My mother who in every member of her family’s opinion made the absolute best fried chicken and I say that with my wife of 34 1/2 years sitting right here beside me. Mom would not buy a Tyson chicken even if they were on sale. No one ever questioned her but she’s been gone nearly 3 years and no one in our family will go against her beliefs. Odd how traditions continue.
Boy do I miss seeing that big old cast iron skillet on the stove with pieces of chicken all nestled together the exact same way every time she cooked chicken. No matter how hard she tried and showed everyone how she cooked it no one has done it like her.
Sorry for the rant… things like that mean so much more as you get older.

While we’re on the jowl bacon kick my uncle was a stickler for Jowl Bacon & cabbage for his New Years Day dinner. It has always been promoted as a traditional New Years Day meal. The area groceries promoted it as such by placing special prices on jowl. My uncle would buy every piece of jowl on the shelf Of a local store and we had a feast.
I never knew how or why pork became a New Years Day meal but a recent search on the internet provided one very interesting theory.
It goes something like this. Chicken & Turkey scratch backwards but a hog uses his snout to root going forward. That’s the way you should start the New Year “going forward” interesting to say the least. Good enough reason for me to enjoy a nice jowl bacon & cabbage meal with family & friends.

Well gentlemen I got half of it right. I do put my plate in the same way each time… but they share the same knife. I plan to fix that issue soon!

tarp
Are you thinking what I’m thinking. Jonathan’s “him” might be a “her”? I noticed that when I first read the post and notice the April date along with the large belly but I didn’t want to dig him on such a nice fish.

PapaSop said in Valentine's Day:

LOL on southern Canada. -18 tonight’s forecast. Us smart singles are having steak and lobster. Oh yeah, and a nice bourbon.

HIJACK ALERT! Does anyone but me see anything wrong with PapaSop’s post?
He’s planning on a nice bourbon tonight. Bourbon is synonymous with Kentucky and Kentucky is pure Big Blue.
PapaSop is from the other team…The wrong side of the tracks.

PapaSop said in And there shall be WAR!:

Fat_Bob
Only a matter of time. You as well… Surrender to the Orange side! Hmm. Something familiar about that.

Sounds like some vote counting after the polls closed

I do some trapping when pelts are prime. I always get 2-3 people a year with skunks who have taken up residency around their residence. Skunks are pretty easy to deal with and pretty calm unless a dog is around. My 1st warning if I’m going to trap around a residential building put your dog up or you’re not going to like the results, both to your dog and your neighborhood.
Skunk essence has value but every time I extract some, even though I wear gloves it will permeate them and also be in your clothes. My wife can tell I’ve been working with one as soon as I hit the door.

Austin

I’ll take a look at the tips a little later as I’m in the deer blind now. Trying to get a little more meat to can and make more sausage.
I found the lowest setting on our oven 180° to be higher than 180° so I propped the door open. I was able to maintain a pretty consistent temperature reading on my thermometer. I knew that most recipes call for a much lower cooking temp but at this time I don’t have a smoker. Hopefully that will come.
Thanks for you guidance.

Mulberrylane

I seem to have a problem going off topic but many prayers are headed your way.

We make sauerkraut and can’t imagine why anyone would not give it a try. We’ve tried both the old stone crock method and canning in individual jars. They are both good however everyone in our family seemed to prefer the crock method. That being said this years kraut didn’t turn out very well with our crock. One year, after our kraut fermented we froze half and canned half. There wasn’t any noticeable difference so we pretty much opted to go with canning. Mainly because living in a rural area if a major storm comes through you’re not as high priority as the larger metro areas. We’ve experienced a couple close calls with freezers. Those old jars that have been passed down from generation to generation don’t care about electricity.
Good Stuff!

smokinbubba
Sorry I didn’t mean to skip over you. I had to get clearances from Team Blue Police in order to have direct communications with a team orange. Just a jokin I wanted to cover 1 subject at a time. I’m seriously thinking of trying the sous vide method of finishing off my sausage. I might look it up on YouTube first and give a homemade rig a go first if not too complicated. Thanks for the info.

I’m pretty sure there is a shield however at 2-1/2 lbs if I hang them vertical the end is pretty close to the element.

processhead said in Summer sausage is there a stall?:

denny66 said in Summer sausage is there a stall?:

TexLaw

Give me more info please in case hardening or where I might find more info. Thanks

Case hardening is the term used to describe when the casing and a layer of surface meat dries and hardens too quickly early in the thermal processing cycle. When the case hardened layer forms, it interferes with the transfer of smoke flavor into the product and can interfere with the transfer of moisture out of the product that is needed for slow, controlled drying of the interior meat at the center of the casing.

Case hardening typically happens when the temperature in the smoker starts out too high and the humidity is to low, all of which dries the casing surface and the layer of meat just under the surface. This is why you usually see smoke schedules start out at low temps and are raised gradually over a period of time.

That maybe what’s happening to me. I know I start my temps out correct (by a calibrated thermometer)but every time I make SS I seem to develop a slight rind under the casing. Somewhat tougher and dryer in nature than the rest of the sausage. Probably slightly over 1/8” thick.
So it must come down to moisture in my smoker. I don’t have to ever add any water to my very small water pan. Maybe I need to try the sponge method shown in Jonathan’s video?

smokinbubba said in Summer sausage is there a stall?:

If you want a quick result. Bump temp up slow. When it gets to 130deg ,finish in sous vide. You will never experience a stall ever again and can get a good nights sleep to boot.

I don’t know if I can do something I can’t pronounce!!! Isn’t specialized (read expensive) equipment needed here?

TexLaw

Give me more info please in case hardening or where I might find more info. Thanks

processhead said in Summer sausage is there a stall?:

denny66

Smoker heating capacity can be a limiting factor in getting your product internal temperature steps to keep increasing.

You can confirm this by reducing the weight of the product in the smoker while monitoring any changes in your cooking cycle and whether your internal temperature continue to stall.

twilliams suggestions are all valid points as well.

What kind of smoker are you using? Electric, gas or other? If electric, what is the watt rating.

As I stated I’m only making 10-15# batches. I’m using one of the cheaper electric smokers. I have used two different methods of monitoring the temp in the smoker and comparing it with the digital settings on the smoker itself. One is an oven thermometer that I leave in the smoker and also I have used a maverick remote probe that has been tested accurate place in the smoker.

I keep my summer sausage batches small 10-15 lbs. due to sinker capacity. I use the 2 1/2” casing and limit them to just about 2.5-2.75 lb. each. I pretty much use the time/temp increase method demonstrated in the Waltons video. I hit a stall after reaching approximately 145-150°. After reaching this temp I’m thinking I’ve about got it but at this point it seems to reach a stall similar to cooking a pork butt. It then takes me upwards of 15 hrs to bring it to the 160-165°. Is this a normal timeframe?

PapaSop said in And there shall be WAR!:

Fat_Bob
Only a matter of time. You as well… Surrender to the Orange side! Hmm. Something familiar about that.

Sounds like some vote counting after the polls closed

Sure hate to keep repeating myself but it needs to be said. All my summer sausage to date has been from prepackaged mixes. Not that I’m unhappy with the premix seasoning but as I watch Jonathan’s videos he mentions ECA and the traditional “Tang” it brings to summer sausage. Do the prepackaged summer sausage mixes contain ECA. If not would I benefit by using it? I’m speaking about the taste of the finished product.

Getting my supplies ready to avoid the rush. Can I freeze hi-temp cheese? I bought enough to hopefully get me through season. I had some to mold one year trying to keep it a little too long and don’t want that to happen again. I know you can freeze other cheeses but didn’t know if it would cause any issues with hi-temp. Thanks