@SierraPete I love Muffaletta seasoning/taste, I used to have some Muffaletta mix that I would put on sandwiches and I LOVED it!

How To Make Homemade Cured & Smoked Turkey

Learn how to make a homemade cured & smoked whole turkey with Walton's and Meatgistics. Read the guide and then post your questions or comments below.

What Is Cured & Smoked Turkey?

Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the most popular times that you will find smoked and cured turkey from your local grocery store or meat market, but what about the rest of the year? With Walton’s and Meatgistics learn how to easily make your own homemade cured and smoked turkey so you can enjoy smoked and cured turkey all year long! Curing meats is a process of adding salt, nitrites, and seasoning, plus smoking to assist in meat preservation, plus affect the taste and appearance of meat products. Cured and smoked turkey has a tendency to develop a flavor slightly similar to ham and is a popular choice for many people when preparing a whole turkey for consumption.

Meat Block

15 lb whole turkey

Additives

Walton’s Complete Turkey Cure
Cold Phosphate
Sodium Erythorbate - optional, see notes below
Cold Water - for best results place all water to be used in a container in a fridge overnight and do not use “hard” water

Supplies

Food Storage Containers & Brining-Marinating Bucket
Stark Bucket Liners for Marinating-Brining
Marinade Injector

Process

Two steps. First inject, then soak and brine overnight. This two-step process will help immediately begin to get the cure and seasoning into the turkey meat and then let it sit in a diluted cure solution overnight and let things equilibrate so the cure can adequately penetrate all areas of the turkey meat for a more even application

Prepare your injection solution first. For a 15 lb turkey follow these steps for preparing your injection solution. Start with 1.5 lb (24 oz) of cold water. Add 1.2 oz of cold phosphate to water and mix until completely dissolved. Then, mix 1/3 lb cure (5.3 oz) into the water and mix completely until dissolved and adequately dispersed (general usage - use 1.29 lb of cure to 1 gallon of water for a 10% pump). We recommend making extra of your injection solution, or on a single turkey, just double all the injection ingredients (cure, water, and phosphate) to make twice as much as is needed so you don’t run out during injecting. It’s always better to have a little bit of leftover injection solution. In this case, doubling would mean using 3.0 lb (48 oz) of cold water, 2.4 oz cold phosphate, and 2/3 lb (10.6 oz) of turkey cure.

Injection - We recommend doing an 8 point injection, with 4 injection points on each half of the turkey. Start with the turkey lying flat on a counter or cutting board and on its back with the bottom facing you. Your first injection will be in the middle of the breast and angled down towards the top of the turkey (repeat this injection on the other breast). Injection number 2 will be parallel to the counter, through the middle of the breast, towards the top of the turkey (repeat on both sides of the turkey breast). The third and fourth injection points will then be into the drumstick and leg and then inject into the thigh muscle (again repeat to inject both halves of the turkey). That gives us 4 injection points on each side of the turkey, for 8 total injection points.

Brining - Once your injection is complete, you can then brine the turkey overnight in a slightly diluted concentration of cure and water. To help the brine better penetrate through the skin and muscle, you can also slightly pull apart and create gaps in the skin and muscle. To make your cover brine, simply use twice as much water as the general usage that the cure requires. The size of your turkey and the size of container you use will affect how much solution for the cover brine that you will need to make. For a 15 lb turkey and the Walton’s Complete Turkey Cure, we need 10.5 oz (0.66 lb) of cure for each gallon of water. If you determine 3 gallons of cover brine is sufficient to fully submerge the turkey, then you would mix 3 gallons of water with 31.5 oz (1.96 lb) of cure. Simply take a Food Storage Container & Brining-Marinating Bucket, line the bucket with a Stark Bucket Liner, and then place your turkey in the bucket liner and container. Add your cover brine solution until the turkey is fully covered and submerged in the solution. You can then gather the excess of the top of the Stark Bucket Liner, push the turkey down into the solution so it is submerged, and then tie a knot in the top of the bucket liner so the turkey cannot float at the top of the solution and so it remains fully submerged in the brine solution. Hold the turkey in the brine solution overnight or approximately 12+ hours in your refrigerator or cooler (under 40° F)

After your injection is complete and the turkey has soaked in the brine solution for approximately 12 hours, remove the turkey from the cure and brine solution, discard the brine solution, and then you can begin preparation for cooking and smoking. You can also add an outside rub or seasoning for additional or different flavorings.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

Stage 1 - 125° F for 1 hour with smoker vents open
Stage 2 - 145° F for 2 hours and begin smoking
Stage 3 - 200° F until internal meat temp of 165°

Cooling

After smoking and cooking is complete, you can immediately eat the turkey
Or remove from smokehouse and cool at room temperature for 1 hour. Then vacuum seal and place the turkey or leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer for later consumption.

Additional Tips If your smoker cannot go as low as 125° or 145° then use the next lowest temperature setting your smoker can achieve for the first 2 stages of smoking If you are cooking in an oven and cannot add smoke, trying using Hickory Smoke Powder as a substitute. Hickory Smoke Powder can be dissolved in your injection solution and injected directly into the turkey meat Try Using Other Excalibur Seasoning Cures

You can use other types of cures for a different flavor profile. Use the same process as described above, but change the cure usage per the specific requirements of the other cures

Use Country Brown Cure at a ratio of 2.0 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for injection and 1.0 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for a cover brine Use Sweeter Than Sweet Cure at a ratio of 1.75 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for injection and 0.875 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for a cover brine Use Blue Ribbon Maple Cure at a ratio of 2.0 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for injection and 1.0 lb of cure per 1 gallon of water for a cover brine Other Notes While we do recommend brining overnight, if you do need to quicken your process for making a smoked turkey, you can skip the brining and add Sodium Erythorbate or Cure Excellerator to your injection solution and proceed straight to the smoking step after the injection and seasoning is complete If you only want to brine the turkey and skip the injection process, then hold the turkey in the brine solution for 2 days, but make sure that the holding temp in your refrigerator or cooler does not exceed 35° F for meat safety. Shop waltonsinc.com for Turkey Cure Shop waltonsinc.com for Food Storage Containers & Brining-Marinating Bucket Shop waltonsinc.com for Stark Bucket Liners Shop waltonsinc.com for Marinade Injectors

@sternh8gen If you are making 25 lb then I would recommend 4 oz of carrot fiber and for the Sure Gel use 6 oz per 25 lb batch. We have a Conversion Chart to show you how much by both weight and volume to use for 1 and 5 lb batches. We also have the same for seasoning and cures!

How To Make Homemade Smoked Ham - Recipe

Learn how to make homemade smoked hams with Walton's and Meatgistics. Read the highlights here, and then post your comments or questions below.

What Is Ham?

Ham comes from the upper portion of a pig’s hind leg. It is made into a smoked and cured meat product by salting, curing, or injecting and then smoking. It can be made as a whole muscle meat product or it can be made into a boneless re-structured product. This recipe will cover making a whole bone-in ham.

Meat Block

24 lb Bone-in ham

Additives

Excalibur Country Brown Sugar Cure
0.5 oz California Ham Spice
0.24 oz Sodium Erythorbate
2 oz Cold Phosphate
2 gallons Ice Cold Water (38° F or less)

Process (Inject or Brine)

Water - Before you prepare your brine or pickle there are a few things we need to point out about the water you are going to use. At the time of preparation, the water needs to be between 29 and 35 degrees F, and it should not be “hard” water and must be purified or potable water, so very low microbial levels. We recommend using either distilled or purified water, but tap water can be used but it should be placed in the refrigerator overnight to allow it to cool down to around 35 degrees and allow any added chlorine to evaporate and not be added to your meat product.

Injection - To prepare the injection first dissolve 2 oz of Cold Phosphate for every 25 lb of Ham you are curing in 2 gallons of cold water and mix until it is totally dissolved. The phosphate must be the first ingredient added for it to be effective. Then add 2 lb of the Country Brown Sugar Cure, .5 oz of California Ham spice and .015 lb (.24 ounces) of sodium erythorbate and inject the ham until it is 20% of its green weight. For example, a 20 lb ham should weigh 24 lb after pumping. We recommend a 14 point injection for a ham, starting at the thinner side inject near the end once on each side and then move up the ham making 4 more injections in a straight line until you reach the thicker end. Once you reached the thicker end, which should be your 6th injection, make 8 more evenly spaced injections around the end of the ham in a clockwise direction. Once you are done injecting you need to create a 50% strength pickle to cover your ham in while it cures in the cooler. To do this mix 1 lb of Country Brown Sugar Cure with 2 gallons of cold water and hold the ham overnight in a cooler around 38°.

Brining - Submerge ham into a solution containing 1 lb of Country Brown Sugar Cure per 1 gallon of water. Hold in the refrigerator or cooler for 5 to 7 days. Thoroughly rinse the ham, place in meat netting, and hang in the smokehouse to cook.

Holding - When we make products at Walton’s, we find the easiest container to use for any type of brining, curing, marinating, or soaking of meat products, to be done with a combination of our Stark Marinating Bucket Liners and our Food Safe Storage Containers and Marinating Buckets. Simply place a Stark Bucket Liner in the Food Storage Container, place our ham into the bucket liner, pour in enough cover brine solution to completely cover the ham, grab the excess part of the liner and squeeze out any air, and then tie the end of the bucket liner closed. Next, place the lid on the container, and then we can place the whole thing in our refrigerator overnight.

Stuffing

Stuff the ham into a casing like Ham Tubing or Versanet and hang in the smokehouse. The Versanet is flexible enough to easily fit over the ham without needing a Roast Tyer.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

Stage 1 - Set smokehouse temp to 120° F for 1 hour
Stage 2 - Start smoke and increase smokehouse temp to 140° F for 2 hours
Stage 3 - Increase smokehouse temp to 150° F for 2 hours
Stage 4 - Increase smokehouse temp to 160° F for 4 hours
Stage 5 - Increase smokehouse temp to 190° F and cook until internal meat temp reaches 160° F
Stage 6 - Shower ham with water to cool product quickly and lower internal temp to 115° F or less*

Cooling

After showering or placing in an ice water bath hold at room temp for approximately 1 to 2 hours before moving to the refrigerator or vacuum packaging

Additional Tips To increase your humidity for a better looking final product, place a small pan of water in the bottom of the smokehouse or oven during the entire cooking cycle If you cannot shower the product, instead place into an ice water bath to lower the internal meat temperature If you are cooking in an oven and cannot add smoke, trying using Hickory Smoke Powder as a substitute While a traditional cover brine or pickle can be done with hams it is very difficult to do correctly because of the thickness of the ham. Often, the cure in the brine will “gas out”, which means before the cure and nitrites can fully penetrate to the center of the ham, the nitrite will break down into nitric oxide gas before it can penetrate all the way to the center of the ham, and then it is released from the brine into the air. The best way to make a properly cured ham at home is to inject it. Try Using Other Excalibur Seasoning Cures

You can use other types of cures for a different flavor profile. Use the same process as described above, but change the cure usage per the specific requirements of the other cures

Use Sweeter Than Sweet Cure at a ratio of 1.75 lb of cure to a gallon of cold water for 10% pump Use Extra White Sugar Cure at a ratio of 1.75 lb of cure to 1 gallon of cold water for a 10% pump Shop waltonsinc.com for Ham Cures Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Additives Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Netting Shop waltonsinc.com for Injectors Shop waltonsinc.com for Brining Containers

@jonathon Sounds great. Thank you!

@cruise-dw I think it is a little small for Brats yes. A 1/8 plate is better as a second grind plate for snack sticks, summer sausages or other cured products. For Bratwursts a 3/8 plate it going to give you a better consistency for a fresh product. If you are using a 1/8 plate for your first grind that is going to take a long time and it will cause a little too much stress on your meat. Switching will, at the very least, help speed up your process!

@weatherbow21 I’d go a little higher than 15%, closer to 20-25% for taste and consistency. If you can find it, pork fat works better than beef fat as it has a creaminess to it that other animal fats can’t quite match. Now, having said that, beef fat will absolutely work too!

Yes you are correct in how you are planning on just switching out casings. The only thing I want to point out is that after you have stuffed them into the casings they need to be held in a refrigerator overnight unless you are using a Cure Accelerator such as Encapsulated Citric Acid, Sodium Erythorbate or Excalibur’s Cure Excellerator.

How To Make Homemade Ring Bologna

Learn how to make homemade ring bologna with Walton's and Meatgistics. Read the guide and then post your questions or comments below.

What is Ring Bologna?

Ring bologna is similar to a normal bologna sausage but it is stuffed into a smaller diameter casings and made into a ring or semicircle. It is typically left as a ring and then sliced to eat on crackers, or cut into chunks to serve as a part of other dishes or casseroles.

Meat Block

7.5 lb 85/15 Lean Beef
8.75 lb 80/20 Lean Pork
8.75 lb 50/50 Pork Trim

Additives

1 package Ring Bologna Seasoning Unit #4550333550
1oz Sure Cure (packet included with the seasoning)
2oz Smoked Meat Stabilizer
6oz Sure Gel Meat Binder
1 Quart Ice Cold Water

Process

Grind pork trim through 3/16in grinder plate, twice
Grind lean beef and pork through 1/8in grinder plate

Mix

Begin mixing lean meats first. While mixing add Seasoning, Sure Gel Meat Binder (or Soy Protein Blend), Sure Cure, and Ice Cold Water. Mix for 5 minutes.
Add ground pork trim and mix for an additional 3 minutes, for a total of 8 minutes of mixing time

Stuff

Stuff into Collagen Ring Bologna Casings

Note

(If you do not use a cure accelerator like Smoked Meat Stabilizer, then hold in a refrigerator for approximately 12 hours or overnight)

Smokehouse Schedule

120F for 30 minutes
130F for 30 minutes (start adding smoke now and throughout entire cook cycle)
140F for 30 minutes
150F for 30 minutes
160F for 30 minutes
170F until internal meat temperature of 160F
Shower final product or place in a ice water bath for 10-20 minutes to set the casings and cool the product

Other Notes

Place a small pan of water in the bottom of smokehouse during entire cooking cycle to help increase humidity
If your smoker, smokehouse, or oven cannot reach temperatures as low as 120F, just start as low as possible and slowly increase the temperature over time

ENJOY! Shop waltonsinc.com for Ring Bologna Seasoning Shop waltonsinc.com for Collagen Ring Bologna Casings Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Stuffers

@gusmanp Sorry for the delay in responding. The only real reason I would add water to a restructured product would be to make mixing and extruding easier, other than that it isn’t necessary. When I make restructured jerky I like to use smoked meat stabilizer so I can go right to the smoker, and when using that you don’t really want to add water or it can gas out so quickly that it can cause issues.

Hope that helps!