GWG8541

Being retired law enforcement myself, I totally understand your POST. Your POST caused me to go downstairs into my ‘Cave’ and take a look at the display I made for all the Challenge Coins I collected over the years. For I long time I just held these ‘memories’ in a dresser drawer but always seemed to be getting in to them…

I decided a few years back that I wanted them out where I could SEE them and share them with friends, so I (again) designed my own Display… it was a little bit of ‘fine’ work, but I like how it turned out. I have it hanging from the ceiling now. My boys I hope fight over it when I’m gone…

So, if you haven’t already, do yourself a huge favor and pull all those coins & trinkets out and display them proudly… the memories are worth the effort.

Ok everyone if you were wondering, yes; I actually did make my first batch of Summer Sausage yesterday! It was a long day. I started at 6:30am and had the SS in the refrigerator for its ‘over-nighter’ at about 9:30pm. Guess I won’t get that ‘speed’ award.

Here’s what I can tell everyone… you were right! Everything that I did at the suggesting of many of you worked out as expected. Yes, I am very pleased with what I was able to get done yesterday. By the way, my smoker upgrade worked CRAZY GOOD!

I got up this morning and decided to ‘sacrifice’ my little ‘chub’ (is that what a stick of SS is known as?). It tastes great! My first go at this appears to have been a success! Thanks for everyones’ help… and especially John for getting me that ‘binder’!

Ok… here are some pics from my day yesterday and up to this morning. I cut all the ‘chubs’ in half now and when I am done with this message, I will go out and seal my SS for freezing.

One last thing before the pics… what you guys FAILED to tell me was that when it comes to the mixing process and getting to ‘High Protein Extraction’, a guy better be ready for a ‘Work Out’! Holy Cow… My arms looked like Popeye’s when I was done.

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Hey everyone,

I found these USDA ‘Charts/Tables’ as I was doing some research with respect as to how long to Sous Vide ‘cook’ my Summer Sausage after ‘smoking’… just thought maybe someone else out there may find some useful information in these as well. You’ll notice that I ‘bolded’ the ‘65mm’ section… 65mm was just perfect for the 2-1/2" fibrous casings I use.

Later

Pasteurization Time for Meat (Beef, Pork, and Lamb)
(starting at 41°F / 5°C and put in a 131–151°F / 55–66°C water bath)
Table 5.1: Time required to reduce Listeria by at least a million to one, Salmonella by at least three million to one, and E. coli by at least a hundred thousand to one in thawed meat.

Retired157

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johnsbrewhouse

Hey John… check out my 'Home away from Home. Built this myself while I was on the department in anticipation of ‘hunting’ my retirement away. I have 20 acres that borders National Forest… remote! She operates on Solar & Propane. In the spring & summer, it’s a 45 minute drive from town. Winter access as you can see requires ‘tracks’ but it’s a hell of a lot more fun getting there!

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ND Mike

Thanks! Stay Safe! I did 8yrs in the Air Force, 24yrs with the GFPD, and about 10yrs as an investigator with the state… Retirement is the best gig I’ve had.

Hey everyone, it has been just a little since I’ve been here. The last time I was here I received LOTS of good information from everyone with respect to me beginning my Summer Sausage ‘making’. One of the pieces of advice that I received was a piece of equipment… a PID. Now, I knew nothing about a PID and am no electrician but I began doing a bit of internet research and am happy to report… I learned something. So, I jumped into this ‘Smoker Upgrade’ full bore! I now have my Smoker fully equipped with all the bells & whistles. Additionally, I, after reading all the comments about the benefits of using a Sous Vide cooker, I also followed that lead. Here are some pics of what I have been up to and how I actually got to this point… the point where I should simply get to making some Summer Sausage!

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craigrice

Nope… no dogs; just a four leg’ed son! lol

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ND Mike

Hey Mike… I’m a retired cop & veteran.

johnsbrewhouse

Ok John… as I sit here waiting on the mailman, I’ve been getting things laid out in the garage and running around town a little. Here’s my ‘stuff’ as I prepare for the big day tomorrow.

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Just trying to make sure that everything I will need is out where I can get to it. I have all the grinder parts in the freezer so they’ll be cold. Do I lube them before the freezer trick or after… ?

I’ve got all my meat out and thawing. I’ll watch it as the day goes on and put it in the refrigerator before it completely thaws… trying to keep it frosty.

Got my wood, Hickory, ready for the smoker when the time comes. I’m going to use those ‘disposable’ baking pans for water/humidity for the smoker. Went and got a couple of sponges to aid in the evaporation process; even ‘equipped’ them with two ‘wicks’ each… just thought it might help keeping that ‘upward’ draw. Here’s a pic…

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Yes; I even made myself a ‘fake’ SS… just trying to get the ‘fit’ right both here in the smoker and also my Sous Vide cooler cooker.

Just about ready to measure/weigh out my spices & additive’s. I have to run back to the store and grab two bags of ice; forgot that as I was out but hey, I did remember the beer!

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If you think I’m missing anything, speak up now or forever hold your beer!

processhead It sure helps me… a beginner!

@dennyo The light is (just) a visual confirmation that everything is working. So, when the PID decides that ‘power’ is needed and turns on that power to the heating element of the smoker, the light bulb comes on. Is this really needed… maybe not. I will tell you that after doing this upgrade to my smoker and making my first batch of SS, I found being able to (see) all the parts & pieces as they were working was actually very interesting. Not only could I see how long the PID was directing power to the heating element, I could see ‘how long’ the power was being applied. Would I wire my smoker upgrade this way if I were to do it again… YEP! I really like that visual (understanding) confirmation.

Hope that helps. Just so you know, you do have to separate the two ‘sockets’ of the outlet itself to make this work. My upper socket of the outlet is wired with the PID so as to ONLY have a power supply when the PID itself directs power to the heating element. My lower socket of the outlet is simply ‘powered on’ (constant) when I plug my smoker in.

mrobisr

Well son of a gun… Grimpuppy came up with the same solution as I did! Here I thought I was being ‘original’. lol I actually took four racks (just like what GP has shown there) and using some stainless steel threaded rod (washers & nuts), built a ‘3-tier’ holding rack. It’s basically ‘fit to size’ and my SS will no longer be able to escape and roam around. Each level will/can hold three SS’s but given the limits of my smoker, I can only make six SS’s per run/time. So, I can easily get two SS’s per level… allowing for LOTS room between/around each SS for water circulation. I know, I know… overkill!

The 10"x15" cooling racks fit perfectly in my SV cooler-cooker… no modifications required. Can’t wait to give it a go!

Glad to see I’m not the only one, lol. I guess what I found out to be the most difficult part of doing the SV process with my SS was not so much the ‘should I or should I not’ cover it before putting it in the water, but the ‘HOW’ do you get those suckers submerged in the water AND under control during the SV cooking process… that truly was like herding cats! I THOUGHT I had designed a way to get it done but quickly realized that my SS was having no part of it… those suckers had a mind of their own! So, I had to make some ‘on the fly’ adjustments and I did manage through. Since then, I have come up with another (simple) solution; one that I think will absolutely get the trick done. When I do my second batch of SS here in the not to distant future, I will take some pics to show everyone what I designed… think’n I have this ‘cat’ issued figured out!

Call me ‘cheap’ if you want to, but I didn’t want to waste any of my vacuum bags… so, I just wrapped my SS with Saran Wrap before placing them in the SV cooker. The Saran Wrap worked perfectly in keeping my SS ‘dry’.

GWG8541

Being retired law enforcement myself, I totally understand your POST. Your POST caused me to go downstairs into my ‘Cave’ and take a look at the display I made for all the Challenge Coins I collected over the years. For I long time I just held these ‘memories’ in a dresser drawer but always seemed to be getting in to them…

I decided a few years back that I wanted them out where I could SEE them and share them with friends, so I (again) designed my own Display… it was a little bit of ‘fine’ work, but I like how it turned out. I have it hanging from the ceiling now. My boys I hope fight over it when I’m gone…

So, if you haven’t already, do yourself a huge favor and pull all those coins & trinkets out and display them proudly… the memories are worth the effort.

@bmartin1000

Hey, I looked that thing up; pretty slick. If there’s one thing I am learning from this f***m it’s this… there’s no end to all the ‘toys’ we ‘smokers’ can collect! It’s like walking into the back of that Snap-On tool truck for the first time and realizing… Dang, I’m going to need a bigger tool box!

Hey everyone,

I found these USDA ‘Charts/Tables’ as I was doing some research with respect as to how long to Sous Vide ‘cook’ my Summer Sausage after ‘smoking’… just thought maybe someone else out there may find some useful information in these as well. You’ll notice that I ‘bolded’ the ‘65mm’ section… 65mm was just perfect for the 2-1/2" fibrous casings I use.

Later

Pasteurization Time for Meat (Beef, Pork, and Lamb)
(starting at 41°F / 5°C and put in a 131–151°F / 55–66°C water bath)
Table 5.1: Time required to reduce Listeria by at least a million to one, Salmonella by at least three million to one, and E. coli by at least a hundred thousand to one in thawed meat.

Jonathon

Hey guys… I for was having one heck of a time with suppling pics to my POSTS for quite a while. Then, ‘someone’, and I forget just who it was, identified ‘the problem’… it was my iPhone and the way ‘Apple’ chooses to ‘optimize’ the pics. He directed me to the solution…

Go into your ‘Settings’…
Go to ‘Camera’…
Go to ‘Format’…
Then change from Apple’s ‘High Efficiency’ setting to the ‘Most Compatible’ setting

After making this very simple change, I have had absolutely NO issues at all in up loading any ‘new’ pics I take with my phone and placing them in a POST.

I will tell you that I upload pics one at a time JUST so as not to overwhelm whatever these ‘server brains’ (something I have no knowledge about nor do I want to even understand) can handle.

I hope this might help you and anyone else out there using iPhones…

Thank You again to whoever it was that ‘figured’ out this solution!

Keep Up the good work…

Gmoran

Perfect!