Not likely but I'm thinking not impossible either since it takes time to get through the three grinds and mixing. I'll monitor the meat temp next time too.

@vvsarpsjr Crucial, at a certain temp proteins wont extract, we normally don't get into that as it is well into the danger zone, I think it is around 50° that it stops extracting and you don't want to be in that range ever with raw meat. Could it have been that warm?

Thanks Jonathon and JoeB, it was [probably both of what you all suggested. For sure something happened with the bind since fat came out and after the final 3rd grind it did seem to look more fatty than I was expected. It was the first time I used pork fat alone with venison. I'll use pork butt next time. The mixer is small and although it did seem to end up as a sticky paste when completed, I do stop it occasionally and pull the meat off the paddle because it does look like it gets wound around the paddle axel without at lot of mixing action. How critical is meat temperature during the grinding/mixing process to keep the bind? I had read elsewhere that the hot dog meat temperature needs to stay below 40 degrees the whole time for the emulsification to not break. Is that true? Would seem difficult to accomplish in the home setting.

@vvsarpsjr If your going to use pork fat not pork butt i would ratio 4lbs to 1lb. Pork butt ratio 3.5lbs-1.5lbs. If you have a fatty issue i would think there was too much fat in the batter, my thoughts. Could have lost the emulsified state, batter with water / fat separation, but my thought is too much fat to meat .

@vvsarpsjr It is unlikely that at 10 minutes you overmixed it. The fact that you had some fat between the casing and the meat means something happened with your bind. The 5 lb batch, what mixer did you use? It is possible that it just wrapped around the axle and didn't get worked by the paddles? If you used the 20 lb then I doubt it this was your problem. Did you use a binder? Did you grind 3 times? Hot dogs are made with either a bowl chopper or an emulsion plate to fully breakdown the protein. If you don't have a chopper or an emulsion plate for your grinder (not really available for retail) then a 3rd grind with your 1/8" plate is probably your best bet.

@vvsarpsjr when I did hot dogs, I did 50% venison/ 50% 73/27 beef. They turned out great. I too noticed they didnt have a strong hot dog taste, but everyone loved them.

Thanks, taste was good, more like a brat flavor than a hot dog but still good.

When I do game and I know there are people that don’t want to eat Bambi I do 50-50. They never know. To them. It tastes like great pork sausage 🤫

Well I can only say When I do game I’ll do 60-40 pork butt. Sometimes 50-50. Never had a problem with that ratio. Outside of the greasy issue. How did it taste. I’ll add just fat but not often if my butt is a little lean. Pork is normally 30% fat. Could be a fat resource issue. Joe

Hi Joe B - recipe was 3.5 lb venison, 1.5 lb pork fat, ground 3 times, first through 3/8", second and third through 1/8"; 4.8 oz Excalibur Hot Dog Seasoning, 1.2 oz sure gel binder, 0.2 oz Sure Cure, 6 oz water.

@vvsarpsjr What was your recipe and grind??

Jonathan - made first batch of hot dogs, 3.5 lbs venison, 1.5 lbs pork fat; used the above recipe for 5lbs, no cheese, and no smoked meat stabilizer (kept overnight in refrigerator then smoked the next day using the above schedule). Noticed there was a little solidified fat between the hot dogs and celluose casing but it wasn't a lot. Tasted more like a brat than a hot dog but it was the consistency that was most un-hot dog like. It was softer and not as rubbery/flexible as a hot dog. I did use a meat mixer (about 10 min) and it was very tacky when completed and added about 6 oz of water. Any idea of what I did wrong or how to make them a better consistency. Too much fat? Mixed for too long? Thanks.

Jonathan - thank you for the feedback. I was hoping to do all turkey to try to make it a little more healthy. You are correct that I would like to smoke these. Unless you have additional thoughts, I will use the recipe above (which includes the sure gel) and see how it goes. Will do a small batch in the event it is too dry and becomes food for the dog.

@mbroos What is your fat content going to be? My best recommendation would be to add pork fat and then use just sure gel, that would give you the best finished product. Aside from the cold phos and carrot fiber would work but carrot fiber is going to be better in a fresh product and I am assuming you want to smoke these? Honestly, you might still be better off just using sure gel, it already has some phosphate in it though so don't use that and cold phosphate together, that could make it taste like soap. So, add 25% pork fat and use sure gel, or add cold phosphate and carrot fiber. Either will work but the pork fat and sure gel will be a better overall product

Would like to make turkey hot dogs and saw your video on turkey brats. Would you recommend adding carrot fiber and cold phosphates to the hot dogs as you did the turkey brats? Anything else you would recommend when making turkey dogs? Thank you for your thoughts.

thank you

@mbroos I think a few hours is too long, you run the risk of drying out the outside of the sausage and then it won't be able to pass heat into the center of the sausage. I'd say start at 120ish in your dehydrator for 30 minutes, that will begin to condition the temp of the meat and will dry the outside a little but not too much. Then, I would move to the oven and i would seriously consider finishing it up in water like a lot of users here do. For more information on that check out these two articles/videos https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing/ https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1108/cured-sausage-206-advanced-cured-sausage-processing

@jbh222 That is going to depend on your oven a little. How low will it start? How hot will your dehydrator get? You might be best served starting off in the dehydrator and then moving to the oven, if you're dehydrator starts as low as 120 (which shouldn't be a problem) putting them in there 1st and then moving them to the oven for cooking might be your best bet. What you will have to deal with here is case hardening in the dehydrator. You want the outside of the casing to be dry(ish) to let the smoke adhere, you don't want to remove all of the moisture from the edge of the sausage though, if that happens you might not be able to pass heat efficiently into the middle of the snack stick.

Will be making summer sausage next weekend. My pellet smoker does not go below 150. Thoughts on using a dehydrator for a few hours and then transferring to smoker to smoke and finish the cooking? I can adjust the temp on my dehydrator. Thanks for thoughts.

@jbh222 Can't help you with the oven or dehydrator question. However to scale the recipe down divide the ingredient quantities by 25 to get the amount needed for one pound of meat, then multiple by the amount of meat you are using.

Can you use this recipe and make it in either the oven or in a dehydrator? How would you alter the recipe? Can this recipe also be made in a smaller batch and how would you do that?

@mbroos it basically comes down to the texture of the final product. 

Austin - you indicate we do not want protein extraction when making brats. Can you explain why? I am making deer brats (70/30 pork) and thought protein extraction would allow better binding and moisture retention. Thanks for your thoughts.

@srsmith123 So, we had luck propping our oven door open once and could get the top rack to stabilize at 120, which was 30 degrees cooler than the lowest setting that oven will do. That is what I would recommend but failing that then yes, your plan sounds about the only thing you can do. Adding a water pan will add some humidity but not a lot, try adding some large automotive sponges to the water pan to try to raise the humidity even more in there. Some more info: https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1099/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1108/cured-sausage-206-advanced-cured-sausage-processing

Any tips to making this summer sausage in my home oven? Lowest setting on oven is 170 degrees. My thought is to let it go at 170 degrees for about 3 hours, see how it's doing and if needed bump it up to 175 degrees until internal temp of 160 degrees is reached? Should I also add pan of water to oven to control humidity? All suggestions are welcome.

@brogers I'll let someone else give their opinion and I will just deliver the company line, without a way to measure water activity and pH they should be vacuum sealed and left defrosted for no more than 5 days. Now, that is the company line for safety, in reality it will be different. @George-T Sadly, yes, they probably sat for numerous hours between 40-140 degrees making them the perfect breeding ground for somenasty stuff.

@George-T they could be. What was your cooking schedule?

I just finished smoking 10 lbs of snack sticks I stuffed yesterday Just now realized I forgot to add the pink cure salt are they trash ?

After vacuum sealing, what kind of lifespan are we looking at when using citric acid in the mix? If the steps are followed precisely, how many days in the fridge can I expect before possible spoilage? I know it will vary, but are we talking roughly a week, or roughly a month? Once taken out of the fridge, would it be safe to eat say 12-24 hrs later? Will I have a hard time getting good results doing this in the oven since I don't have a smoker? Thanks in advance!!

@Ozgrams It can be but there is some ratio changes that are sometimes needed. For example the jalapeno jerky is 1/2 the size of the jalapeno snack stick seasoning, so that would probably make a rather weak sausage. This is because jerky si designed as a topical. Not all have this ratio though, so there isn't a good rule of thumb, you'll need to do some experimenting.

make beef sticks with it very good

Question ... can the Jerky seasonings(Sweet Chipotle Jerky Seasoning) be used for sausage and vice versa? Looking for a good Sweet Chipolte sausage mix but don't think I would like the one with green tea.

@George-T I've had 12 hour smoke schedule before. Without a commercial smoker, that can change the amount of humidity in the air, you are in for a long smoke with ham. 14 hours is long but not terrible honestly. The only way to speed it up would be to increase the temp or humidity. Towards the end bumping it up even higher probably wont be an issue. Just don't raise it too much or too early or you will cook/dry the outside.

@Austin said in [How To Make Homemade Smoked Ham \- Recipe](/post/3915): > @j-ott > That is hard to say exactly because it greatly depends on your individual smoker, how well it holds an accurate temp, the humidity, etc. The least amount of time I'd plan for is 11 hours total, but you are probably looking at 12 hours, or just a slight bit over. I smoked my first ham yesterday it was about 8 lbs I followed your schedule it took 15 hours to get to 148 I had multiple probes in and around the ham so I trust the temp was right any Ideas why it took so long? holding a steady 190 in the smoker internal only gained 1 degree per hour for the last 3 hours I had a large pan of water in the smoker could the humidity be to high? Anyhow the ham turned out perfect just wonder why so long

@George-T I assume you mean keeping it in a 50% strength solution? If you mean out of the solution not long, it will start to expel water and might even gas out. If you mean in a 50% don't do it more than 8ish days. We are only adding nitrite which is "quick" curing power. For longer cures you need nitrate which breaks down into nitrite over time.

After injecting and soaking over night in cover brine whats the maximum time I can hold before smoking? I just built a large smoker and would like to smoke multiple hams at one time but don't have the fridge space to soak them all at once

Is there any drawback to extending the brining time? If I were to inject and brine for 2 hours prior to smoking would there be any negative consequence?

@Jonathon that was the plan. This will be my first time doing ham.

Why do I need casings? I’ve already shot my deer for the season and the local Processing guy is adding in 20% pork fat to this round I can always add more as needed. Any advice is greatly appreciated

@AaronSilves We dont have a chart, are you injecting and holding in a 50% strength solution?

@Barry1967 How much water are you adding? I will see if I can find a different smoke schedule for skinless but I dont remember seeing one. If we did have one I wouod suspect it would be more based around a different drying phase instead of a cooking schedule. Use a binder, add enough water and at least 20% fat should all help avoid it being too hard. It could have also been case hardening. Without a casing, the drying phase might have removed too much moisture from the sticks and created a hard outer layer.

@Jonathon how much hold time, I've got about a 30 lb green ham? Is there a chart?

@Barry1967 Why aren't you putting them in casings? Your fat content looks to low as well 20 will be an improvement, 30 would be better.

Do you have a suggested thermal process for snack sticks that are not getting put into a casing? Is it different than the process with casings? I hope it is because if I follow the process above they are way to dry and harder than I would like, I have been experimenting with different temps and cook times and am struggling to get the results I want. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Venison with 10 percent pork fat. Next batch with be 20 percent.

So I'm doing my snack stick overflow in the oven and the bottom of the sticks are covered in grease. Does this mean that they're getting out? Temp hasn't gotten over 140 yet

@JerkyIsMySalad As @Jonathon said. Started hanging them last couple batches with no problem though. Weird.

@Jonathon Thanks for the advice! I will plan accordingly!

@JerkyIsMySalad I would say yes you should rotate them for 2 reasons. 1 as you say you will have possibly hotter racks at the bottom and cooler on top but also you might end up with sticks with indentation lines in them so rotate them from top to bottom in the smoker but also rotate them on the rack. Now, someone just commented the other day that they did not rotate theirs and they did not get lines or anything in their sticks, I still would. I would recommend adding smoke and humidity after the initial drying stage which with sticks shouldn't take more than 20 minutes. Good luck!

@Joe-Hell , @PapaSop, @Jonathon or @Austin, I have a question that I hope could get answered before this evening as I am going to make a batch of snack sticks. I have a 30" smoke hollow smoker with 3 racks. If I were to lay the meat sticks on the the racks, should I be rotating the racks? the heat source is on the bottom and I'm afraid that they will be at different temp levels when I finish. My previous batches I have hung from the top rack but it was more work to hang them so I want to try this method. Also, at which stage do you add water for humidity? Thanks in advance

@AaronSilves Yup, it is just a cure accelerator so if you don't add it you just have to hold it and let the cure have time to work It shouldn't have any effect on taste/texture.

jonathan,thanks for your help.,fire hawg

Do you have/need to use the sodium eryothrobate? I thought it was just a cure accelerator like encapsulated citric acid, so I didn't get any. Figured to let it sit for a 24-48 hrs before smoking. Which way is best? Thanks

@Fire-hawg No you do not need it. It is an additive that is designed to increase the pH of your turkey to allow water to bond more effectively with the meat. So, basically, it is going to make your Turkey a little juicier, so it is nice to have but not essential.

curing my first turkey,i ordered waltons complete turkey cure. i did not order cold phosphate,do i have to or need the cold phosphate?

@gChart Good answer!

@Doug-Benton If you're using a cure accelerator like Encapsulated Citric Acid (ECA) then you don't need to let them cure overnight. Make sure you wait until the last 60 seconds or so of mixing to add the ECA so as not to break down the encapsulation. If you aren't using a cure accelerator, then you *need* to hold them overnight to give the cure time to work. Note, things like Sure Cure and pink salt are cures, not cure accelerators.

Thanks for clearing that up this is my first time making summer sausage. One more question can you stuff the casings let them set in refrigerator overnight then smoke them the next day? Or do they need to smoked immediately after stuffing.

@Doug-Benton What @gChart Says is true, 2 qts mixed in the meat but that's maximum, I generally say 1.5 qt if you are using a binder. It will stuff like a dream with 2 qts but your cook schedule will be longer than it needs to be as the meat cooks off some of that water

@Doug-Benton Mixed in with the meat and spices. You may not want / need a full two quarts, especially depending on the type of binder you're using (assuming you're using one). Check out the recent Meatgistics livestream for Jonathon's explanation: https://youtu.be/y9Ffmd873HY?t=1246 This link starts at the water discussion, but it's worth watching the entire thing.

In the how to make summer sausage the ingredients call for 2 quarts of water is that mixed in with the meat and spices or is it used to cool the sausage down after smoking?

@JerkyIsMySalad 80/20 as long as the 20 is pork fat will be fine, 70/30-80/20 is preference more than anything. I'd recommend that you mix it into your meat and then add the water as you are mixing for a cured product. Not sure if that was you but someone asked this same question during the live stream we just did. You can go to waltonsinc.com/live or our youtube page to watch it.

@AdamCA what’s your smoking procedure for smoking snack sticks

@Blaker25 Sure gel is a binder and yes I use it when making any cured and smoked sausage or snack sticks. I start off with my dampers wide open for the first 30-60 minutes then I close it down to about half to a little more for the remainder of the cook. The last time I did sticks they were done in about 2.5 hours.

@Jonathon @Austin, Should I mix sure gel with water before adding to meat mixture? That's what I have been doing but it doesn't specify in this recipe.

@Jonathon @Austin , Is it recommended at 70/30 ratio for venison? Will 80/20 work just fine?

@AdamCA yes I held them overnight because of the cure. So you would use the sure gel or a binder. Do either of them effect the taste. Also. What’s your dampener set at on the smoker?

@Blaker25 I would definitely recommend using Sure Gel as it is going to help make a better product, it's not mandatory but highly recommended. Did you have any humidity in there, a bowl of water or something to introduce humidity? If not I would definitely try that next time and make sure you don't overload the smoker with too much as it can impede air flow. The first time I made Summer Sausage it took forever because I didn't have any humidity and I kept opening the smoker to check the temp not thinking that every time I did that I was letting all the heat out so if you don't have a wireless thermometer I suggest getting one. You didn't mention if you held the sticks overnight after stuffing or if you went straight to the smoker but if you are not using a cure accelerator you need to hold them overnight. That won't effect the cook time but just wanted to point that out.

So I did my first batch of snack sticks today. I have a Bradley smoker and I used waltons willies snack sticks. I followed the directions on how to smoke and everything. So I put 10 pounds of snack sticks inside the smoker. This ended up taking 16 hours to reach an internal temp of 152. I didn’t use any gel binder or anything (because I’m new and not sure if I need them yet. Hoping someone could tell me.) not only did it take 16 hours. They shriveled up and don’t look appealing. I also used the smoked collagen casings 19mm. Love the size. But now the casing taste awful which I think might be from being on the smoker for so long. Please help. Want to successfully make snack sticks but really struggling. Also I feel that 16 hours was way to long. When I need to get the rest of the 25 pound batch done. Please tell me what I’m doing wrong.

@BRagland1 So here is some good information that might not be well known, the mm and fraction plates are 2 ways of saying the same thing. 3mm = 1/8 10mm = 3/8 4.5mm = 3/16 5mm = 1/4 (this is a very odd size and you wont see many) Now, depending on your grinder not all plates will fit. You need to take into account how it locks in, do your plates have 1 or 3 holes around the outside? Is one or two sides shaved off? Also, some commercial style plates are too thick to fit on retail grinders (found that out the hard way with @papasop) but some DO fit. The Weston Pro 22 will take a commercial plate and knife but the #12 and #32 will not. Crazy and I wish it was all more standardized.

I believe you recommend a 3mm plate for your final grind. The smallest one I have is 4.5mm. is that too big for summer/venison sausage.

@PapaSop I got my grinder from Cabela's several years ago. They only carry three plate sizes 4.5-7-10 mm. So I'll just keep my eyes open.

thank you for your help.

@Ode-Tom The 5 series Pitboss at Lowes is $400 and will smoke 20 16oz summer sausage hanging from one rack at the top with s-hooks. Best deal on a smoker you will find anywhere!...It is a verticle smoker with a glass front door and 3 yr waranty!!!!!! My Traeger buddies are JEALOUS!!!!

@BRagland1 Lol. Yep, got my 3mm plate from a local Fleet Farm.

@moffitt7707 You said "I bought the blue ribbon maple bacon seasoning stick" did you buy the snack stick seasoning? That isn't the same type of cure, you should have bought [Blue Ribbon Maple Ham](https://www.waltonsinc.com/blue-ribbon-maple-cure-for-ham) as that is formulated as a ham cure, the stick one is formulated for being ground and formed. I honestly don't even know if it is able to be soluble? Let me know if that is what you did and I will see if I can get some help from our application specialist to convert this. You asked about a chart, did you mean this? https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/700/cure-conversion-chart

Hi Do you have a chart for the pork leg making into ham? I bought a 19 # bone in ham. I bought the blue ribbon maple bacon seasoning stick. It says to add in 1oz of sure cure for the whole bag. I want to do injection to sit for 8 days. I have the ham spice, sodium Erthorbate. Then I would do a salt and brown sugar rub on out side. I would like to try this maple but don't want too mess it up.

@Jonathon Good, because my next question was going to be, why can't I find any #22 3mm plates on Walton's sure. Haha

@BRagland1 Yup, your 4.5 will be fine! And thanks @papasop for helping another community member out!

@BRagland1 I'm sure you'll enjoy it just fine. Good luck.

@PapaSop thank you. Wasn't sure how much difference in texture it makes.

@BRagland1 That will be fine. Have used a 4.5 many many times.

@grenier32 Yes, that is me Jon tremblay saying that not me a Walton's Employee!

@Jonathon The Hams look great we ended up smoking 12 hams and 12 slabs of Bacon this weekend. Long weekend but worth it. Quick question. I got the Hams up to between 136-142 internal. I know this is a little short of the 145 but I ran out of propane and it was very late. As long as when we eat the hams we bring it up to 145 we should be ok correct??    

@Jonathon I made a mistake I meant Sure Gel not Sure Cure. I am using the Country Brown Suger Cure. I am not doing it commercially I raise a few pigs every year for myself and my family. This year we raised 6 and everyone wants ham so I decided to bone them out to cure and Smoke. Each Ham is around 9.5 lbs +/-. I am going to mix the following please let me know if you see any problems with my calculations Total Weight= 114lbs 4 Gallons of water 9oz Cold Phosphate 27oz Sure Gel 4lbs Country Brown Suger Cure 1oz California Ham SPice .48oz Sodium Erythorbate Inject 20% or around 3 gallons total Then hold in a 50% solution for 24-48hrs Thanks for the advice and help!! This is the only place I will come to for all my meat processing equipment and seasoning mix!!!

@grenier32 Weigh all of them then add that weight up and calculate the amount. Then inject each one individually so it is pumped to the correct %. But we need to know a few things here. First, why add sure cure? Ham/Bacon Cures already have the cure mixed in to correctly impart a specific amount of ongoing nitrate in PPM. What cure are you using? 2nd, you are doing 12? Are you doing this commercially or do you just have a bunch of friends family who all want hams?

@Jonathon I have 12 fresh boneless hams that I am getting ready to inject, cure, and smoke. My question is do I take the combined weight and divide by 25lbs to calculate my Cold Phosphate and Sure Cure amounts or do I need to take an average weight of a single boneless ham? I am planning on smoking this weekend. Thanks for the help!!!!!!

jbh222 That is going to depend on your oven a little. How low will it start? How hot will your dehydrator get? You might be best served starting off in the dehydrator and then moving to the oven, if you’re dehydrator starts as low as 120 (which shouldn’t be a problem) putting them in there 1st and then moving them to the oven for cooking might be your best bet. What you will have to deal with here is case hardening in the dehydrator. You want the outside of the casing to be dry(ish) to let the smoke adhere, you don’t want to remove all of the moisture from the edge of the sausage though, if that happens you might not be able to pass heat efficiently into the middle of the snack stick.

I have 12 fresh boneless hams that I am getting ready to inject, cure, and smoke. My question is do I take the combined weight and divide by 25lbs to calculate my Cold Phosphate and Sure Cure amounts or do I need to take an average weight of a single boneless ham?

@cu_hunting Oh shoot sorry, I didnt respond to the ham rinse question. People do both, some rinse and some don't. If you don't like a lot of salt I'd say rinse it but if you are looking for that salty flavor go ahead and go right to smokehouse. A good way to rinse is put it in a bucket in a sink and fill the bucket, then turn the water on low and let it fill and drain for 20 minutes. Obviously make sure the bucket isn't blocking the drain so it can all drain out of the sink though. I don't rinse ham buit I do bacon, if that helps

@cu_hunting lol no, thank you though! Buy stuff from Walton's that's it, entire reason Austin set meatgistics up was to help our customers get the most out of their purchases. It has sprawled past what I thought it would be but at its core its still based on helping customers make good products!

@Jonathon do I need rinse or soak the hams in water after it's done with the brine soak? Thank you so much! Do you have a way to tip you guys? I want to show my appreciation for all your help!

@cu_hunting Let it soak for 4-5 days if you didn't include the sodium erythorbate, sorry but the cure needs that amount of time to work since it wasn't accelerated.

Okay I'm mad at myself... I forgot to include the sodium erythorbate in the injection, but I did include it into the cover brine. Not sure if that will help me at all or not? So mad at myself you wouldn't believe it... All this time and prep... Trying to do everything right and I forget something...

Jon thank you for all your help!!! Quick question if I use sodium erythorbate with all the ingredients mentioned, do I let it soak for just 24 hours or can it soak longer? Will it become too salty? Does it need rinsing and soaking in water after the soak? Thank you so much!!! Too bad you don't have a tip jar that I could donate to... You have been an amazing help to me and I greatly appreciate it!!!

@kroc It's not 100% the same BUT [Hickory Smoke Powder](https://www.waltonsinc.com/hickory-smoke-powder) does a great job of replacing the flavor. In fact, there was a while were @austin and I were doing our Will it BBQ videos and we would smoke something and then try that same thing with hickory smoke powder and we often couldn't tell the difference. Hmmmm smoked ice cream! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ky17U-ClJI

sounds good. I will give it a try. I live in apts. so i can't use a smoker.

@kroc I'd use that hickory smoke powder. I haven't used it, yet, but it sure does smell both good and authentic. I know that liquid smoke actually is made from smoke, but it always strikes me as acrid and just "off" for smoke.

making summer sausage in the oven. Can I use powdered hickory smoke to give it the smoke flavor or liquid smoke.

@TexLaw Thanks for finding that!

@Jonathon [HERE](https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/data-statistics/tables.html) is that study you referred to. It was a survey done by the CDC in 2015. They found that USA commercial pork was the source of 2 whole cases in the USA from 2011-2015. Bear was tied to 25. @cu_hunting As it turns out, that survey also tied only 2 cases to farm-raised swine.