I recently added to my @Cast-Iron portfolio (Wagner #5, #6, #8, and #9 griddle are “new”) so I decided to use some of them alongside the stone for tonight’s homemade bread sticks and pizza (homemade dough and sauce using up the rest of last year’s tomatoes).

Smoked some country ribs (shoulder cut) and made cast iron corn bread and fridge pickles from our first cucumber crop of the season.

Pounded out some pork loin nice and thin, dredged it in seasoned flour then panko, and fried it up. Even the picky kids couldn’t say no!

I had the hankering to do something meat related but I didn’t feel like hauling out all the equipment. So I thawed out 1 lb of (straight) venison and made up some restructured jerky with a jerky gun. I haven’t made that in many years, and certainly not since learning about protein extraction. Smoked it up on the Pit Boss. It came out pretty darned good. I’ve never had restructured jerky like this.

That’s quite the spread Tex_77!

Used Pa’s Black Bull (soluble) for the first time today. Injected a deer loin and roasted it. Also did a butcher tie on the roast, I’d never done that before. It was a lot easier than I figured it would be. My 10yo actually cooked it (and some sides). Trying to get her practiced up in the kitchen.

I ground, mixed up, and stuffed 25 lbs of Jerry’s Brat (50/50 venison and pork shoulder).

While I had the grinder and stuffer out, I did a little experiment. Again with a 50/50 mix of deer and pork shoulder, I made some sticks using the Sweet Maple Bacon snack stick seasoning and the 26mm cellulose casings. The first time I’ve used either of those things. The skinless aspect is interesting, I just wish they were available for the home producer (small pack size) in other diameters. The flavor is good, but not something I’d make frequently. I did enjoy one with breakfast though. Might make a good hunting breakfast.

Nothing fancy, just some venison/pork Jerry’s brats in collagen.

Homemade venison corned “beef”, taters and gravy, carrots, and asparagus. Though none of that green stuff for me (gross!)

Finally got a shot with my youngest “future Meatgistics member” sporting our gear. Maybe I should get his username reserved…

Thanks again Austin

Just finished processing 3 deer, much of which is now sausage (as will more become later on in the year). I mixed up 25 lbs of cured & smoked Polish along with 25 lbs of summer sausage. I used high temp cheddar in half of the summer. A bit of the summer “extras” got stuffed into 19mm sticks casings. It all came out amazing.

I’ve gotta give a big “thank you” to the Meatgistics community as well as Austin & Jon for all of the excellent information. Last year’s summer sausage was easily the worst I’ve ever made: crumbly, water-logged, wrinkly… I did everything wrong. After spending hours pouring over posts and videos here, I produced my best-ever sausages. It’s only been a couple days and a lot of it has disappeared already!

benj11317

1. I’ve used a KitchenAid mixer to do around 3 lb batches before. You might be able to get away with 5 lbs, or you could split it and do 2 rounds in the mixer. It seemed to work out pretty well for the small batch.
2. I think it’s technically possible, but you’re much more likely to not mix enough. Just watch a few of the Walton’s YouTube videos on cured sausages and watch how sticky and stretchy it looks when properly mixed.
3. I’ve never tried with charcoal before. I use my pellet grill which doesn’t control down to 145 either. I put a thermometer in there and prop the lid open slightly. I watch it pretty closely for the first hour or so and fiddle with the lid to try and keep temps in the right range. After that you can slowly bring it up a bit higher to finish off the smoke. You just don’t want to be too hot or you’ll run into things like case hardening, fat out (the fat liquifies and runs all over, especially if good protein extraction wasn’t achieved), and of course the outside being done before the inside.

Take it slow and enjoy your first batch! Don’t get frustrated if things don’t go perfectly. Just check back in and let us know how it went. Cured sausages can take a little bit of practice, but are definitely worth it!

Smoked some country ribs (shoulder cut) and made cast iron corn bread and fridge pickles from our first cucumber crop of the season.

bocephus
Our pizza dough is pretty standard stuff. Mix, let rise, punch down, let rise again, and then form into crusts. We usually triple it.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/8 tsp yeast
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup warm water
1 tbsp oil

And for the pizza sauce… here it is. The addition of fennel certainly gives it a distinctive taste. We typically use our homegrown tomatoes instead of canned.

I recently added to my @Cast-Iron portfolio (Wagner #5, #6, #8, and #9 griddle are “new”) so I decided to use some of them alongside the stone for tonight’s homemade bread sticks and pizza (homemade dough and sauce using up the rest of last year’s tomatoes).

I’ve seen them at the grocery store cut from the loin. Don’t do it! I’m mean, not that the extra-lean pork loin meat is a bad thing, but it’s nothing like a “rib”.

Sometimes I find them pre-cut from the shoulder, sometimes I’ll cut my own. I usually cook mine using the 3-2-1 method like you’d do ribs and they turn out amazing.

Nicely done Grimpuppy! And thanks for documenting your process.

I’ve got a bunch of the 26mm cellulose sitting around that I’ve done a couple things with. I might have a to make some dogs. Or perhaps some small-diameter cured/smoked/skinless brats. Been thinking about that for a while… it’d probably be similar to hotdogs, just not emulsified and different seasoning. Any of you guys have experience doing that? I’m thinking something like these (which say they have a collagen casing, but I’m thinking of trying with cellulose).

Jonesy said in What did everyone cook today?:

WHAT? You can put potato wedges right on the grill? Anything special you have to do to them first? Soak’em? Coat’em?? I’m planning some burgers with bacon seasoning & ht cheddar, along with grilled corn on the cob for Monday. Supplies just got here today. I’m super excited. Now I’m adding wedges. They look great tex_77.

I’m no Tex_77, but I do potato chunks on the grill fairly often. I usually toss mine in some olive oil and kosher salt first. I’ll use a non-stick grill mat (or a grill basket would work) to ensure there are no casualties.

@dennyo said in What did everyone cook today?:

Ok, I received an error for all three pics, 4.39MB, 5.66MB, 4.9MB. Does this site have a limit and no auto resize?

I don’t know if there’s a limit but I’ve run into that before. So now I always resize them before uploading and they always upload fine. On Android I use LitPhoto. Not sure if you’re using that or iOS but I would imagine there are similar apps available.

Homemade venison corned “beef”, taters and gravy, carrots, and asparagus. Though none of that green stuff for me (gross!)

Rubbed up some skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs and cooked 'em hot and fast on the Pit Boss. It was hard to stop stuffing my face.