Subcategories

• Seasonings and Additives

  Learn the science behind why, when and how to use different seasonings & additives to make the best product you can.

  
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  Seasoning & Additives: 202 High Temp Cheese Attend this intermediate level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Why Use High Temp Cheese? Cheese is a great addition to meat snacks like Snack Sticks, Bratwurst or Summer Sausage. The advantage of Hi Temp Cheese over other cheeses is that it is designed to hold its form through the cooking process. It’s important to remember that Hi-Temp Cheese is still cheese, it is just processed in a different way. So, it needs to be stored in a fridge under 40°, if it is stored like that it will have a shelf life of 60 days but it can be frozen to extend that to 12-18 months. Hi-Temp Cheese will hold its form when heated up to 400°, most cheeses start melting between 130 to 180 degrees. Recommended Amount Walton’s recommends that you use 1 lb of the high temp cheese of your choice to 10 lb of meat. Some like it cheesier some not so cheesy but 1 -10 lb is a good starting point. These are cut into 1/4 inch chunks so they will fit through almost any stuffing tube, meaning you can use them in even the smaller sized snack sticks. Choosing The Right Cheese A couple of words on choosing the right cheese, if you are making something with a subtle or classic taste you are probably better off choosing the Cheddar, Swiss or Mozzarella. If you are making something with a stronger taste then you might want to try the hot pepper or the ghost pepper. Now, an important note about the Ghost Pepper, this is not like the hot pepper cheese that just has a little pepper taste, this stuff has a lot of heat behind it! We carry Hi-Temp Cheddar, Hot Pepper, Swiss, Mozzarella, and Ghost Pepper Cheese and they all come in 1 or 5 lb bags. Shop waltonsinc.com for High Temp Cheese Shop waltonsinc.com for Additives
• Fresh Sausage

  Learn the science behind why, when and how to use different seasonings & additives to make the best product you can.

  
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  @Crawrugger Fat is key for flavor and texture!
• Cured Sausage

  Learn about the equipment, casings and processes necessary to make Snack Sticks, Summer Sausage and Smoked Sausage and then watch as we go over how to process each type step by step.

  
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  @Shegge Yeah, I think I have to go back through these and put a foot note that explains the amount of the seasoning I used for each batch. I listed them that way because it was things you would need to make it, almost like supplies…it makes sense in my head! You are correct though, a full bag of Willies Snack Stick Seasoning will season 25 lb of meat.
• Jerky

  Learn about the equipment, best cuts of meat to use and seasonings and additives to use to make jerky.

  
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  Jerky 101 - What Is Jerky? Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! What is Jerky? Jerky is a meat product that has been processed, seasoned, cured and then cooked or dried. Drying and curing meat is one of the oldest ways to preserve meat and has been around for 1,000s of years. It is typically made from low-fat content pieces of meat or has had the fat trimmed off. Jerky should still be cooked up to 160°F internal temperature to kill off harmful bacteria. Types of Jerky Whole Muscle - Whole muscle is jerky that has been sliced into strips between 1/8" and 1/4" inch then coated on all sides with a mixture of the seasoning and the cure. Once that is done it will be placed in a plastic bag with just enough water to cover all the strips and held in a refrigerator for 12 hours and then cooked and or dehydrated. The advantages of this type of jerky are that it is easy to do and you need minimal equipment. Restructured Jerky - This is a form of jerky that has been ground up, seasoned and cured and then extruded into strips or sticks. The jerky is then cooked and or dehydrated to form the classic jerky structure. The advantage of this type of jerky is that you can control what form the jerky takes and that you can use more of the animal as you don’t need to start with a whole muscle cut of meat. Water activity A key part of making jerky is lowering the water activity. A simple explanation of water activity is that it represents the amount of water in a product that is free to be used for microbial growth. A product can have some moisture to it but most of that water is bound up with the meat, or sugar and mold or other microbes cannot access it to begin spoiling the meat. Cure You might hear some people say that Jerky does not need to be cured as it is going to be dried out. However, the meat will not start out at that level of dryness and since we are cooking this at low temperatures we are creating an environment that is ideal for the growth of botulism, so cure should be used for safety reasons. Think of it as a seat belt, your car will start without it but it’s not a great idea to ride around town without it on! Smoking/Dehydrating We do not recommend that you use only a dehydrator unless that dehydrator can run at 160 or above. The reason for this is if you dehydrate the meat before killing off the bacteria you have made that bacteria much harder to kill. In essence, you need some moisture to kill the bad bacteria. Storage If you have a way to measure water activity and it is below .85 then you do not really need to vacuum package it and it can be left out, now, there are other factors here but it is a good general rule. However, since most people do not have a way to monitor this you should still either put it in an airtight container and store it in the fridge or vacuum package it. Shop waltonsinc.com for Jerky Seasonings Shop waltonsinc.com for Vertical Smokers Shop waltonsinc.com for Weston Dehydrator 160L Pro Series
• Sausage Casings

  Learn how to choose the correct casings for your sausage, how to prepare it for use and the advantages and disadvantages of each type.

  
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  @Faith-Fellowship If you want to parboil you should use Natural Casings as collagen casings generally wont stand up to being boiled. You might also want to think about using a cellulose casing that is inedible, it will give you a skinless product at the end but it is good for cooking. If you vacuum pack them first and then par boil them (Sous Vide style cooking) then you can use Collagen, Natural or Cellulose.
• Deli Meats

  Learn about common additives, choosing safe deli meat from the store and how to process your own deli meat at home.

  
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  Deli Meats 104 - Basics For Making Fresh Deli Meats Attend this entry-level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! What Is Deli Meat? Deli meat can be made a few different ways, it can be fresh, which will be a whole muscle cut that has been cooked and then sliced like a roast or some turkey. Or it can be reformed from smaller cuts or even an emulsified product that is then sliced and sold by weight for sandwiches and subs. Meat Block Eye of the Round 1 Bag of Soluble Pa’s Black Bull BBQ Soluble Seasoning Equipment Walton’s Automatic Syringe Injector Process The first thing you need to do is decide if you want to remove the fat cap before or after you cook this. I like to remove it first when making deli meat. Cut off as much of the fat as you can without cutting too far into the meat. Remove any silver skin or membrane still attached to the meat. Choose a marinade that includes phosphates of some sort, phosphates allow the meat to retain more moisture through the cooking process and since we aren’t going to cure this we can’t step it up in slow stages so moisture loss can be a major problem. Mix your seasoning into your water, making sure everything is fully dissolved. Inject your meat evenly with as much of the seasoning as the meat will accept. You will know that your meat is fully seasoned when the marinade start shooting back out the injection holes. Vacuum Sealing Hold the product overnight (or at least for a few hours) to allow the seasoning to more evenly disperse in the meat. My favorite way to do this is to put the meat in a vacuum bag and seal it. It does not need to be a perfect vacuum, simply remove as much of the air as you can from the bag, this will allow more of the marinade to stay inside the meat and will keep anything that leaks out to stay in contact with the meat, adding to the flavor. Topical Seasoning Before you put your meat in the smoker or oven you might want to rub the outside with an additional seasoning. I like to try to choose something that will either compliment the marinade I used or something that will juxtapose it strongly enough to be easily noticebale. Rub as much as you want on the outside of the meat, since we are going to slice this so thin and this seasoning will only stay on the outside it is almost impossible to overseason a topical rub when making deli meat. Note The cook schedule will be very simple for this type of meat. If you are using a smoker an important decision is to add smoke or not. When I made this I used our PK-100 Smoker but did not add any additional smoke to it. Thermal Processing & Smoking 225° until the internal temperature is 132° Cooling Remove from the smoker and cover in tin foil for at least 20 minutes. This will continue the cooking process for a few minutes and let the juice and blood absorb back into the meat. If you slice it too soon the juice will leak right out of the meat. Slicing For sandwiches, it is preferable to slice your meat as thin as you can. This will depend on your slicer, trying to slice at the thinnest setting might not give you full pieces, select the lowest setting you can that will still produce full slices. Wrap up Making homemade Fresh Deli Meat is really very simple. You have probably made roasts in the oven before and this is the same process, just make sure you are marinating with a seasoning that contains phosphates and you slice it as thin as you can. Additional Tips If your preferred seasoning does not contain phosphates you can add some to the marinade to increase the water holding capacity of the meat, just make sure you do not exceed a usage of 2 oz per 25 lb of meat or you might get a soapy taste to your meat. Other Notes An important note is that once we have sliced it we have exposed the entire area to bacteria, this means we need to treat it like a ground product now and it needs to be refrigerated and consumed within 3-5 days. Watch WaltonsTV: Deli Meats 104 - Basics For Making Fresh Deli Meats Shop waltonsinc.com for Bratwurst Seasoning Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives
• Smoked Meats

  Learn about different types of smokers, using different varieties of wood and best practices for smoking your own meat at home.

  
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  Smoked Meats 104 Smoked Pork Loin Attend this entry-level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! What Is Tenderloin? One of the easiest and most common things to be smoked at home is a pork tenderloin. They are readily available at almost any grocery store or supermarket and they are easy to get right. The fact that it is a tenderloin means it is the psoas major muscle, which is it is a muscle that runs along the spine. They are tender as they aren’t a heavily used muscle like the chest or leg would be. Meat Block 3 lb of Pork Tenderloin 1 Shaker of Pork Roast with Apple Cinnamon and Butter 1 Shaker of Apple Sweet and Sassy Rump Rub Equipment Walton’s Automatic Syringe Injector Grilleye Pro Plus Process The usage on the Pork Roast with Apple Cinnamon and Butter is 5 oz to 6.25 lb of pork and just about 1 lb of water. Since we have about 3 lb of tenderloin we are going to dissolve half the shaker in half an lb of water. Next, we will place our pork tenderloin in a bag and pour in the mix over it, then we will vacuum seal it to remove the air and leave it in a refrigerator overnight. Marinating So to marinate this I am going to put it in a vacuum bag with the seasoning and since this marinade already contains phosphates it will do a good job of soaking in and staying in the meat through the cooking process. If the marinade you are using does not contain phosphates I would consider adding some as it will chemically change the meat so it has a higher water holding capacity. If we were doing a thicker cut like a pork butt and maybe even an entire Pork Loin I would inject it but as this is a 104 class we will cover injecting in later videos. Topical Rub Rub all sides of the Tenderloin with the rub of your choice. Since we have already marinated this it should have enough moisture for the seasoning to stick to the tenderloin, if it is not sticking to the meat you can rub it with some mustard and then rub the topical seasoning onto the mustard. Wood For Pork you can really use any wood you want, Fruitwoods like Apple and Pecan are good choices if you like a lighter smoke flavor but the pork will definitely stand up to Hickory or Mesquite as well. If we were smoking chicken or fish I would definitely stay in the fruitwood family though as stronger smoke flavors will overpower those types of meat. Note Adding a pan of water to your smoker can help increase the humidity inside of the smoker. Humidity can help speed up cook times and it will give you a moister finished product. I like to use the Grilleye Pro Plus as it allows me to monitor the temperature of the meat without ever having to get up. It can connect through Bluetooth or through my wireless network. It also allows me to set alarms so if I am not paying attention it will start beeping at me once it has reached a set temperature or is outside a temperature range. Thermal Processing & Smoking 225° until the internal temperature is 145° Cooling Let the meat sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes before cutting. Wrap up If you are looking at smoking your first piece of meat pork tenderloin is a great choice, it is very easy to do, does not require any special preparation and almost always ends up as a delicious meal! Additional Tips If you want to pull your Pork Loin at 140° and wrap in foil it will continue to cook for another 5° to get you to 145°. Other Notes We can get away with an internal temp of less than 160° because this is a whole muscle cut and very little if any, bacteria live inside of the muscle of the animal. It will instead be concentrated on the outside and by getting the internal temperature to 145° we know the outside is well above 160°. Watch WaltonsTV: Smoked Pork Loin Shop waltonsinc.com for Bratwurst Seasoning Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives
• Cured Whole Muscle Meats

  Learn about the equipment and cures needed to process your own hams and bacon at home and then follow along with our step by step videos.

  
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  @lholder We don’t do much dry curing and haven’t done any on hams. The process we have above is for smoked hams and I’m not totally sure what the different steps needed for making a dry-cured ham would be. I talked to our application specialist though and he did have some input on this, I am going to send that to you in a separate email. Hopefully, that information will help!
• Specialty Sausage

  Learn how to make specialty sausages such as Braunschweiger, Lebanon Bologna or Blood Sausage.

  
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  @Lance It’s worth it to at least say you have done it! Just don’t make too much of it. We have a guy here who loves the stuff so I gave him about half of what I made.
• Meat Processing Equipment

  Learn about the importance, functions and abilities of meat processing equipment.

  
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  Meat Processing Equipment: 208 Using Oven at Low Temperatures Attend this Intermediate level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Starting Low For almost any type of cured sausage one of the best things you can do is to start the temperature of your smoker or oven at no more than 20° higher than the body temperature of the animal was. This prevents the proteins in the meat from suffering too much heat shock damage. The problem is that most home smokers or ovens won’t go that low. One of the ways people combat this is by propping the lid of their smoker or oven open to let some of the heat “bleed” out. To do this you will need a probe thermometer that has the ability to act as an ambient temp thermometer so you know what the actual temperature of the oven is. We began by setting the oven to 175° which was the lowest that our oven will go and propping the door open a good amount to let the heat escape. We quickly found out that this was too much propping and that only a very small opening was necessary. Cooking Temperature We were able to stabilize our top rack at exactly 120° but our bottom rack continued to change dramatically so we gave up and moved everything to one rack. We are also lucky enough to have a convection oven option in this oven so for the first hour I turned that on to keep the air moving, this mimicked the are flow of a smoker with dampers wide open so it worked well for our initial drying phase. After they had cooked for an hour at 120° we began to experiment with moving it higher and higher. We were able to get the top rack to reach 130° by closing the door even more and then 150° by opening the door more and raising the temperature and finally 180 by simply closing the door and setting it to 175°. Finish Sous Vide Style We also decided to pull these and finish them up sous vide style. We moved some into a sous vide cooker 100°, some at 120 and some at 135 and we moved one of the 120° pepperonis to a pot of water that we had set to 170° on the stove to prove that even if you don’t have a sous vide cooker you can still get a sous vide style finished product as long as you are patient and carful. We have done this before and we again found that you should wait until your product is around 120-135° before moving it. The pepperoni we moved at 100° did not have as good of a texture as the ones that had dried longer in the oven/smoker. Tips Shop waltonsinc.com for GrillEye PRO Plus Shop waltonsinc.com for Sous Vide Immersion Circulator Shop waltonsinc.com for Fibrous Sausage Casings