Used up some older hamburger we had to do sausage. Did 75% beef and 25% Pork. 230 lbs in total. The electric smoker worked great, a little hard to keep warm when it was -10 out! Instead of a water barh, I layed the summer sausage out at -20. Cooled pretty fast!
I designed and 3d printed a plastic block to aid in jerky and snack stick cutting. I screwee In the pictures below I am cutting round hamburger jerky I dehydrated. 3d prints are not food safe, so will need to coat with epoxy or make of solid plastic, but wanted to test it first. It works really good on summer sausage too! It speeds processing up greatly and makes all perfect lengths!
Below is how many I can cut at once.
All nice and uniform.
I bought bags that line a 5 gallon bucket. After blotting the excess oil off with a paper towel, I dump it into these bags. I let the jerky cool amd then refrigerate for a day to let the moisture equalize before sealing. Helps get rid of the sharp points that puncture bags.
Another great episode. I have been a rancher and started farming the last couple years in central Minnesota so just been learning recently. The growing season is too short compared to Kansas to get 2 crops a year. Iowa has a little longer season so they can sometimes get a second crop. Rye is usually planted in Minnesota after soybeans only to act as a cover crop to prevent erosion, keep the nutrients intact, and suppress weeds, it’s not harvested. Iowa could harvest it in the spring has they have more warmer days. The reason you cannot insure a second crop is because of the shorter growing season. Harvesting the rye in the spring before planting beans will delay the planting of soybeans which leads to lower yields. In dryer states like the Dakotas, the rye uses up too much moisture that the soybeans need, leading to lower yields. Anything that lowers yields is going to make the insurance have to pay out. Doing 2 crops is always going to have slightly lower yields.
dawg I used mostly exalibur and used up some from the Sausage Maker.
Ton’s Summer
Philly cheeseteak brat
Blue Ribbon Brat
Polish
Ring Baloney
Jalepeno snack sticks
I second the paper towel. Just wad it up and push it through with then end of a wooden spoon. Cleans out all the meat and works on any size tube.
Another great podcast! On subject of nitrogen, some plants already are able to pull nitrogen from the air (soybeans, peas, alfalfa, clover, etc.). That is why they rotate crops. Soybeans put nitrogen in the ground for the corn to use the next year. On ranches, we like to see a lot of clover in the pastures because if takes nitrogen from the air and puts it in the ground for other grasses to use. Ranchers in wetter climates try to get as much clover growing as possible, but it can be hard to get growing.
Getting more species of plants to pull nitrogen from the air has been tried for many years. It is a great plan if it could happen and would help the environment a lot. It’s not that crazy of an idea. As legumes species already do this.
processhead I took it completely apart and there is no name anywhere. Very odd!
They guy I purchased it from lived in Alaska and processed moose for friends with it for many years. I should of asked where he got it from.
Here is a couple pictures of it apart. Thinking of completely taking the hydraulic jack out and replacing with an air actuated jack. Then run with a foot control. May be hard to control speed.
gus4416 one I built. I will have to post my build on here.
Just picked up this 50 lb hydraulic sausage stuffer used. Excited to try it out! You use the long pedal to pump up the piston. The short one brings it back down instantly. Takes abput 120 pumps to travel the full length. A little skeptical it will hold 50 lbs, I think probably 35 lbs, but we will see!
Hoping I can convert it to an electric or air hydraulic pump one day.
Anyone ever see one? Unknown brand. I have never seen one like it either. Going to need new gaskets so that might be a challenge making those.
As stated above, very important to wash right away. Cleaning inbetween the knives is a huge pain. I have heard of running bread through to clean it out, like some do for grinders. I have not tried this yet.
Meant to say I screwed the block to boards that are covered in plastic. That way I can change lengths until I figure out what I want for lengths.
I designed and 3d printed a plastic block to aid in jerky and snack stick cutting. I screwee In the pictures below I am cutting round hamburger jerky I dehydrated. 3d prints are not food safe, so will need to coat with epoxy or make of solid plastic, but wanted to test it first. It works really good on summer sausage too! It speeds processing up greatly and makes all perfect lengths!
Below is how many I can cut at once.
All nice and uniform.
I bought bags that line a 5 gallon bucket. After blotting the excess oil off with a paper towel, I dump it into these bags. I let the jerky cool amd then refrigerate for a day to let the moisture equalize before sealing. Helps get rid of the sharp points that puncture bags.
gus4416 one I built. I will have to post my build on here.
dawg I used mostly exalibur and used up some from the Sausage Maker.
Ton’s Summer
Philly cheeseteak brat
Blue Ribbon Brat
Polish
Ring Baloney
Jalepeno snack sticks
Used up some older hamburger we had to do sausage. Did 75% beef and 25% Pork. 230 lbs in total. The electric smoker worked great, a little hard to keep warm when it was -10 out! Instead of a water barh, I layed the summer sausage out at -20. Cooled pretty fast!
Another great podcast! On subject of nitrogen, some plants already are able to pull nitrogen from the air (soybeans, peas, alfalfa, clover, etc.). That is why they rotate crops. Soybeans put nitrogen in the ground for the corn to use the next year. On ranches, we like to see a lot of clover in the pastures because if takes nitrogen from the air and puts it in the ground for other grasses to use. Ranchers in wetter climates try to get as much clover growing as possible, but it can be hard to get growing.
Getting more species of plants to pull nitrogen from the air has been tried for many years. It is a great plan if it could happen and would help the environment a lot. It’s not that crazy of an idea. As legumes species already do this.
I have a set of AC infinity S1238D fans from Amazon in my sausage smoker (max temp 190). It is designed to move heat from a wood stove. I looked for a long time to find fans for inside a smoker, commercial ones have the motor mounted outside the cabinet. This was the best one I found, although I never found a max temp rating. I’ve ran them for probably 200 hours with no issues so far. I came across them as I found someone else who was using them in their sausage smoker. It will not withstand a hot smoker since it’s plastic but for sausage seems to be no problems.
I think a fan is one of the best upgrades you can do for a smoker. Makes your end product so much better. You get such a uniform beautiful color on natural casings and snack sticks. And uniform temperatures. As a side note, I had problems with casings peeling on my snack stick after thawing from frozen. Now I leave my snack sticks in the smoker with the fan to get them dried down a little more. No problems with casings peeling after freezing.
Best smoker upgrade you will ever do for sausage is add a fan. I did as much research as I could online to mimic a commercial smoker. I mounted mine 4 inches from the top of my smoker on a sheet of plywood. The plywood covers the entire top except for a 2 inch gap on the left and right side. The fan pulls air from the bottom of the smoker, and then the air is forced down along the side of the smoker in that 2 inch gap to the floor. My fans are not powerful enough to get the air all the way to the floor as I have it in a commercial refrigerator, but it still does the job.
Steven Hardt that’s awesome to hear! Do you need a gasket as well? I’m trying to find one.
I have been emailing a few manufacturers. One got back back to me recognizes it but does not remember the brand name. He thought they were an European company and closed about 20 years ago.
The gasket is shot, so that is going to make it hard to get up and going. Hoping I can luck out and someone else makes a similar sized unit. It’s 10 inches in diameter.
As stated above, very important to wash right away. Cleaning inbetween the knives is a huge pain. I have heard of running bread through to clean it out, like some do for grinders. I have not tried this yet.