Verified Walton’s Employees
@Bobmead Most people will use it as a way to increase moisture retention. If your product has enough fat content you really don’t need it. I add carrot fiber to most things I make because it is inexpensive and it gives me a more moist product and offers some yield enhancement. I’m not sure if the Powdered Milk gives you yield enhancement as well.
Anyone use it often?
@msalmon There is no chart that has been created and different products would have different amounts. For Chicken Brats I like to use both Carrot Fiber and Cold Phosphate but that’s not something everyone has just laying around! So if you are using carrot fiber then I would add 1.25 oz of water per lb of meat. This would be for when you are using carrot fiber at it’s suggested usage of 4 oz per 25 lb of meat (or .16 oz per lb of meat). A good thing about Carrot Fiber is that it holds up to 26 times its weight in water so you have room to play with here, you can see how much it is absorbing and add more slowly until you have achieved your desired water content.
@ericm First, if you want a really strong Jalapeno taste and some heat then I would recommend either more seasoning than recommended (though be slightly careful with this, something around 10-15% more) or add jalapenos.
For the Encapsulated Citric Acid, if you are using it then you need to go right from the smoking to the stuffing, holding it overnight could allow the Encapsulation to break and leak the citric acid into the meat too soon. However you also don’t want to hold the meat and then add the ECA as the meat will start to set up and could break your stuffer when you try to stuff it into the casings. My recommendation would be to cut back slightly on the ECA and still stuff immediately.
Cooking to 170 will not create any real problems other than drying the meat out a little, if you are happy with the moisture and texture of your snack sticks with your current smoking schedule I say keep with it!
@tarp Looks delicious! Did you use dehydrated jalapenos or regular ones? Love Kielbasa!
Learn how to make Roast Beef with Walton's and Meatgistics. Watch the video, read the guide, and then post your questions or comments below.
Roast beef can be made from Eye of the Round, Sirloin or Tri-Tip. It is very popular as both a main meal and is also often made specifically for cold cuts. Eye of the round is not as tender a cut as either Sirloin or a Tri-Tip so unless we process and cook this carefully we could end up with tough roast beef.
Eye of the Round with fat cap attached.
Butter Flavored Seasoning
Prime Rib Rub
Or
Prime Rib Rub no MSG
We are going to inject this with Butter Flavored soluble seasoning with the Walton’s Syringe Injector. This seasoning can be used on almost any cut of meat, it imparts a great flavor and it already has phosphates in it which will help increase the water holding capacity of the meat which will give us a juicier finished product.
My injection is 1 lb of water and 5 oz of seasoning. The directions say to use this as a 10% pump but since it does not contain any cure I am going to just pump this until it won’t hold anymore. I am going to rub the outside with Prime Rib Rub seasoning, I want to really coat the outside with this since I am going to be slicing it thin and I won’t be getting much of the outside on each slice.
Next I am going to vacuum pack it and let it marinate overnight. Since it is so large I am using one of our Vacmaster suction sealers and a vac bag roll. I create the size bag I need by slicing the roll and then sealing one side of the bag, then I place my meat inside and seal the bag. Let this sit overnight and be ready to smoke it in the morning.
If you cannot inject or vacuum pack you might want to let it sit in the marinade longer than 12 hours. If you can let it sit a full 24 hours it will pick up and retain more of the seasoning.
If you do not have a way to control humidity in your smoker then add a water pan and cook at 240° until internal temp is 140° for 12 minutes.
Stage 1 - 120° - 30 Minutes RH 0
Stage 2 - 140° - 60 Minutes RH 60
Stage 3 - 160° - 30 Minutes RH 60
Stage 4 - 180° Until internal temp is 140° for 12 minutes
Serve right away for traditional meal.
For cold cuts let it sit out at room temperature for an hour before moving to a cooler. For best results let it sit in cooler overnight before slicing for cold cuts.
All in all this was very easy to do and we were able to achieve very similar results with cooking it in our small smoker as we did with our professional smokehouse. The ability to accurately control humidity in the large smokehouse did allow us to cook quicker but the result was similar.
@kunze7 One other possible thing that could be causing your issue is that the gaskets are directional, there is an up and a down on it. You want it oriented with the V pointing down into your cannister.
@kunze7 Yes and no, the fat in the meat will eventually lubricate the gasket but initially yes, without lubrication of the gasket if you have a product that has a lot of protein extraction and not a bunch of water that could be part of your issue. However, I think if you start lubricating it with something like white oil your issue will go away. If it keeps happening it is because of the gasket was stressed from being run without lubrication so it might need replacing.
Let me know if you need anything else!
@kunze7 Interesting, two things could be the issue. First, are you using white oil or some other food safe lubricant on the gasket before each use? If not then that should fix your problem though you might need a new gasket as if it’s been run without white oil it might have been stressed beyond usefulness. The second thing would be the air relief valve in the piston, make sure it is moving freely and there is nothing interfering with the spring, if that can’t move freely it might be causing your issues.
Let me know if you are doing both of these things already!
