Jonathon I am definitely going to purchase and follow the steps you’ve post, thank you sir! Additionally, if anyone has recipes, please share. I’ll try them all and post what my family thought of each. Thank you all, this is a very cool and educational blog, glad I found it wish it was years ago! Thanks again.

twigg267 I’m sure you have farm auctions in your area. I think raising your own steer/bull/heifer is great from the stand point that your raising it so therefore you know exactly what’s going in it to produce the meat. I bottle fed these guys, weaned them, then raised them on corn and soybean meal along with hay and as much grass and acorns they could find. In addition, you are very aware of your animals health and well being. And the cost can be up there, but it’s your family’s meat. Now on the other hand, you don’t know how a animal was raised if you purchased from an auction. But if you don’t have the land, time, facilities then that’s the absolute best way of you getting bulk meat. I’m not sure if you can butcher yourself, but if you can, that’s even more savings. I’ve seen a 1200lbs steer sell at auction for $385 and it should of sold for $1000+. I may very well purchase a steer next year at auction grown out to 1200 lbs we will see. Any additional questions please ask, this entire Meatgistics is the coolest thing I’ve found, tons of knowledge in here. Merry Christmas.

Thank you Austin, I understand it now. I wish all the meat syringe companies would listen to their consumers. The reason I say that, is it’s extremely hard to find needles that can handle a thick marinade without clogging up. And the needle/draw off spike, has a large enough spout to handle but isn’t designed for that. I have a great injector but wanted to by this for speed of injecting. This should be fine with a bacon brine and we will soon find out as butcher weather is approaching. Thank you again Austin.

Jonathon hi I have 2-Stand up freezers and 1 large chest freezer. I package all ground sausage in Walton’s 2 lbs. sausage poly bags. For steaks, I wrap in freezer butcher paper, also from Walton’s and on occasion, I will vacuum seal steaks in my marinade sauce so it’s simple as pull out let it defrost and it self marinates until grill time (lazy day lol). I also butcher a couple Holstein bulls, they are about 1-year and as a matter of fact, they will be butchered tomorrow morning. I butcher at this age, because of several reasons, first and foremost, these bulls start acting like AxxHoles around this age, the meat will be extremely tender, and the size is more manageable. I think next year, I will simply buy a steer from auction instead of raising from bottle up to butcher time.

As you can see, the first picture, has a square base and connects to the injector perfectly. The second picture is the larger bore syringe (to inject thicker liquid/Italian dressing) However the connector base is rounded and not square, so it seems impossible to connect. Any help is appreciated since I literally just bought this from Walton’s and I couldn’t use it on my steak since it won’t connect. Thanks

I butcher several hogs per year. What your doing is literally called whole hog sausage. Yes, grind it all up together, awesome sausage. However, I mix in seasoning per 20 lbs batches, minus the cure, so it’s ready for wifey to cook with. For us, having 10-different flavored batches with also with regular ground sausage (no seasoning) is the way to go. Simple as defrost and cook, or during summer, stuff into castings for the grill. I’d also suggest taken out the tenderloins as well as the bellies for bacon, all of the rest sausage. Hope this helps, have fun!

I have the same problem, BUT, the larger syringe doesn’t have the same base to attach to the injector. Can someone please tell me how to attach the larger bore syringe since it’s a different base for connection? It doesn’t come with any additional parts and I’m dumbfounded on how to connect it.

Austin thank you, I appreciate it. With injecting, just inject like you would a steak? Also how long should it stay in the brine/pickle for best results? Would you also suggest adding some bacon booster and a little smoke powder? That’s what I’m thinking. Thx again.

I have a question for you all. I have made bacon with a salt rub and smoked for 5 hours until internal temp reached 138 degrees then I cooked in a pan. I did not like it as it was too salty, even though I placed in water for 30-minutes 2 times. Now I have ordered a brining buck and this year I’ll attempt the wet brining rather than a dry rub. My question is, does brining taste more like store bought than a salt rub? I have read that it does. Thanks in advance to any advice thx.