More meat vaca. One success and a huge failure.
Using the last of my venison trim for sausage and snack sticks. 60/40 mix on both(first time using this, usually 70/30).
Sausage first… Used Excalibers pepper and garlic jerky seasoning. The ratio was a little in question for summer sausage. The other brand I’d been using used a 10oz package to 15# of meat. Figured that was a good starting point. Added hi temp cheddar to the last six pounds to try that. Results were perfect. Definite taste difference between the two mixes. The 60/40 had a lot more of pork fat feel to it. Similar to a store bought commercial brand. Now I’m torn between the two. Cheese was a very good addition but the rest of the family is so so on this. More for me!
My youngest son stop by to help and actually did most of the work(good kid)IMG_20190508_154335-1209x1612.jpg


When it hit the stall I decided to try the water bath to finish according to Parksider . This worked very well and brought to temp in 40 min.

This happened just before the end of the mixing process. We heard metal hitting metal and then a snap.
.
First time using the 44# mixer. 15# batch should not of done this. Figured this was metal fatigued and a bad weld. E-mailed Walton’s customer service who sent me straight to Weston. One call and an e-mail and new one is on the way. Great service from both.
Now the fail… A few pics to show the good part.
Walton’s commercial?

The sticks on the left were my third try with these smoked collagen casings. Came out very wrinkled and tough again. Guess just a bad batch(not from Walton’s)rest on the way to landfill. Can’t even chew these. Peel casing off and meat is fine. The other are 21 mm fresh casings(Walton’s) came out much better and easily chewable.
Final test is the taste…There was very little. Used Willie’s many times and this was not it.
Here’s the recipe–
10#s meat
.94oz Willies
1.6oz carrot fiber
20oz H2O
3c pepper cheese
.4oz cure
Did ya catch it? Actually needed 9.4oz Willies. After I weighed it out I even looked at it thinking this doesn’t look right and it still didn’t click. I’m chalking this up to a senior moment. D**n…really considered not mentioning this but…Lesson learned, double check ingredients.
I’ll still eat it