Once your bellies are covered move them to a cooler at 38° degrees and hold for 3-5 days. After it has sat for 3-5 days fill a meat lug with clean cold water, let the bacon sit in that for 20 minutes, empty that and fill it up with more cold water and let it sit for another 20 minutes to rinse off any excess salt. If you try and skip this step your bacon is going to be WAY too salty. If you are wanting a less salty product then repeat this step a 3rd time.
The smoke schedule is the same for Pickling as it is for Injecting.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - 120° for an hour with no smoke
Stage 2 - 135° for an hour with smoke
Stage 3 - 150° for an hour with smoke
Stage 4 - 165° for an hour with smoke
Stage 5 - 180° with no smoke until internal temperature reaches 138°
If your smokehouse has a shower cycle you should run it for 20 minutes with no heat and no smoke. If you do not have a shower cycle in your smoker then fill a meat lug with ice and water and leave it in there for 15-20 minutes to bring down the internal temperature. Allow your bacon to sit out at room temperature for 2 hours.
Wrap upBacon is one of the most commonly cured meats in America, being able to make it at home is really not very hard but it is a little time-consuming. One of the nice things about making bacon is all you need is the Cure a Meat Lug a cooler and a Smoker!
Additional Tips If injecting, make sure you inject evenly throughout the bacon. If pickling make sure you add the pickle before adding the bellies. Other NotesFor either pickle or injection make sure your water is 40°-45°F, it can not be hard water and aerate it or hold in a cooler overnight.
What Is Bacon?Bacon is classically a pork belly that has been cured by smoking, salting or pickling. After curing it can be cooked by pan frying, boiling, baking, microwaving or smoking. In American cuisine, it is typically eaten for breakfast or added to other dishes to add a savory flavor.
Watch WaltonsTV: How To Make Homemade Bacon Shop waltonsinc.com for Injectors Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Lugs Shop waltonsinc.com for Bacon Taste Booster Shop waltonsinc.com for Bacon Hangers
25lb 70/30 pork trim (or 25lb untrimmed pork butt)
If using Venison or another lean wild game ad 18 lb of venison and 7 lb of pork or beef fat
1 package Excalibur Sausage Seasoning
2 to 3 lb High Temperature Cheese (optional)
30mm Fresh Collagen Casings or 32/35mm Natural Hog Casings
16oz (1 pint) Ice Cold Water (optional, to help make stuffing and seasoning dispersion easier)
Grind the meat twice using a 3/16in grinder plate. You may grind once, mix in your seasoning, and then grind a second time, or you can do all your grinding and then proceed to meat mixing.
Meat MixingYou can choose to either hand mix or use an actual meat mixer. Either method will be completely fine as we are just mixing long enough to get a good dispersion of seasoning, and we don’t want to get a lot of protein extraction (where the meat is sticky) like when making a cured sausage.
Sausage StuffingSimply load your sausage stuffer, while avoiding creating any air pockets in the canister, and begin to stuff in the casings or meat bags of your choice, until the casings are full with a smooth exterior. Stuff into as long of ropes as you can, and then cut them to length or twist link once done.
CookingIf you are cooking these on a grill cook them over medium heat (around 350-375°F) until the internal temperature is 160°
If you are cooking in an oven bake at 350° until internal temperature is 160°
Fresh sausage is one of the quickest and easiest meat snacks to begin making at home. All you need is the seasoning, ground meat, and a sausage stuffer to get started. Over time you can add additional equipment, supplies, and products to make things easier, or expand your process by purchasing a meat grinder to grind your own meat.
Other NotesAdd 1 pint (16oz) of water per 25lb of meat to help make sausage stuffing easier, and to help make mixing easier and quicker for dispersing seasoning evenly throughout the meat mixture.
What Is Fresh Sausage?Fresh sausage can include sausages like bratwursts, Italian style sausage, chorizo, breakfast sausage, and other related sausages. They can be packaged into collagen casings, natural hog casings, natural sheep casings, or even in bulk by using meat bags.
Watch WaltonsTV: How To Make Fresh Sausage Shop waltonsinc.com for Bratwurst Seasonings Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Casings Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Stuffers
25lb beef inside round (or other whole muscle meat)
Additives1 package Excalibur Jerky Seasoning
1oz Sure Cure (packet included with seasoning)
40oz Water (8oz per 5lb of meat)
Mix seasoning and sure cure packet together. Sprinkle seasoning and cure mixture over slices of meat, or drag slices through seasoning mixture. After seasoning and cure are applied, place jerky strips into a poly bag and add just enough water to cover the meat, and help it marinate. Hold the jerky meat strips in the refrigerator overnight or about 12 hours.
Restructured Jerky ProcessMix seasoning and sure cure packet together. If not already using ground meat, grind meat 1 additional time through a 1/8in grinder plate, mix seasoning, cure, and water into meat until evening dispersed. Then, extrude using the All-Around Jerky Maker and Walton’s Sausage Stuffer.
Thermal ProcessingLay seasoned jerky strips on jerky screens or smoke screens and place in smoker, smokehouse, oven, or dehydrator to cook.
130F for 1 hour (open damper on smoker)
145F for 2 hours (2/3 closed damper on smoker)
175F until internal meat temp of 160F
Hold at room temp for 1-2 hours before moving to the refrigerator/freezer. After we are totally done with the cooling process, then we will package in vacuum pouches for longer term storage.
Wrap upIt’s easy to get the basics on making homemade jerky, but practice does make perfect. Walton’s has everything you need (except the meat) to make great jerky, plus we have the knowledge to help you perfect your own process.
If you have any questions or need help in your process, please share your questions or comments below.
If your smoker, smokehouse, dehydrator, or oven cannot reach temperatures as low as 130F, just start as low as possible and slowly increase the temperature over time
What Is Jerky?In a simple definition, jerky is just dried meat. Jerky can be a whole muscle or ground and restructured product. Seasoned strips of meat are cured and dried in an oven, dehydrator, grill, smoker, or smokehouse. Whole muscle is made by slicing a whole cut of meat into thin strips, while restructured jerky is a ground and formed product that is extruded into strips, by something like our All-Around Jerky Maker. Be prepared for a 50-75% loss in the weight of the product once it is completely cooked and dried. Use meats that are extremely lean, with as little of fat as possible. Inside round is Walton’s preferred cut of meat to use, and we recommend slicing against the grain of the meat.
Watch WaltonsTV: How To Make Homemade Jerky Shop waltonsinc.com for Jerky Seasonings Shop waltonsinc.com for Jerky Making Supplies Shop waltonsinc.com for Dehydrators
4 lb of Beef Trim
6 lb of Pork Butt
1 Bag Pepperoni Unit
2 Quarts of Ice Cold Water
Fibrous Casings
Or
Hog Casings
Or
Collagen Casings
Optional Additives:
Carrot Fiber
Encapsulated Citric Acid
Since we are making 10 lb of pepperoni we will need to divide out the seasoning, cures water and additives we are going to us. Since this bag of seasoning is enough for 25 lb of meat and we are making 10 lb we need to divide the weight of the seasoning by 2.5, make sure you do the same for the additives as well. That gives us .562 of a lb of seasoning, 1.6 oz of carrot fiber, 1.6 oz of Encapsulated Citric Acid and 0.8 of a quart of water.
With Pepperoni we need to keep our pork and our beef separate until later in the process as we are going to want some particle definition in our product where we can see nice chunks of fat. A major factor in particle definition that is often overlooked is keeping your meat cold, we say it all the time for food safety reasons but keeping your meat cold is even more important here as we need it for particle definition.
Grind your beef twice, first through a 3/16 and then through a 1/8 plate and set aside. Next, grind your pork twice through a 3/8th plate. Keep the two meat blocks separate still.
Meat MixingMix your beef, water, seasoning, cure, and any other additives (other Encapsulated Citric Acid) for 3 minutes, until the seasoning is totally mixed in. Then add your pork and mix for 4 more minutes. If you are using Encapsulated Citric Acid add it during the last minute of mixing to prevent the encapsulation from breaking and releasing the acid into the meat too early.
Sausage StuffingWe are using the 1.5" X 12" Fibrous Summer Sausage Casings for our pepperoni today. To make these pliable we need to soak them in hot water for about an hour before they are ready to use. To do this simply remove them from the package and soak as many of them as you will need, the rest can be stored in a cool dry area for future use. If you end up soaking more casings than you needed you can dry them back out and store them for future use.
Load your casings onto your stuffing tube, since these are Fibrous Casings we are not worried about blowouts so simply stuff until the casing is full and smooth. Once you have stuffed all of your sausage you will need to close the open end with a Hog Ring or you can tie them closed as well.
NoteWith Pepperoni we will want a longer link than we would with Bratwurst, something around 12-18" each.
Thermal Processing & SmokingStage 1 - 125F for 1 hour
Stage 2 - 140F for 1 hour
Stage 3 - 155F for 2 hours
Stage 4 - 175F until internal meat temp of 160F
To help set the casing to the meat and also prevent wrinkling we need to shower the Pepperoni or put them in an ice-water bath. It should only take around 10 to 15 minutes to get the temperature to drop down. Then, we’ll let them set out for about 1 hour at room temperature before moving to the refrigerator/freezer. After we are totally done with the cooling process, then we will package in vacuum pouches for longer-term storage.
Wrap upMaking Pepperoni is only slightly more difficult than some other cured sausages as particle definition is important and achieving that requires an extra step or two.
Additional Tips The particle definition only affects the appearance though so if you do not care about that, feel free to mix and grind all meat together. Collagen Casings work just as well and are easier to handle and less prone to blowouts. What Is Pepperoni?Pepperoni is a cured style of Salami that is traditionally made from Pork and Beef, but it can be made from 100% of either one or other meats like Turkey or Wild Game. If you are going to slow cure it then using 100% pork is recommended. In America, you can basically break down Pepperoni into Pizza Pepperoni and Sandwich Pepperoni, the Pizza Pepperoni is usually smaller in diameter and Sandwich Pepperoni is larger in diameter. Both can either be smoked in a similar fashion as a Summer Sausage or cold cured. We will be going over how to make smoked pepperoni with a smaller diameter today but you can follow this same process for making a larger diameter, just use a large casing like the Fibrous Summer Sausage Casings.
Watch WaltonsTV: How to Make Pepperoni Shop waltonsinc.com for Pepperoni Seasoning Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Stuffers Shop waltonsinc.com for Salami Seasoning Shop waltonsinc.com for Walton’s #32 Grinder
Pork Shoulder or Pork Butt
AdditivesSoluble Pa’s Black Bull
Southwest Mesquite Rub
Butter Flavored Seasoning
Texas Style Rump Rub
We are going to do two types today, one we are going to smoke and the other we are going to cook with our Vacmaster SV1 Sous Vide Cooker, for both of these we will be using our new Waltons Automatic Syringe Injector.
For the smoked one we are going to inject it with Soluble Pa’s Black Bull Seasoning and we’ll rub the outside with Smokehouse BBQ Seasoning. A quick note here, when you are choosing a seasoning to inject or marinate meat look for something that contains phosphates, they increase the water holding capacity of your meat so you will have a juicier finished product.
We will dissolve 6.2 oz of the seasoning in 2 quart of water and then inject the Butt with as much as it will hold. If you like a lighter flavored pulled pork then you can inject smaller amounts, its not a cure so feel free to use as much or as little as you want. Once this has been fully injected we will start smoking it. Now, it’s a large thick cut so it is going to take anywhere from 8-10 hours for it to reach the 190°.
For our Sous Vide Pork Butt we are going to inject it with Butter Flavored Seasoning & Marinade and rub the outside with the Texas Style Rump Rub. We will dissolve the seasoning in a quart of water and then we will inject it until we have increased the starting weight by at least 10% or until the Butt will not hold anymore water. Next we are going to vacuum pack it and Sous Vide cook it at 165° for 24 or so hours and then we will see if cooking it at this temperature for this long will still give us that nice pulled pork texture.
Thermal Processing & SmokingSmoke at 220° until internal temp is 190°
OR
Sous Vide at 165° for 22 hours and then increase to 190° for 2 hours.
If you have cooked your pork long enough and gotten it to the right temperature you should be able to slide the bone out fairly easily and then use something like these Heat Resistant Gloves and just pull it apart by hand. If not you can use Man Claws or a Pork Puller.
Wrap upSo, all in all both were great ways to do pulled pork, the Sous Vide was a little simpler and required no baby sitting of any kind but in general I liked the traditional smoked pulled pork a little bit better.
Additional Tips Another thing to remember is as you heat up anything under vacuum the gas will expand so you wont have a 100% vacuum We intentionally overpumped this so a lot of liquid cooked out during the process, which was fine as it was in the bag so it just cooked it in that liquid. What Is Pulled Pork?Pulled Pork is normally made by smoking or cooking a Boston Butt or Pork Shoulder up to an internal temperature of about 190°. Cooking it up to this temperature breaks down the collagen and connective tissue within the pork and gives you the classic pulled pork texture.
Watch WaltonsTV: How To Make Pulled Pork
Learn how to make homemade ring bologna with Walton's and Meatgistics. Read the guide and then post your questions or comments below.
Meat Block7.5 lb 85/15 Lean Beef
8.75 lb 80/20 Lean Pork
8.75 lb 50/50 Pork Trim
1 package Ring Bologna Seasoning Unit #4550333550
1oz Sure Cure (packet included with the seasoning)
2oz Smoked Meat Stabilizer1
6oz Sure Gel Meat Binder
1 Quart Ice Cold Water
Grind pork trim through 3/16in grinder plate, twice
Grind lean beef and pork through 1/8in grinder plate
Begin mixing lean meats first. While mixing add Seasoning, Sure Gel Meat Binder (or Soy Protein Blend), Sure Cure, and Ice Cold Water. Mix for 5 minutes.
Add ground pork trim and mix for an additional 3 minutes, for a total of 8 minutes of mixing time
Stuff into Collagen Ring Bologna Casings. These casings need to be soaked for 15 minutes in water that has a 15% salt content and the water needs to be 15° C (59° F)
Note(If you do not use a cure accelerator like Smoked Meat Stabilizer, then hold in a refrigerator for approximately 12 hours or overnight)
Smokehouse Schedule120F for 30 minutes
130F for 30 minutes (start adding smoke now and throughout entire cook cycle)
140F for 30 minutes
150F for 30 minutes
160F for 30 minutes
170F until internal meat temperature of 160F
Shower final product or place in an ice water bath for 10-20 minutes to set the casings and cool the product
1. If you do not use a cure accelerator like Encapsulated Citric Acid or Smoked Meat Stabilizer, then after it has been stuffed into its casing hold in a refrigerator for approximately 12 hours or overnight (Return to text)
-For Home Processors 2 Qts Will Make Stuffing Easier.
-Place a small pan of water in the bottom of smokehouse during entire cooking cycle to help increase humidity.
-If your smoker, smokehouse, dehydrator, or oven cannot reach temperatures as low as 120F, just start as low as possible and slowly increase the temperature over time
Ring bologna is similar to a normal bologna sausage but it is stuffed into a smaller diameter casings and made into a ring or semicircle. It is typically left as a ring and then sliced to eat on crackers, or cut into chunks to serve as a part of other dishes or casseroles.
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Walton's - Everything But The Meat!
