1st time bragging here but I wanted to thank Walton’s for some excellent sausage seasonings. I made close to 25 lbs. of sausage that were a hit with the family. I smoked some Walton’s Jalapeño summer sausage with Hi Temp hot pepper cheese. While the summer sausage was smoking I made some fresh Holly breakfast sausage, chorizo and Blue Ribbon brats with Hi Temp cheddar sausage.

Cured a 11lb. Pork belly for some bacon. Once the curing time was finished into the smoker for 8hrs. With hickory, Cherry and maple. Now it’s all sliced up, vac sealed and ready to fry up. Thanks for looking

Re: What did everyone cook today?Not sausage related but if you put breakfast sausage on them I guess it counts.I’ve been wanting to make these for awhile now and I finally got around to it. I made the dough and left it ferment at room temperature for 18 hrs. After the 18 hrs. the dough was rolled out to around 3/4 in. That small one was made out of the left over scraps. I then used a 3” muffin cutter to make the rounds. After the rounds were cut out they were left to rise for 45 min. They were pan cooked at medium heat in the pan with no fat applied to the pan just some semolina flour to give them that extra crunch. They were cooked for 6 min. on the 1st side until they were golden brown then flipped for another 3-4 min. until the other side was golden brown. Once they finished cooking I checked with a instant read thermometer to check they were done. Fork split and look at all those nooks and crannies. I toasted them and put butter and some fig jam I recently made. Very happy with the result but next time I will cold ferment them for an additional 24 hrs after the initial ferment to get some more sourdough like flavor. Thanks for looking.
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I bought this seasoning when it was 1st released just for Octoberfest. I finally got around to making it and it was worth the wait. I mixed the meat and seasonings with Guinness Stout instead of water and stuffed the farce in Walton’s 30-32mm pretubed casings. The flavor profile is a little hard to describe. The closest thing that comes to mind and it really is not that close would be think of a Blue Ribbon brat with a fermented flavor. My wife and I really enjoyed the flavor. I cooked a few on my Big Green Egg and my wife made some German potato salad along with a couple of pretzel rolls. Thanks for looking

Made some Jalapeño Summer Sausage for Christmas gifts and personal use this week. I used Excalibur’s Jalapeño summer sausage mix along with Walton’s Sure Gel, cheddar cheese and cure #1. Unfortunately I didn’t check my stock and I was out of ECA. I used 8 lbs. chuck trimmed off all hard fat, 4 lbs. pork butt and I added and additional 1 lb. of pork fat back. 1st grind through a 10mm plate followed by an additional grind through a 3mm plate. Once ground I used my 20lb. mixer to get protein extraction. Then they were stuffed into 2 1/2 x 12 fibrous casings and then put them into the refrigerator overnight for the cure to work. The next day they went into my PID modified electric smoker with a mailbox mod for my AMPS pellet tray. They were smoked at 120 no smoke for an hour then I bumped the temp up to 130 with Apple/hickory smoke. Remaining smoke schedule was 140 for and hr., 150 for an hr., then 160 until the internal temp hit 130. At the 130 mark they were removed from the smoker and placed in a 150 sous vide bath until the internal temp reached 150 Since I used pork in the mix I held the sausage in the sous vide bath for an addition hour to make sure the meat was pasteurize. After their sous vide bath they went for an ice bath plunge and were then hung up at room temp for 2 hrs. to bloom. I was very happy with the result but all recipients loved them.
Thanks to Walton’s for all their excellent products, tutorials and Livestreams.

Re: What did everyone cook today?It’s the end of the season so what to do with all those left over green and red cherry tomatoes? Over the weekend I made Hot Pickled Cherry Tomatoes. While they are canned and ready to eat they really need to be left alone at least 2-4 weeks with 4 weeks being the sweet spot. I will post the recipe in the user recipe section. Thanks for looking

There is nothing like pork wrapped in pork. Recently I made a pork loin stuffed with Blue Ribbon brats. I took my boning knife and a 12” carving Carving knife to make the hole length wise in the pork loin for the sausage. I cooked my brats first to make sure the pork loin would not be over cooked while waiting for the brats to come to a safe temp. Once the brats cooled off I stuffed them into the pork loin and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I then tied up the pork loin and smoked it on my Big Green Egg. Once the internal temp of the brats reached 150 I pulled it off a let it rest for a few minutes. I sliced it up and served along with my homemade sourdough rye bread. It was a big hit with the family!

After watching all of Jonathon’s tender jerky videos I decided to give it a go. But before I go on I need to explain the topic heading. In reference to the last time in the heading, this will be the last time I make my jerky the old way I used to make it. The tender jerky was a Grand Slam! The jerky was the best I’ve ever made it. It was tender, flavorful and a bit hit with the family. I started out with 6 lbs. of eye round and after marinating and smoking I wound up with 4. lbs 6 oz. of the best jerky I’ve made. I did make one change to Jonathon’s method that I think really works well. The total weight of the meat was 2,746 Kg. I did 18% low sodium soy (496 grams) and 18% brown sugar 495 grams) with 2% water (55 grams) . I treated this mixture the same way I would as if making a simple syrup. The day before I started to make the jerky I combined the soy, brown sugar and water and weighed it. I then heated it to a low simmer and kept stirring until I had what I would call a nice cohesion. After everything was combined I weighed it again and added water to repl ace whatever water loss I had during the simmering process. This was then put in the fridge overnight to get nice and cold. The next day there were not sugar crystals on the bottom. I sliced the partially frozen meat against the grain into 1/4 inch strips using my Walton’s slicer. The meat was then cut in half to make nice size edible pieces. I took the soy/brown sugar syrup and added Walton’s pepper and garlic jerky seasoning as a base flavor along with 2 TBS. of garlic power, 4 tsp. of cayenne pepper and the proper amount of cure #1. The meat and the mixture was placed into a Marinade Express Pro and vacuumed tumbled for 60 min. and then placed into the fridge. The next day I opened the vacuum tumbler and hand tossed the meat in the tumbler and then vacuumed tumbled it again for another 60 min. The following day when I smoked the jerky as my smoker was coming up to temp I opened the tumbler again, mixed the meat by hand and did a final 20 min. tumble. I followed the smoke schedule that’s listed in the Waltons Tender home jerky post.

As stated I started out with 2.755 Kg (6 lbs.) of meat and with all the tumbling I wound up with a total meat weight of 3.828Kg (there was very little fluid left in the tumbler). After the smoking process I was left with 2.106 Kg or 4 lbs. 6 oz. of jerky. That to me is incredible.

A big shout out of appreciation to Jonathon and Walton’s for not only their excellent products but also for sharing their knowledge and also for this awesome community.

Bruce 0 said in Bacons done:

Would you mind listing how you did your bacon on the f***m here so that I could copy that it looked awfully good to me and I’d like to try it for the first time I have never done bacon

Bruce-0, We are back from our little vacation and as promised this is how I made the bacon.

To figure out the amount of cure, salt and sugar I use this cure calculator
http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html
You just enter the weight of the meat and the calculator gives you the correct amount of cure needed. I usually buy a whole pork belly (around 11-12 lbs. and I cut it in 1/2. I weigh each piece and then use the calculator. I change the amount of salt on the calculator from 2% to 3% (personal preference) . I also change the amount of sugar from 1% to 3% (again personal preference). When I get the amount of sugar needed I weigh 1/2 of the amount needed and use regular sugar and the remaining 1/2 of the sugar weight I use maple sugar (not maple syrup). Once I have all the ingredients weighed I mix them throughly. I then lightly coat the pork belly with maple syrup and I then evenly apply the cure mixture to both side of the pork belly including the sides. It should be noted that the pork belly I use does not have the skin on. If the pork belly you use has the skin on then I would put the majority of the mixture on the skin side and just lightly coat the skin side as the cure has a hard time penetrating the skin. Once I have coated the pork belly with the cure mixture I apply a heavy dose of coarse black pepper and then another coating of maple syrup to the pork belly. Once the pork belly is fully coated in place it into a large zip lock bag and I then place that bag into another zip lock bag to prevent any leakage if the first bag should leak.
The bags are then placed into the fridge in a tray for 14 days. Most web sites state 7-10 days but I do it for 14. I flip the bags every 3 days making sure that whatever liquid is in the bag stays around the meat.
After 14 days I remove the pork belly from the bag and thoroughly rinse off the cure mixture. Once the cure is rinsed off I pat it dry and apply a coat of black pepper. I then place the pork belly on a wire rack in a tray and then I put it back into the fridge over night to dry.
The next day I start my smoker at 100 degrees and hang my pork belly in the smoker to dry for an hour. After the hour has passed I bump up the temperature to 130 with what ever wood I want to use. I use a mix of apple and hickory. After 2 hours I bump up the temperature to 160 and let the pork belly cook until the internal temperature of the pork belly is 145.
When the pork belly reaches 145 degrees I remove it from the smoker and place it on a wire rack to cool down at room temperature. Once the pork belly is cool I wrap it in plastic wrap and place it back in the fridge for a day or two to let the smoke do it’s thing. Something of note if the pork belly you used has the skin on it now is the time to remove it. It’s much easier to cut the skin off when the pork belly is warm then it is when cold.
After it’s been in the fridge for the day or two I slice it up and package it into 1lb. batches.
I know this is a long post but I wanted to give you the whole process. I hope this helps you. I will also post this in the recipe section so it’s easy to find. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Austin said in Meatgisitcs Podcast: Full of Flavor:

PapaSop I wish! They were on sale this weekend 10 for $10 at my local grocery store! I about died with excitement filling up the shopping cart! Haha!

Austin, just make your own pizza. Make your dough, let it cold ferment for 72hrs. Put on whatever toppings you want. Bake and eat. Here are a few of my recent pizzas, margarita, potato, Detroit and a pistachio truffle oil pizza.

@dennyo said in Bacons done:

John Belvedere John, what slicer do you have that you can slice bacon the whole width in one motion?

I just finished my 2nd batch of 25ish pounds of bacon and I have to cut them in half. 50 pounds of bacon in the last 5 weeks and I only have 5 pounds for my self lol.

DannyO, sport it took so long to get back on your question. I do the same thing Papa Sop does. I remove the plastic guard and hand feed being REAL careful. The slicer I have is the Walton’s 10” slicer.

Dr. Pain, I can not even imagine what you have gone through. I’m so glad that you have a brighter path forward. Hopefully your story will encourage others to get a colonoscopy even though they are feeling good. You are very blessed and a man of many riches having a wife that truly loves you. Get well soon my Meatgistics brother.

Thank you all for all your well wishes

Happy, Healthy and Safe New Years everyone. Unfortunately my wife and I are currently plowing our way through Covid. So far not to bad. Thanks for the shout out on the top posts. I’ve been very busy but one of my resolutions is to be way more active.

Congratulations on your beautiful daughter. A very early Christmas present.

So sorry to hear about Dr. Pain. My families prayers go out to him.

wdpd57 said in Dough hook?:

I’m just making fresh sausage at this point, usually 15 lb or less at a time. Thanks for the idea about the paddle, I thought it might be too much. I think I will try before investing in a meat mixer.

I’ve only KitchenAid for a few small batches. Any time I have a larger batch (10-20 lbs.) I use a meat mixer. If you break up your 15 lb. batch into 2-3 batches and mix them in your KitchenAid you will still need to mix them all together to make sure you have the proper disbursement of spices in the 15 lbs. if you are doing 15 lbs. at a time I would highly recommend a meat mixer. Small batch KitchenAid, Large batch meat mixer.

I have used my KitchenAid mixer a few times doing 5-8 lbs. of meat. The bowl on the mixer I have has a 6 qt. capacity. When I used it to mix meat I used the paddle not the dough hook and I’ve had good results. Like you stated in your question it was on a slow speed.

HerbcoFood said in Pork Belly Prices...:

My local Sam’s is about as clean as a dirty Wal-Mart, it’s also a pain in the butt to get to.

The one and only Sams Club on Long Island while close to me is also not very good. Costco and BJ’s are all over the place here. We have 3 Costcos within 10 miles of each other and the same with BJ’s. I’m a member of Costco & BJ’s. While both are very similar there are enough differences to warrant both memberships.

I was at a local Long Island NY Costco today. Pork bellies were $3.99 a lb. I much as I wanted to to pick up one I was buying a 19lb. Prime packer brisket at $4.99 a lb.Currently I have 1/2 a pork belly defrosting to make pork belly burnt ends this Sunday, stay tuned.