chrisndee2

chrisndee2

Last weekend’s production!
Turned out great!

Jonathon I watched several cook videos and reviews and decided to pull the trigger. I have only grilled burgers and smoked 2 racks of ribs. Great charcoal flavor and easy to use. I cooked the ribs at 225 directly on the grates for 2 hours. Wrapped and sauced for 2 more hours. When I unwrapped them, they were falling apart. Cooked another 45 minutes to caramelize the sauce. Ribs were excellent.
Overall great value for $500
Biggest dislike is how much charcoal it wastes. 1-1/2” briquettes fall through the provided grate into the ash box. To fix this I cut a piece of expanded metal and placed it over the existing grate. I cooked some burgers after this mod and saw no performance issues. No more briquettes in the ash box.

jakeanderton It was actually pre-packaged from PS Seasonings. Mainly habanero flavor but no noticeable pieces. When I do jalapeños I use dried jalapeños.

weatherbow21 I agree with Jonathon of several points. I have been making snack sticks and summer sausage for years and I have scrapped my fair share of batches. There is certainly a difference between wild game and beef or pork from the store. My advice on this, buy a 10lb “log” of 80/20 from Sam’s. This takes out the grinding and having to mix in the right amount of fat. I have made several successful batches this way. BE PATIENT! The more meat you have in the smoker, the longer it is going to take, however, you will find that your temps will fluctuate less. If you get impatient and crank up the heat, you increase your chances of “fatting out”. Been there, done that.
You don’t have to put the entire batch in the smoker at one time as long as you are not using citric acid. Put in a few pounds, follow the temp settings in the recipe, and you will likely have good results in 4-5 hours max. I never set my smokers above 170, but I may try since I am seeing 175 a lot in the Walton’s recipes.
For a binder, I always use soy protein, but the type of binder that you use is based on your preference. I never make a batch without it.
I also document everything from start to finish. I find this helps me to remember not to leave ingredients out of my recipe. It sucks when you get done stuffing and then find your bag of cheese still sitting on the counter. I document my temp settings, time of day, internal temp, smoke on, smoke off, etc. and I do this with every batch I make. You can then record your results, flavor, texture, presentation. I often go back through my notes just skimming results to see what worked and what didn’t, especially if I am trying a new recipe. If you are fairly new to sausage making and you are not busting casings during the stuffing process, you might not be packing them tight enough. You definitely do not want to under stuff. You will get unsightly fat deposits between the meat and the casing. Don’t give up!

PapaSop Those all look great. I just bought my 44lb mixer a couple of weeks ago. I plan on using it this Friday for the first time to make a 25lb batch of Jalapeño Cheddar summer sausage and snack sticks. I’ll let you know if I have the same issue with the mixer. I hope not, but I’ve seen a couple of other people post pictures of snapped blades.

Jonathon I’m going to try the 21mm for the first time this weekend. I have always used 17 and 19mm, but LEM changed their casings a while back. I’m tired of having to strip the casing onto my tube. The 19’s used to slide right over my 1/2” tube. I’ll post updates when I’m done.

M. Saboe Pork fat is definitely better. I have made snack sticks from straight 80/20 ground beef from the grocery store and used 25lbs of ground butt along with several mixtures of both and have had very good results. The only thing I haven’t had a whole lot of luck with is mixing beef with venison. I never seem to get enough fat content. Nowadays, if I use venison, I always go with 50% ground butt with it for best results.

33196frank The Weston 44lb meat mixer works great for 25lb batches. I used to mix by hand because I only had a 20lb mixer.

AndrewPachon Yes. There is really not a lot of difference in the seasonings. I’ve used snack stick seasoning for summer sausage and jerky.

gus4416 Yes. They turn out very good. I usually go 50/50 pork and venison.

AndrewPachon I actually bought it from PS seasonings. It is #490. Sorry for the confusion.

bocephus Thank you

jakeanderton It was actually pre-packaged from PS Seasonings. Mainly habanero flavor but no noticeable pieces. When I do jalapeños I use dried jalapeños.

gus4416 Thanks. I’ll give you an easy cheat. After 4 hours in the smoker, if they are not to finish temp, put them in a 170 degree water bath. Takes about 10 minutes max to get them to temp. I lay them on racks to cool for about an hour and cut to length.

AndrewPachon Thank you.

Jonathon Sorry to get off of the beer topic since it is a great topic as well. I have a full size steam pan that I use for finishing in hot water. I place it across 2 burners on my stove. The problem is that I have to constantly monitor water temp to keep it around 160. Would the Sous Vide heater clamp to a 6" deep steam pan?
2nd question. Is there any consistency difference in the meat when only going to 130-140 and then straight to a hot water bath? I usually leave summer sausage in the smoker over night (just so I can get some sleep) and then put it in the HWB in the morning. It is usually still in the stall stage and probably has been for several hours. (142) I haven’t had any issues though.
If I can pull it out when the INT is 130-140 that would save hours.

M. Saboe Also, document everything you do. If you don’t get the results that you want, try something different next time.

M. Saboe Pork fat is definitely better. I have made snack sticks from straight 80/20 ground beef from the grocery store and used 25lbs of ground butt along with several mixtures of both and have had very good results. The only thing I haven’t had a whole lot of luck with is mixing beef with venison. I never seem to get enough fat content. Nowadays, if I use venison, I always go with 50% ground butt with it for best results.