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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  Cured Sausage: 206 Advanced Cured Sausage Processing Attend this Intermediate level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Meat Block 7 lb of Pork Butt For Snack Sticks .35 lb Gigawatt Seasoning For Summer Sausage .8 lb Habenero Mango For Cured Sausage .28 lb Cheeseburger Cheddarwurst .28 oz of Sure Cure 9 oz of water (per 7 lb of product) Optional Additives Super Bind Encapsulated Citric Acid or Smoked Meat Stabilizer or Sodium Erythorbate Prep Work The casings I am using for the Summer Sausage are fibrous so they need to be soaked for at least 30 minutes in warm water before stuffing. I generally start soaking them right before I start grinding. Neither the 32mm Collagen I am using for the Smoked Sausage or the 19mm I am using for the snack sticks need any preparation, they are ready to use right out of the package. We’ve got our plates and knives oiled. A quick note here on plates and knives, Walton’s sells two types of plates and knives, one is disposable, you use them until they are dull and then throw them out and the others can be sharpened for future use. The disposable ones will work but the knives and the plates that can be sharpened are going to give you a better-finished product. You can tell the sharpenable knives from the disposable ones as they have an insert into the blade where the disposable ones don’t and they look more like a boat propeller. Grinding Your Meat Our meat is extremely cold and even though we are doing 3 different products we can grind them all together as they should all go through a 3/8 plate first and then a 1/8 inch plate. With our meat being so cold you can see how quick both the 1st and 2nd grind are going. The 2nd grind is always going to take longer but when the meat is near frozen it will go much faster. If you notice that either of your grinds is taking an incredibly long time you might need to have your plates or knives sharpened. You can also check your plates for any cracks or imperfections by knocking them lightly together if they ring nice and clear you can proceed if they clunk or don’t ring then they might need replacing. Since these are smaller batches I am going to have to do protein extraction by hand as the scoops on the paddles of a meat mixer will not be able to mix this small of an amount. While mixing I am going to add my seasoning, cure, and binder along with 10 oz of water. For the water 10 oz to 7 lb of meat would equal 1 qt per 25 lb batch of meat. We are going to mix until we have nice protein extraction in all of our meat. For the Snack Sticks, I am using Encapsulated Citric Acid so I am going to add that during the last 60 seconds, along with the cheese, to prevent breaking the encapsulation or smearing the cheese. Stuffing Summer Sausage Now, here is where we start diverting from one product to another. I am going to start with the Summer Sausage first. So I have the largest stuffing tube that these casings will fit over. With Fibrous casings, we really aren’t worried about blowouts so we are going to stuff it until the casing is full and smooth. Then when we are done with that we have to clip the end closed. Remember, all the weight of the casing is going to be pushing on this clip so it has got to be tight. You can use either Hog Ring Pliers, Auto Load Hog Ring Pliers or a Bag & Casing Clipper like this. If you are doing a lot I would recommend the Bag & Casing Clipper as it will give you the tightest seal and is easiest to do if you only do medium-sized batches and only occasionally then this might not be worth it and I would recommend the autoload hog ring pliers. The normal pliers are okay for the beginner but if you are putting all this effort into a product then the small investment of the Auto Load Pliers is worth it. Stuffing Smoked Sausage Next, I am going to do the Smoked Sausage, again, I want to use the biggest tube that the casings will fit over and we do want to be careful not to overstuff these as they can blow out. So a slightly understuffed casing is much better than an overstuffed casing as we can always twist it a time or two more to firm them up. For these, we are going to do an advanced linking and hang them from this. Make sure that you have some empty casing at the end of the sausage and then make a link and fold it over the rope so your 2nd link will be the same size. Then, pinch of that link and twist some of the empty casing around where the two sausage meat. Then spin the two links a few extra times at this point it should look sort of like ring bologna. Now hold it from the link you just made and bring the rope up to the top and pinch it down and bring the rope up through the middle of what now should be three brats all hanging. Now just keep repeating this process until you are done. You now have perfectly even brats that should cook at the same rate. Stuffing Snack Sticks For the Snack Sticks we are using 19mm casings and we have chosen the 12 mm stuffing tube. They should flow fairly smoothly off of this tube as you stuff. As this is going to be the hardest one to stuff as it is the smallest stuffing tube you probably want to make sure you have your stuffer clamped down to the table to prevent the stuffer from rocking as your turn the handle. Casings should be full and smooth but not overstuffed as we want to avoid blowouts. I like to lay these out and then cut them to the longest lengths possible for how big my smoker is, this way we will have the least amount of curved sections possible. Smoke Schedules Snack Sticks and Summer Sausage in PK-100: First, for the snack sticks, we are going to leave them in our PK-100 the entire time and rely on the water pan with the extra large sponges to provide us with the relative humidity. For the Summer Sausage, we are going to pull them at 130 - 140 degrees and finish them up in water so that we are not spending 10 hours smoking these. basically, we will start them all at 125° with no smoke and dampers wide open for an hour to act as our drying stage, this will allow the smoke to adhere later on. Then we will close the dampers down mostly and add smoke and our water pan with the sponges to the Pk-100 and increase the temperature to 140° for 1 hour. Then we will move it up to 155 for 2 hours and then 175 until internal temperature is 160°. For the Summer Sausage, we are pulling it at 130-140 degrees and we will vacuum seal them and then finish them up in water that is heated to 175°. You don’t absolutely need to put it in a vacuum bag but I still recommend it unless you are using De-ionized water and are 100% sure your processing area is sterile. It should take us about an hour to an hour and a half to reach the desired temperature. We will go over this in more detail in future episodes but 160 is the point of instant lethality, meaning as soon as you hit it everything we are worried about is killed off. The USDA, however, realizes that lower temperatures can still achieve the same result, they just need to be held there for longer times. Smoked Sausage in Pro Smoker 500T: Ice Bath Once we have reached the desired temp we want to put these into an ice bath to stop the cooking process and to help “set” the casing. If you have excessive wrinkling on your snack sticks or your Fibrous casings are pulling away from the meat when peeling then your ice bath is most likely the reason why. Once we have left them in the ice bath for 20 minutes we will take them out and leave them uncovered at room temperature for an hour before moving to a cooler overnight before packaging. Shower If you have a smokehouse that has a shower cycle you can use this instead of an ice bath. If you are going to use this then make sure the fan is blowing between shower cycles, this will drop the temperature much better than a shower alone. Blooming Leave the meat out at room temperature for at least 1 hour to allow for blooming. Vacuum Packaging After you have held your product overnight in a cooler you can vacuum package them. You want to allow it to sit, uncovered, in the cooler to stabilize the heat and to make sure all surface moisture has evaporated. If you skip this step you will end up with moisture in your package. Shop waltonsinc.com for PK 100 Pro Smoker Smokehouse
• 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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  One method I have been using lately, in addition to poking holes, is to fire up my smoker at 225 and cooking them (with or without smoke) until they hit an internal temp of around 150-155 (about an hour) and then finishing them on the grill to add some color until they reach 165.
• 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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  This is great information. Having been involved in setting up and implementing PM schedules for a couple of places I’ve worked at over the years I can’t emphasize enough the importance of this. Doesn’t matter if it’s a fishing reel, automobile or a conveyor system. You don’t want breakdowns. Couple of questions on this one. Does the manufacturer recommend greasing after a certain amount of use? Aside from the food grade grease or white oil can a food grade silicon spray be used? A food grade grease could potentially last for years with the limited amount of movement on these gears. May be the best option. I currently use the spray on my grinder plates and knives. Works well.