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I’m looking for a wether (castrated male lamb) to butcher. I have a local butcher that will work with me to butcher it but, he has never butchered a lamb before either. I good tutorial would be appreciated. What is the head good for other than as a movie prop? For example, does it really work well braised or broiled? Or do you harvest the tongue and discard the rest? Regarding the guts, what is typically saved and eaten versus thrown away? I’m initially thinking I will use an axe at the base of the skull to kill it and will slit its throat and hang it from my from tractor loader to let it bleed out. The question here is do I also gut it or do I try to save kidneys and other parts? TIA, Sid
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I did my first batch of snack sticks and followed the Walton’s video tutorial to the letter. Mix was 25 pounds of 50/50 beef and pork with added pork fat to compensate for removing the beef fat, citric acid and sure gel added. I also added two quarts of water per the video directions to help in the stuffing. Here’s my question; the thermo process took seventeen hours to reach temp. Is that due the extra water added or is it somewhat normal to take that long to reach 160 degrees? More info that could play a part in this situation; 1-Used a PK100 for the first time and the outside temp was in the twenties, the PK100 never reached the temps as outlined in the cook temp schedule. 125/140/155/175. That’s even after setting the unit to 1250 watts. I will address this with the manufacture. 2-Used a water bowl with sponges added for absorption. 3-When set to the final temp of 175 the PK100 could only reach 150 degrees using the 1250 watt setting so after seven hours removed and finished in the oven for ten more hours. My thoughts are the temps were too low in the beginning to aid in the drying process and adding so much extra water just made it a longer cooking process. Do you agree or is there something else I need to consider? Thank you. -
Looking at around 1hp meat grinder, LEM vs Weston vs Pro Cut? Will be doing ground beef only, but in fairly large quantities. TIA
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Anyone know of an adapter to connect a Cabela’s grinder to a LEM hand operated meat mixer?
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I just saw and add on facebook for beef snack sticks that have been fermented, not using citric acid and such. Claim the shelf life is longer. Just curious if anyone has any knowledge about this. The name of the company is Paleovalley, in Colorado.
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I just received an order that shipped on 2/9. This shipment was delayed by the winter storm( no fault of Waltons). This shipment contained tubed fresh hog casings. This is my first experience with them and I’m wondering if they’ll be ok. I opened the box when they arrived. There’s a little odor but not grossly overpowering. I know some odor is normal but I have no way of knowing what temp they’ve spent the last 13 days at in the UPS truck. What are your thoughts? -
Last week I bought a cabelas carnivore #22 1hp grinder to replace my old hillbilly belt pulley model. Reason I bought it instead of the Walton is I really want a reverse feature when I add a mixer to it. Now to the problem… cabelas is out of stock Everywhere. Rumor has it that they are yet again changing suppliers/manufacturers of the mixer. They are currently made/imported? By blue sky here in Ohio. I have emailed them with no reply. Does anyone know if another manufacturer has a compatible mixer? The shaft is 3/4” 6 spline I’m jonesin for a batch of Bambi dogs and refuse to crank the handle on my manual mixer after it took two trips to the bone crusher to get my bad shoulder good again! Tia Bubba -
I’ve been using a 7lb Hakka Brothers vertical sausage stuffer. Tonight I was squeezing out some snack sticks through the 12mm tube and the pressure finally got the better of the stuffer. One side of the housing bent where the lower lug/bolt is that the canister rests on. I can’t blame the unit for blowing out… it takes tons of pressure for the smaller diameters. So my question is if any of you have found a more robust unit that is up to the task? Are the 11lb stuffers any stronger? Do the horizontal stuffers experience less resistance by not having the 90 degree turn? Any tiops are greatly appreciated. -
Picked up a pork belly and cut it half so I could do a honey cure on one 1/2 and a brown sugar cure on the other 1/2. Both will to be dry-rub cured before smoking. Here they are 4 days into the curing period. Note: Working with honey in a “dry rub cure” is sort of a conflict in terms. More of a sticky-rub. -
What temp and time do I finish the snack sticks in water. They are 130 coming off of smoker
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Hi. I’m hoping I can get some help or tips here. I live in Malaysia and make my own sausages here for my family and other expat friends, previously using an LEM hand grinder but recently I upgraded to a 1/2HP electric one, made in Taiwan. Living in Malaysia means I have pretty limited options when it comes to purchasing certain products, most of which I have to import (some of which my bro helps me with as he lives in the US and gets from places like meatgistics, then sends to me… a meat grinder however, was a bit too big and heavy for that). The new grinder I got was recommended to me but surprisingly comes with no user manual (weird) and has a bearing inside the throat which is impossible to keep clean. I’ve attached some photos of the inside of the grinder throat showing the bearing. I’ve only used it about 4 times and have done my best at keeping the bearing clean but when I got it out to use it just now I gave it a smell and it’s not good. The issue is that every time you grind meat, blood/juice gets inside the bearing and you can’t open it to clean it properly, it remains inside. When I started to turn the bearing with my finger just now I could see some greasy stuff coming out of it, stinky and not hygienic. I can’t find anything online about similar grinder set ups in the US so any helpful tips or tricks would be very much appreciated! Cheers!!     https://cf.shopee.com.my/file/131c0458de0332a5b6b028ce9c1e849e
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I really like how convenient collagen casings are vs natural, but I’ve been struggling with what appears to be casing shrinkage while pan frying (no water) breakfast sausage in 21mm collagen. I’ll admit, I don’t bother trying to twist the collagen because I know that’s a losing battle. I could leave some extra casing on each end, but with how the results look, I’m not sure that would do much. The casings also end up a bit rubbery. This is a 50/50 mix of deer and untrimmed pork shoulder with Holly Regular. Tips on what I could do differently? Or should I just head back to sheep casings? It seems like with these being toted as “breakfast sausage casings” that there would be a way to make them work. Before cooking: After cooking: -
Made six pounds of venison breakfast sausage using Excalibur spices bought here and adding bacon trimmings for the fat. Some I’ve made in the past was way too lean, so I think I bumped the fat up to 30% in this batch, but I’m sure it wasn’t higher. For what it’s worth, the bacon trimmings came from the freezer and were hard as a rock. I kept a pound or two of the sausage in the fridge after making it. The rest I patted out, put between waxed paper, then inside a Ziploc bag and into the freezer. This was 4-6 weeks ago. I just went to the freezer to retrieve some of the sausage and was shocked to find it wasn’t frozen, at least not like the other meat in the freezer. I went ahead and fried up a pound of it and it was fine in taste and appearance … and I didn’t die. I moved the remaining sausage to a different part of the freezer and made 100% sure the door sealed tight. That was 3-4 days ago. Today I checked and that sausage still isn’t frozen hard. Can someone tell me what I’ve run into here? Thanks in advance.
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HI, just used High Temp Cheese for the first time to make some Summer Sausage. I have been seeing that around some of the Cheese in the sausage is starting to go off in color and taste. I am wondering if anyone else has noticed this. It seems to be only happening with the Cheddar cheese, the Pepper Jack is not doing it. It is all the batch of sausage, not having any issues at all with any of the rest of it, just the Cheddar. The Cheese is all new and has been kept in the freezer until it was used, other than when it was shipped, I am sure that Walton’s keeps it frozen as well before shipping. -
Thanks for the explanation and pics on this post: https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/3411/grinding-and-mixing-for-breakfast-sausage-and-brats I just purchased some of Walton’s new equipment: #32 grinder, 50# mixer and 26# stuffer. I was pleasantly surprised that the mixer will work on my Lem #8 grinder. I have used a mixer only one time so I need some more instructions. I have heard y’all talk about protein extraction on smoked venison sausage. I did that last year, some batches were good, but at least one was mixed too long? Seemed to me it looked like that. It had a really fine texture and seemed mushy. How much do I mix and when? After the coarse grind and before final fine grind? Am I correct that the protein extraction is not needed when we make pork breakfast sausage? Do I use mixer to mix spices with cut up pork before any grinding? My mother and aunts and uncles have a big hog killing and sausage making festival/reunion each year in western Kansas, but as I live in Mississippi and have not attended many times I am not familiar with all the steps. I do know they mix the seasonings and meat chunks by hand before grinding, all 6 hogs.
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After butchering our hogs, I had 6 boneless hams to contend with. Having never cured a ham before, I was a little worried I would not be able to make a ham that is as delicious as what we had always bought in the store. After searching around for recipes and tips online, I stumbled across Walton’s Inc. and decided to go with the California ham spice along with sweeter than sweet. Two hams went into the freezer but I still wasn’t happy. They had a good flavor but neither of them made me want to eat the entire ham when I pulled them out of the smoker. On the last one, I decided I had to do something different. I added slightly more California ham spice than was called for (half a teaspoon more or so), injected it, and let it brine for five days. When I pulled it out, I decided with this one I would try some brown sugar on it while it smoked. I rubbed brown sugar inside of it before I rolled it up and stuffed it inside a ham net and then slathered the wet ham with brown sugar. I then let it sit overnight in the fridge before tossing it on the smoker. This time I went very light on the smoke. When I pulled that ham out and slicedthe first piece off…I could…not…stop! Absolutely delicious. Even my wife, who is not as big of a fan of ham as I am, took a bite, her eyes got big, and said, “Ohhh, that’s a good ham.” So, I now have 3 more hams defrosting and they will get the same treatment. Thanks for the great product, Walton’s!
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Made 25lb of bratwurst today used beer brat seasoning on first batch of 12.5 lb…second batch was Chicago brat seasoning… added cheddar cheese to the beer bratwurst. Both batches came out amazing and the taste is great. I favored the beer brat more of course I’m a beer man…but Chicago brat was awesome as well…boiled the brats in beer for few minutes then finished on Traeger… Great stuff …thanks Jonathon for the info and advice on which seasonings to try out… next is blue ribbon and then Habanero… -
Do I poke holes in celulose casings before smoking? -
So, I was able to score some pork fat from the local Whole Foods Market! Question: Does it have to be double ground like meat, or can it just be single ground through the 1/8 inch plate? Thanks!
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