Recently retired farmer/rancher (also from ND). New to Meatgistics looking for new and better ways to consume the products I’ve raised for the last 50 years.

rescuefoot Milnor, down in the SE corner. If you’ve seen a Bobcat it was made 8 miles from here. I did live in Drake for a year which was 40 miles from Minot.

RON PARRISH Where do you work and are there any openings?

IMHO the biggest reason for adding water is to soften your meat block to facilitate easier stuffing.

Dr_Pain I would rather eat the can! However, out of the garden, the freezer or pickled is a whole other matter.

Cure begins working the minute you mix it in the meat(stopping bacteria growth). It takes 24 hours to take full effect unless you add citric acid. As long as the cure is done by the time you put the finished product in the ice bath you are good to go. Do not use non encapsulated acid in your mix! You will not be happy. It changes the Protein extraction and makes the sausage crumbly, may cause fat out and affects the absorption of smoke. I use ECA to give summer sausage more tang and since I have the time let it sit overnight in the cooler, add the ECA in the morning, stuff and smoke.

RON PARRISH Where do you work and are there any openings?

My garden is just poking out of the pots in the barn! Still freezing most nights in ND. Infact, some areas still have about a foot of snow!

The 10% of a10% pump means you inject 10% of the weight of the meat block into the meat not the concentration of the solution. Your mix calculations are to get enough nitrate in the solution so that it gets the right amount of nitrate in the meat. Has nothing to do with 10%.

SupplySergeant Don’t look at it like that. If you had another $250 it probably would have sold for $1000.

It sure does explain a lot!

Dr_Pain I would rather eat the can! However, out of the garden, the freezer or pickled is a whole other matter.

It makes for way too good a dog food to put in anything to eat myself!

Prayers for Dr Pain and family

Does an excellent job! Used on individual mussel so I could remove all fat. It does tend to be a little dryer for that reason.

I remember my dad caponizing back when I was 5 or 6. Back then we got laying chickens which were generally a smaller breed and the roosters were small and gangly. By caponizing they grew bigger and fatter and more desirable to eat. He had a special electric tool that burned “them” off. But since they are located next to the aorta it was a delicate operation. (We usually ate chicken on caponizing day!) The newer meat breeds now days eliminate the need to caponize.