Powered Milk is used as a binder and has worked well for me when I do not have a commercial binder for sausages

@Jonathon I have been making 100-150 lbs of summer sasuage a year and have found that if I course grind the very cold meat first, put it back in the freezer to chill while I put my 1/8" plate in my grinder and grind the cold beef fat 1/8" and then thoroughly mix the fat and meat together then grinding them 1/8 I get better mixing and protein extraction. I then thoroughly mix in all the other ingredients and the Stuff.

@Curtis-p. Be careful when using Pink Curing Salt as 1 ounce will cure 25 lbs of ground meat. Pink Curing Salt cannot be directly substituted for Mortons Tender Quick as a 2 lb bag Of Mortons Tender Quick only has .32 Ounces of Curing Salt and the rest is Salt and Sugar according to the label. Pink Curing Salt is Potent Stuff!!! and should be used accordingly.

@rhjbarney My smoker is similar, I converted it to Natural Gas as our Electric is very expensive and gas is cheap.
Dave

@Holden-Nyhus You might want to add a convection fan to your smoker to mix and circulate the air to provide a more constant temp throughout the space, I added a convection oven fan in the top of my smoker and it seems to help keep a more constant temperature.

I agree on the Masterbuilt 30 or 40. I if you can afford it I would go with the 40 with the larger capacity . I personally use a A-MAZE-N 12 " smoker tube in the smoker instead of chip dropper it comes with as one tube of pellets gives off 4 hours of uninterrupted smoke.

Dave

@lamurscrappy wo

would love some pictures and information on your steam generator…
Thanks
Dave

@lamurscrappy What kind of smoker do you have and what are you doing to reaching 90-95% humidity in a home smoker

I have been using the A-MAZE-N 12 in. Smoker Tube for about 2 years in three different smokers I have and have found that using it with wood pellets is a much easier and better way than traditional wood chips for smoking. Take a look at it and give it a try.

Dave

@smokinbubba , When I do the water bath, I just put finished cooked sticks in a tub and cover with cold water for a few minutes or it we have fresh snow throw them out in the snow is that what you are doing? What is the purpose of the Bloom and at what temperature?