Yes as you mentioned you’d need to brine it to add moisture to the meat. But I would imagine after a few hours on smoke you could wrap that bird and get that real “fall off the bone” you are looking for while retaining a lot of moisture. I’d even go as far as maybe putting in a foil pan and add a little chicken stock to it. I bet that would come out pretty darn good.

Sean Clouthier said in water/ice water bath ??:

for some reason when I perform an ice bath w/ water, my casings tend to separate from the meat. What am I doing wrong? Lately, I have been putting them in a meat lug and dropping them into my freezer chest for 15 to 20 min. Is that ok instead of water and ice?

The reason ice water lowers the temperature faster and more effectively than placing them in a cold freezer is because cold water absorbs and transfers heat much more efficiently than cold air does.

Tex_77 I sure do hope so.

I will be making these this summer, cold beer, stupid hot weather, cool water, what could go wrong!!!

pfd069 Sounds like a PLAN.

Dave in AZ

I also do Polish, Hungarian, Portuguese,

HerbcoFood Wow those birds look good!

Dave in AZ Congrats on the new smoker! Def post some pics once you get it running.

Walton’s German Sausage Seasoning #4130 is an excellent smoked sausage. Good flavor and a great “general” appeal. No heat or “unique” flavor profiles
Tex_77 - shoots and scores

Bob Stehlik This is the controller I have now for my Texas Elite. https://www.stanbroil.com/product/Stanbroil-Replacement-Digital-Pro-Controller-for-Traeger-Pellet-Wood-Pellet-Grills.html

tomhancock I also use a Pitboss 5 and you are right on with your method!

caryfr5 i concur, I have one of thier griddles for my stove, they are heavy duty.

I dunno. I threw my last batch into a big plastic tote, directly from the smoker, and just let them rest in the garage at around 45deg F till the next day. Too lazy (it was late when the temp hit 160) to ice them etc. Everyone likes them.

But did some 17mm sticks that had tough casings a couple batches ago. People were troubled a little. Not up to my usual product. I need to keep experimenting. I am certain that there are a bazillion ways to do this, but also a lot of ways to screw it up. We all need to find out process.

I do think its not a good idea to mix sizes in the same batch. My 17mm fail (not really, were still quite edible) was part of a mixed batch. So they got over cooked while waiting for the 19mm to get to temp.

Dave in AZ said in Walton’s package, 16, 19, 21mm casings, going to experiment.:

That looks like it can generate some torque!

It does. It means smaller helpers like my wife or daughter can get it on the processing fun. 😁

It’s the SteakAger

Midwest_kc
Congrats… Keep us along for the ride. Always something new to learn.

Arnie Hofer I am not very familiar with those. I have used the high mt jerky kits but was a long time ago. I would think you could mix the seasonings as long as the cure wasnt already in it. pretty sure the cure comes seperate though. If not it would be a problem. I am sure there is someone here that might be able to answer your question a little better and the nice thing about this community is they will help you out

Ed Paone said in Humidifier Mods ?:

I have gave a lot of thought about this also and plan on trying it. I’ve looked into the reptile foggers and like that you can adjust the amount of humidity.

The one I have will go from the lowest setting of hardly being able to see it to the highest setting that produces a thick fog.

twilliams thanks for the advice

Under meatgistics menu button (top left corner for me) there is a choice , conversions. That will bring up all spices, cures and additives. Find your spice and you will see one and five pound conversion amounts. Less than one pound devide the one pound amount by what fraction of a pound you have. Example your bacon weighs 3.5 pounds. Multiply the 1 pound amount by 3.5. Should be all set. Remember to use the correct amount of cure if it is separate.

Thanks all. Was wondering if it was just up my way. 👍

Jesser check on ’ cooking with shotgun red '. He has done it on his site. Maybe give you some ideas.

You can also use maple syrup as a replacement for the sugar in this recipe. Just coat the belly with the syrup then apply dry ingredients and process as normal.

Bacon
2.0-2.5% salt
1.5% sugar
#1 pink salt, Follow directions
5.67g/1 tsp per 5lbs belly
Mix cure, salt, and sugar together
Coat bacon
Place in container or vacuum pack and place in fridge at 35-38f
7 days cure/inch of belly
Rinse off under tap water return to fridge for 1-2 days.
Put in smoker for 1-2 hours or until it reaches room temperature, no smoke
Cold smoke to desired smokeness
Put back in fridge for 1 day
Slice, package, and freeze what you will not eat in week.

Meat_Jack said it. Your ECA is safe until you hit the temp that melts that coating

daryl how right you are. I already do my own deer for some of the reasons you listed. Now it’s time to make myself do the rest of it. In September I took a 1400lb steer to my local slaughter house. I was not happy. Ribeyes were supposed to be 1 1/4in thick . I got 10 packages of 2 that were 5/8in thick. I took a package back to them and asked why they were so thin and where the rest of them were. They pulled my sheet and saw they messed up. They said if I was unhappy just don’t come back they have plenty of business without mine. I have lost faith in the slaughter houses here. They always give away sausage samples so I figured that’s where the rest of my steer went.

Lance Very Nice & tasty looking too! Great Snackin.

This Meatgistics University post on making snack sticks can help you nail down a cooking schedule. https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/763/cured-sausage-106-basics-of-making-snack-sticks

Nice! It is definitely my favorite brat.

Woody1551

I am not seeing any red flags on your bacon smoking process.
Although unlikely since you are using damp sawdust, you might want to ensure the sawdust is just smoldering slowly, and NOT burning with an open flame.

Dr_Pain I’m with you. They’re making me hungry 😋

can I make Italian sausage, pepperon, salami, freeze it in casings with seasons and sure cure added and smoke it at a later date.

Retired157 I have a cook shack which is basically the same thing as what you have. Couple of things from what you are describing that you want to do. From the factory there is no vent adjustments, just a pinky sized vent hole on the top and same one on the bottom to drain grease. Now I see you added a vent to the door which will let some air in but it will probably get bottleneck with the small vent on the top. So you may have problems with the smoke schedule you described.
Also with this smoker you will have trouble getting wood chunks to smoke (if at all) at low temps. Especially with the low temps in your schedule. With this smoker you really need a smoke generator to do what you described. You mY be able to get away using a smoke tube and a fan since you added the vent on the door.
Get on youtube and watch 2 guys and a cooler videos. He has the smokin it brand of your smoker and has a smoke generator to do his sausages.

I think Austin or @ Jonothan would be the ones to ask as they deal with commercial processors

Boy that’s something I didnt think through. Idk? Anyone???

mfrievalt - Good Job!

Been smoking Q for over 20yrs in my 2 little cookshacks. Amazing smokers right there! Great find.

Not sure what your smoke schedule looks like. I had same issue and thru posts here found that I was not closing dampers during final stage which never allowed the sticks to finish at the 160 temp causing extremely long cook times and very dry nasty product.

I use chunks in my vertical offset, so I stopped soaking. When I finish my Cotton Gin drum, I won’t soak then either.

Randie N
Agree with the others, it looks great.

I prefer to take jerky out a little early since you can always air dry it at room temperature if it needs to be a little drier.
On the other hand, once it is crispy-crittered, there is no going back.

lkrfletcher is there a shelf life or refrigeration required with the butter on them?

shoprat53 thanks that’s good to know….never thought about freezing it then adding it to sausage. Instead I just buy high temp but it’s so $$$$$. I’ll have to try it with regular chunk cheese

Midwest_kc No I haven’t.

Idaho Smokey My son-in-law worked as a RN in the ER and charge nurse in the ICU, he loved the action until he got hurt on his last long CPR a doc would not call (multiple hours). The only action I ever saw was having to go rescue patrol vehicles for the PD when the c r * p was blowing into proverbial the fan. )(Austin’s censoring program tried, but I got around it). We got sent out to some situations where I was told to just get it running and lets get out of here. Mind you, I have no vest except a high vis that gets left in the service vehicle.

I think being creative and stacking cooking racks with spacers that you could go even more than 12 lbs. That’s what I do with my Louisiana Grill

Also first hour, drying phase keep door cracked open.Helps get rid of moisture.

bocephus I think you should!

Ah yes, to actually light, I use newspaper donuts drenched and a little bit of vegetable oil.

I was more worried that without a half-full or completely full chimney, the coals wouldn’t ash over completely

As others have said, it should be the same amount of time, or very, very close. The exception would be when you start adding more and more and your airflow changing drastically. 2 butts shouldn’t cause this issue on anything but the smallest of Smokers though.

That is what I did. Vacuum sealed enough for a couple sandwiches in each bag.
67455A5A-9FBB-4BE4-96C9-821F87064795.jpeg

Ridley Acres said in Beef Sticks:

Dr_Pain Yes the fancy equipment sure makes things easier, but depending on how badly you want things you can make old world tech work in a pinch

I completely agree!!

6158d1d9-71af-48f1-931d-df44b3fbd056-image.png

Thank you, saw dust it is and will always be

I have been doing prime rib for awhile. I tend to do things without a real recipe or change the real recipe to suit me. I have used a mixture of salt, pepper, granulated garlic and granulated onion. I usually just eyeball this mix but thought that there might be a recipe out there. Here it is:Seasoning Mixture - Salt, Pepper, Garlic, & Onion
Ingredients
3 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp & 1 Tsp Black Pepper
2 Tsp Granlated Garlic
1 Tsp Granulated Onion
Directions
Add all ingredient to an air tight container (Tupperware works well) and shake vigorously. This spice will keep up to a month in a dry place.

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user ROGTAYMOM.

I have used Worcestershire, Mustard, or Olive oil as a base coating to get the dry rub to stick to the meat. I really can’t that I like one over the other since I really don’t taste much of a difference. I also add fresh rosemary over the top of the dry rub. Once everything is seasoned I use a sheet pan with a cooling rack or a roasting pan with a rack to put the prime rib on and then it all goes into the refrigerator uncovered for at least overnight and up to 24 hours. On the day of the cook I put the cold prime rib in the cold smoker with a combination of hickory, pecan, or oak and cherry wood ( I like the red color the cherry adds to the meat). I set my smoker to run at 200 to 225 degrees and set my wireless thermometer for 110 degrees. The reason I use the cold meat in a cold smoker is so that the meat has the most time in the smoke as possible. Once the internal temp of the meat hits 110 degrees I pull it out of the smoker. Now is where things can get changed up. I sometimes finish the meat in the oven with a quick sear under the broiler, or I finish the meat on the grill with a quick reverse sear. Just remember that you only have a 15 to 20 degree window to work with while doing either method. I like my prime rib to be medium rare (130 to 135 degrees internal temp.). You also need to remember that you will get a carry over cook of 5 to 10 degrees while the prime rib is resting. Now what happens if you have made a really nice looking Prime rib but it finished way to early or you have to take it someplace for dinner? Just stick it in a pre warmed ice chest and close the lid. You can hold it for 4 to 6 hours and it will still be nice and hot for dinner.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

shoprat53 awesome! I recently scored big and picked up a Smokin Tex 1400 smoker for $50. Hoping to do some snack sticks on it this week.

processhead sorry didnt see the question. Well the wifi bridge did not work at all. They couldnt warranty it because I bought it off someone. They sold me a replacement bridge and one of the probes that also was failing at 1/2price on both. Like 30 for the bridge and 25 for the probe.
Got everything working and I think I burned out the new probe by pushing it through a chicken breast. That one that warranted. I probably saved 30 bucks from what a new one cost but looking back I should have just spent the 200 bucks and had a good warranty.
The people were very helpful and I really liked the ability to deep fry with the thermometer in the frier.

cattleman54 said in Ground Meat Shish Kebabs Binder:

marksaltzman316
Wrap them with bacon. Win win

EVEYTHING is made better with bacon LOL! May not match the flavor profile very well though. Something I have never done and would consider doing

twilliams I did Step Up started at 1:20 went to 140 then to 155 and then to 175

Dave R Look at Auber WiFi PID controller. It works awesome with Masterbuilt. It requires a modification to The masterbuilt mine was a single jumper wire to bypass the built in controller. For making summer sausage and snack sticks it is great because you can program the steps in. You can have up to 6 programmed steps set up. Those steps can be defined by time at a certain temperature, or temperature of meat or a combination of both. It’s $225 so worth it though especially for snack sticks that need a more precise temp. https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=702

KillerNoms I have the MB40 also with the Auber PID WiFi controller. It works awesome. I thought about the fan also. Do you have pics of your fan inside the MB40?

If you are running a Masterbilt XL with two burners, you can just use one burner or instead of turning dial counterclockwise, you can turn it slowly clockwise for a lower flame than the “LOW” setting.

Just curious, did you use 5w20 or 10w30 and regular or synthetic oil on the dowels?? LOL Cut 1/4" rebar for my Masterbilt XL. These will outlast my smoker and me. Insulated wit some foil insulation from Ace, 3/4" spaced out from sides (3/4x1 1/2" ) , run only one burner for low heat, found a roasting pan for water which forces heat to go around pan for better distribution. Hang 3# summer sausages (6 per rod) with no problems. Recently did 200#.

craigrice i was thinking this idea as an alternative to a water pan using sponges & towels. Would lava rocks evaporate more h2o compared to sponges?

Cabelas90 I buy the cheep nitrle gloves from hbf then use them for mixing and seasoning and can easily discard them

I agree with PapaSop on the sure-jel and I also like the “twang” the ECA gives.

Jonathon I have some injectable pa’s in the fridge mixed in a 1/2 gallon jug.How long will it stay good?

Additional comments because my original post was longer than I intended:

Sorry I got my feet under the table after the dogs have already licked the floors clean.
I’m unsure about a probe temp. I’m more into a look of pull back from the (like pork ribs) then a probing feel like brisket.

glen that is a crazy amount of info. Thanks for the post.

Chef If you haven’t already check out niche meat processing

shoprat53 powdered milk is the actual binder in suregel. Phosphate retains moisture, but it also acts as a meat preservative by raising the PH of meat. There are several binders available and they do have their places depending on what you are doing. I use suregel and carrot fiber depending on what I’m doing, but in a previous life I used some of the other binders and moisture retention products as well.

I started out with a Louisiana pellet, switched to Traeger. Both ended up at son-in-laws houses. They both worked fine, but… end up with a Yoder ys640s and I can say this’ll be the last one I’ll need

RON PARRISH I’m not sure why I haven’t done that yet. Sounds great

Ok that sounds like a plan. I have a #32 grinder so I can have the meat near frozen and grind it so it doesn’t smear

Fractured Fitness Sounds like you are well on your way to perfecting your system, if there is such a thing for jerky and sausage making. I think I have something figured out and then I read something new on this sight or get a suggestion from a friend and it’s back to the drawing board to try something new, but that is the fun of homemade product, you can always improve or modify to suit your desires!

cdavis thank you

processhead Last time I was in Cancun at the resort we stayed at, I ordered oso bucco and the lasagna. I then just dumped the oso bucco over the lasagna…boy howdy talk about a power move!

Made 6 pounds each of chicken fajita and smoked jalapeno sausage yesterday. They turned out great I think I like the chicken better than the pork now. If you use chicken for cured sausage always use sure gel add about 20 to 25 % more seasoning than you do with pork. Also I mix mine for at least 6 to 8 minutes with hand mixer. After stuffing just smoke as you would pork except bring internal temperatures to 165.

Cover it… check!
Looks great

Jamieson22 Jonathan forgot to tell you to also join team ORANGE, I am sure it was just an oversight on his part.

Chef Thank you young man.

Agree with the above. Vac sealing and freezing the finished product would be most convenient later. If you don’t mind thawing and cooking, then I do that a lot of times with no issue.

Frequently I buy enough thighs for 4 or 5 competitions at a time, trim, and then seal and freeze to save work week of. Can’t tell the difference.

shoprat53 YEah, I tend to see that to really get that oat look gone you need to add a little more water. Maybe that would be something we could go over on a Weekly Livestream?

TexLaw doesn’t the instructions say to wet the sawdust?

kimari Check out the learning center video. Jonathon does a pretty good video explaining the process. My hams and turkeys have come out great. Make sure you get adequate cure into the hams since they are such a large muscle group.

@dennyo
I guess you can never rule out the possibility of malfunctioning smoker controls and resulting in the temp swings.

The control systems for pellet smokers/grills are more complicated than systems for other fuels. They are controlling pellet feed rates and an air blower to try and maintain temperatures.

gChart I do a 2-2-1 @ 240 and have never been disappointed

Jamieson22 said in Questions for PK 100 Owners:

When I look at online dimensions for the PK it shows H 48" x W 21" x D 21". Just checking your 22.5" cover width is accurate.

I got out my tape measure and measured the thing, and those dimensions were what I ordered. As I mentioned, the only thing I would change is the length. That was tricky to estimate because I didn’t know how the cover would hang over the control panel.

I put a small battery operated desk fan on low over the top vent when cold smoking with MB to increase air flow. Fan won’t last forever but cost less than $5.

HerbcoFood that’s my liking also

Thank you. I really appreciate all the help.

I got a masterbuilt off of offer up for 75 bucks. Great starter electric made temp control easy and the smoke pan worked well enough.

Chef said in Vintage Brinkman Smoker and Grill:

Jamieson22 if 20 is vintage, then I’m prehistoric. Me, I’m older than dirt, I use a few knifes that are 80 plus years old, a slicer that is 70 years old…the list goes on.

I would like to see a picture of the old items if you get a chance to post them. The vintage items have character. Just like their owners. lol

Randyman Cold Phosphate is going to increase the pH of your meat, making it easier for the water to bond with the meat. Increasing pH also lowers the shelf-life of the meat so use it accordingly.

Sign of early cause they had a tv plug a few month ago about it ,they only take about 30 or so people.

that is the success of this f***m it is topic specific and people are willing to help each other

mrobisr said in New idea for humidity:

Jonesy from my experience tender jerky comes from low and slow temp along with pulling it out at the right time meaning it is still pliable yet when torn is dry.

I have to agree with these comments. For traditional style jerky it’s more about technique and timing than it is about adding special ingredients.

Great responses guys, thank you. One more thing to keep in mind, if you use fish as your “meat” that changes it as well as most fish contain decently high levels of nitrates already. This will be an upcoming (next few months) meatgistics university episode.

Let me know what you think of your outcome uppy. I’m in hopes that you may be able to tame your gasses as I have mine. I’ve had the the Big Block GOSM for 15 +/- years now and had a smaller version for 6 years prior. Like I said I should have acted on this years ago. jmo.