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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  @Masya If you vacuum seal it that would be okay for long term storage but it needs to be vacuum sealed as the humidity inside a freezer and even a fridge is pretty high. Once it has been opened though and exposed to humidity it would need to be used pretty quickly.
• 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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  @KLee The ratio is up to you on the beef to pork as that is mostly a personal taste issue. When I make snack sticks I use 100% pork and I go with pork butt. Now, I would use at least 50% pork because the pork fat is better than beef fat for making sausage as it is creamier than beef fat. Yes, if you are adding fat to reach 70/30 or 75/25 then you should add pork fat as it’s better quality than other fats.
• 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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  Sausage Casings: 201 Tips for Stuffing Collagen Casings Attend this Intermediate level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! The Basics Learning how to stuff collagen casing can be as much of an art as it is a science. The first thing you can do to make this easy on yourself is to use the correct stuffing tube, you should use the largest stuffing tube that your casing will fit over in its shirred form. For example, a 23 MM casing will fit over both a 10 MM and 12 MM tube but you want to choose the 12 MM tube as this will allow the casing to come off the tube more naturally. Also, you should note that collagen does have a direction, one end of the strand will be fully open and the other will have some of the casing folded slightly over the center hole. The open side is what should be loaded onto the stuffing tube if you lose track of which side was the correct one look at how the collagen is stacked, it looks like bowls stacked in a cupboard, you want the bottom of the bowl to be facing towards the stuffer so the casing comes off as if you are un-stacking the bowls. Right Amount of Pressure Making sure that you are using the right amount of pressure to hold your casing on the stuffing tube is very important and takes some practice. Too little pressure and the casing will come off too easily and you will end up with an under stuffed casing which can create a wrinkled, unappealing product and will not hold its form through the cooking process. The other side of that is that if you use too much pressure you can end up with blow outs or backflow. A blow out is when your casing splits from internal pressure, it forces you to stop stuffing, fix your casing and put your meat back into the stuffing cannister. Backflow is when your product comes back around the stuffing horn instead of going into the casing and creates a host of problems including possible contamination and defects in the texture of the sausage. Also, an overstuffed casing has a tendency to burst during the cooking process You want the casing to feel firm but not so firm that when you try to twist it the casing splits, it is going to take a little bit of practice to master this but once you do it is like riding a bike, you will never forget how. A good way to judge if you are stuffing to the proper amount is if you can just faintly see the swirl line along the casing, you want to be able to just faintly see it. If it is obvious then you are under stuffing, if you can’t see it as all then you have overstuffed. As you are stuffing try to get your sausage into a coil to make it easier to handle. Up to You! Now that you have the sausage stuffed into the collagen you can either hang them in the smoker, cut them into sausage sized sections or twist them into links and then hang them for smoking or vacuum seal them for future use. Now you can smoke, grill or pan fry them. If you made a fresh product and want to vac seal them for future use make sure you freeze them first for at least an hour. If you try to vacuum seal a fresh sausage the vacuum that your machine pulls will crush your product flat. Shop waltonsinc.com for Collagen Casings Shop waltonsinc.com for 11 lb Sausage Stuffer
• 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 Meat: 202 Additives For Homemade Deli Meats Attend this Intermediate-level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have! Phosphates In Deli Meats 103 we went over some common additives that are used in commercially processed Deli Meats, most of them are harmless and are aimed at increasing the freshness of the meat, the shelf life, taste and appearance. However, most of these items are not things you are going to have in your home, or have easy access to. However, there are a few additives that are easily available and will give you a nice reformed deli meat that can be sliced almost as thin as a true deli. It doesn’t matter if you are making homemade deli meats or buying it from the store, some sort of phosphates will almost certainly be present. The phosphates raise the pH of the meat and allow it to hold more water. Commercial processors do this because a) water is much cheaper than meat and b) consumers want cuts of meat that are juicier. We recommend you use Cold Phosphate as this will dissolve easier in cold water than some other types. An important note on phosphates is that if you are injecting it you need to mix this in first so it can suspend in the water. I’d recommend you add phosphates to any deli meat you are making but it is especially important when making low fat deli cuts. Binders Binders, especially in low fat cuts, are going to be very key here when making a reformed cut of deli meat. Without it you will have a hard time getting everything to stick together tight enough to let you slice it deli thin without it crumbling. Carrot Fiber isn’t a traditional binder but it holds 26 times it’s weight in water so it can help with a juiciness, if you are going to use carrot fiber, like I do in future videos, is to use it in conjunction with cold phosphate. Super Bind is going to give you carrot fiber and potato starch, so you get the best of the carrot fiber plus the potato starch forms a gel at the same temp as the meat really starts to expel water. The only problem with this is that in a homemade deli you are going to have some voids in your meat. Having no voids with a hand crank stuffer is extremely difficult and those voids will be filled with this gel. It can be very unappealing. Sure Gel or Soy protein blend can also be good choices. Sodium Lactate Sodium Lactate is used by commercial processors to extend the shelf-life of meat products. It is sometimes used as a powder but is most often used in its liquid form. It increases the shelf life of meat products by regulating the pH of food and reduces the effects of bacteria spoilage. In its liquid form you would use it at a rate of 1.5% of your meat block, so for a 25 lb batch you would use .375 of a lb. As we sell it in gallons you can see that it would last you a long time. Sodium Nitrite & Sure Cure Another option for deli meat can be using sodium nitrite or sure cure. We’ve talked about it exhaustively in the past but using nitrite helps fight botulism spores. Its important to use when smoking meat as you are often creating the perfect environment for the growth of botulism and other bad microorganisms. It can also assist in increasing the shelf life of the meat and preserving the color and flavor. Watch WaltonsTV: Deli Meat: 202 Additives For Homemade Deli Meats Shop waltonsinc.com for Additives Shop waltonsinc.com for Cold Phosphate - Sodium Phosphate Shop waltonsinc.com for Sodium Lactate
• 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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  @Masya That’s a good point and thanks for posting it in the comments, I will go ahead and add it to the article as well!
• 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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  @Giuseppe-Córdova-Alessandria What are the casings/bags made of? Is it a natural casing or a netting or bag? I do not beleive that 1/10th of an inch will be a problem as the clip closes all the way so it needs very little material to grab onto. The only possible issue is that the clip might slide a little. If you’re local or want to send me a bag I will test it out for you?