Nice job on all the bellies

bocephus sounds like a great recipe. Thanks 👍

Jonathon Even better! I can manage that, for sure.

Jonathon Yep you got it fixed awhile ago, there I am standing out there in the sticks, just where I am suppose to be.

calldoctoday think I am going to have to give it a try. Sounds so good

Attend this Intermediate-level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

So, what is happening when you dry age meat? Well first, during the initial 21 day process of dry aging the collagen and connective tissue are being broken down within the meat by enzymes that are naturally present in beef. The results of this process are similar to what happen when we cook a tough brisket or a pork butt all the way up to 190°, in that process the collagen and connective tissues are being broken down by heat, in this process the enzymes are eating and breaking them down, so similar results but with totally different processes. Most of the tenderness is set in by 21 days, beyond that flavor profiles might change but you will not have increased tenderness.

One of the reasons that very few people dry age their beef is because as you dry age you are going to lose as much as 25% of your product, obviously it could be higher, in fact, you could lose 100% of it if things go really wrong. For someone doing this at home once in a while that might not be a large concern but for a commercial processor this is going to increase costs per lb significantly. Another reason is that you cannot take a 2 inch thick steak and dry age it, you need a large subprimal cut like a strip loin or ribeye, which is going to be fairly expensive. As the drying continues the outside is going to “spoil” as most of the moisture is drawn out from the meat and evaporates off, this process intensifies the flavor of the meat but does account for a decent amount of the product loss. The trimming is why larger subprimal cuts are necessary for dry aging.

In this process we are going to rely on a pH drop and then the good bacteria to outcompete the bad bacteria to prevent anything harmful from growing on the meat. This is why it really is critical to have a place where you can reliably control both the temperature and the humidity. I know that some people have done it forever in their basement during a certain month of the year or other but this isn’t a process we recommend, a drying cabinet of some sort that is easily sterilized before and after use is important.

You will have to have a way to reliably measure the pH of your sausage to be able to make sure this process has been successful as well. Different starter cultures have different requirements but an example of one would be for Spanish Chorizo where we are using Bactoferms T-SPX. We are going to ferment it at 75°F with 90% relative humidity for 36-48 hours or as soon as we see the pH falling below 5.2. After that we are going to dry it until the Water Activity is below .85 which can take weeks.

processhead on my Master built the smoke enters and exits on the same area, next smoke on sticks I think that I will put the bottom tray in with 1/2 of it wrapped in foil to create an off set flow

Learn which sharpener you should be using in your Kitchen with Walton's and Meatgistics. Watch the video, read the guide, and then post your questions or comments below.

Comparing knife sharpeners
Nothing makes processing as annoying or as difficult as a dull knife. When you can’t slice cleanly through a piece of meat you are damaging your product, adding processing time and most importantly putting yourself in danger. You might have heard me say in that sharp knives do not cause accidents, dull ones do! It’s true, a sharp knife will easily slice into whatever cut of meat you want, while a dull will skip or slip and then whoops, here we go to the emergency room! We sell numerous sharpeners that are designed to keep your cutlery in tip top shape so we are going to review and compare a few of them for you.

Most of the knives in your kitchen are just going to be slightly dull, not seriously damaged or have a truly rounded edge so we have purposefully dulled some knives here to the same degree as what you would normally find in a kitchen. We will be testing them before and after with the paper test which is an easy way to see if a knife is sharp. If the knife passes through the paper cleanly and easily it is nice and sharp, if it pulls or tears the paper then it is still dull.

The Multi-Cut Steel and is more abrasive than a normal steel, it also has these grooves which will help sharpen it up. When we try the paper test on this knife it grabs the paper instead of slicing cleanly through it. Let’s try running it ten passes a side on the Multi Cut steel. We want to make sure we are doing one side and then the other so we do not push the edge one way or the other too much. After about a minute of using this steel this knife is slicing cleanly through the paper, no tears or pulls. This was a nice and easy way to get us from a dull knife to a nice and sharp one.

Chef’s choice is a popular name in home sharpening and the Chef’s choice 120 120 is their economy model. The 120 works in two stages, the first stage has an orbiting diamond sharpening surface which helps sharpen and set angle of the edge and then the second stage is finer and hones the edge. The first stage will take quite a long time the first time you use a knife with this sharpener. This is because it wants to reset the angle of the blade, as the sharpener can only do one angle. You will have to make 15-20 passes a side with your knife. The good news is that according to the instructions you only need to do this one time per knife, subsequent sharpenings will only require 3-4 passes in stage one. So, I made 20 passes a side in stage 1 and 3 passes a side on stage two and the knife passes pretty cleanly through the paper. This took a little longer than the steel but still did a fairly nice job.
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The Swiss Sharp Handheld Sharpener from Victorinox is an inexpesnive sharpener from a well respected brand. It has a groove at the end of the handle with two angled pieces of metal to sharpen the knife as you pull it through. As you pull the knife through you can hear the metal being shaved off and see some metal shavings. This did a surprisingly good job on this knife with minimal effort.

The the [Tru-Hone] (https://www.waltonsinc.com/tru-hone-knife-sharpener). This is what we use to sharpen our customers knives when they send them in and believe me when I tell you nothing else going to work as well or as quickly as this. It puts a great edge on any blade with minimal fuss, a blade that just needs a basic sharpening will be done a minute but it does have the ability to restore extremely dull knives or ones with large nicks in them. The only downside of this unit is that at just over $1,100 it is out of most people’s price range. We have a knife here in need of some basic sharpening so we are going to follow the simple and easy process that tru hone recommends. We will do three passes with the bevel set to the Red knob and the speed at a 7, then move the bevel knob to the white setting and do 2 more passes at a 7 speed, finally we are going to move the bevel down to the blue knob and move the speed down to a 3 and very lightly pass the blade through. If at this point we are not satisfied with our blade we will just repeat the process. But after a single run through this process you can see that this knife it razor sharp. Just to show you what this sharpener can do we have a knife here that we have intentionally ground down to have no edge. We are going to make 10 passes through the first and second steps and then 3 through the third. After going through these steps this is razor sharp again!
 
So of the four the Tru Hone clearly does the best job but for now let’s set that aside as the price point makes it a little unrealistic to have in your home kitchen. Between the Chef’s Choice and Swiss Sharp Sharpener I liked the Swiss Sharp better. It did a nice job with very little effort and it is about 1/3 of the price. The best of these three though was the Mulit Cut Steel. It worked beautifully, it is easy to use and is more versatile than either the Chef’s Choice or the Swiss Sharp.
 
For our product review we have the hexarmuor NXT cut resistant glove. A lot of cut resistant gloves are bulky and make it awkward to handle a knife for long periods. The hexarmor is nice and thin so I retain pretty much full range of motion and dexterity. It has additional coating that exceeds ISEA level 5 cut protection on the palm and first three fingers which is where the majority of accidents happen. We just sharpened this knife and I can press down and saw pretty hard and it is nowhere near to breaking through the glove. It also has the added benefit of being poke resistant where it has this extra coating. Again, I can stab at my hand with some pretty serious force and my hand is protectedc. So, do yourself a favor and add a Hexarmour NXT glove to your next order from Walton’s, they are only $15.99 and they can prevent a trip to the emergency room!

Make sure you subscribe to WaltonsTV and remember to tap the bell next to the subscribed button to get notified about all new videos, plus like and comment on this video, and visit waltonsinc.com and meatgistics.com to find Everything But The Meat!

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Tex_77 thats great news! I’m about out of there sauce!

Yeah, I’m the jack of all hobbies but the master of none. But some of my hobby attempts turn out Ok.

mrobisr I read an interesting article about the conditions creating a " perfect storm" to stress the cattle.
I agree these numbers are higher than any I have seen in the past

Jonathon Billy Martin reminds me of a Banty Rooster, he always figured he was the toughest person on the field or in the room.

I got mine a couple days ago. Getting a list of some things I need for the coming hunting seasons. Thanks Waltons.

Watch the full video below, read the highlights here, and then post your comments or questions below.

A lot of people don’t realize that cleaning and sanitizing are actually two separate steps. Cleaning is where you first remove any dirt, grime, or fat residue or meat particles leftover on your equipment or work surfaces. Then, you sanitize by killing bacteria and disinfecting your work surfaces and equipment. Cleaning and sanitizing is very important because maintaining a clean environment will help you make a safer product, and then safer products will lead to a longer shelf-life.

What we recommend and use are some of these products…
Cleaning larger areas - Neutra Sol Cleaner
Cleaning smaller areas - Power Foam Cleaner
Sanitizing larger areas - Bi-Quat
Sanitizing smaller areas - Hard Surface 60 Second Sanitizer
Both of the cleaners listed above are degreasers so they will help breakdown any leftover fat particles or meat leftover on your equipment or other working surfaces and make them easy to rinse off completely. And then the Hard Surface Sanitizer is Walton’s favorite option for a sanitizer because it works in 60 seconds, and is a no-rinse sanitizer so it doesn’t need to be rinsed off and can just be left on the product to dry until your ready to use your equipment or working surfaces next time.

So always remember that cleaning and sanitizing are two different steps and by doing both properly, you’ll keep your equipment, work surfaces, and environment safer, you’ll make a safer product, and that will ultimately lead to a longer shelf-life in your meat products.

I use Eric’s recipe (2 guys and a cooler) and have had no complaints