I’ve smoked a whole ribeye before but don’t remember what I did. I want to get the meat up to 135 degrees f. and then wrap in aluminum foil. After that I want to place it into an ice chess for a few hours then slice thin and make sandwiches. This is going to be done on SUnday for the LSU football game. Problem is, I am not sure where to start the smoking temperature or what kind of wood to use. I’m thinking hickory so that the flavor will get into the ribeye. Not sure if I need to put water in the water pan for this or not. I viewed videos that put the smoker at 275 to start with but I’m worried that the meat will dry out at that temp. ANy ideas, thoughts, suggestions?

@jonathon Thanks for trying Jonathon. Many wouln’t even do that. I’ll just write down the possible settings and write the last one that I used so that the next time I use it I’ll know where it was set. Some times there are no little tricks that make these things easy but you tried. Some devices can be set to defaults and some do this when they are unplugged and plugged in again. Another thing is the bags are cheap enough, I can make a few to see what is happening and adjust the unit accordinly. Didn’t get this far in life by giving up always some way to get it done. I’m planning on trying the hot dogs this weekend. I am going to use the collagen casing and I’ll post on how it goes. Thanks again.

Ok so the vacmaster vp112s is arriving tomorrow. I can’t wait. I have a few questions about its operation. I am aware that you can change the seal time and the vac time. Once these are changed are they stored in a memory even if the machine is unplugged? Since I can’t see I need to know if there is a way to get the times and vac strength back to say factory defaults so that I know where I am. Is this possible or will I just need to remember what they are set on from the last time I used the unit? ALso, what is the size bag for the chamber sealewrs closest to a pint, quart, and gallon?

I did it. I purchased the vacmaster vp112s. I went with the 112 because I don’t care for the auto lid on the 120. Motor sounds strained. One less mechanical thing to go wrong. The braille on the vac bags held up and I look forward to know what my frozen bags contain for the first time in my life. As usual the people at walton’s were extremely helpfull. Austin sent me sample bags to try and I have also been working with Jonathon to get my hot dogs right among other things. I found the 112s cheaper but the people didn’t want to assist at all. The amount of money wasn’t that much and these days customer service is lacking in a lot of places…I am totally happy but can’t wait until the sealer arrives tomorrow. Thanks walton’s for all you do. Another issue is that I am totally blind but not one of the Walton’s staff said wait you can’t do that you can’t see. I assist my brother with meat processing and even go on the hunt for deer. I also buy in bulk and freeze. I grind my own meat with a weston #32 grinder, mix with the weston meat mixer, and stuff with a waltons 7 pound stuffer. I smoke with a smoke hollow 44 propane smoker and a master built 30 inch electric smoker. I really hope that one day I can afford the smokers that Waltons sells. I think it is the pk100. Now I can’t wait to store things using the vacmaster vp112s.

@austin Austin, I received the bags. Great news, I wrote using braille on 3 or 4 bags and put them in the freezer. I checked a few times last night and the braille was still there. I also placed a label on 1 bag using dymo tape. It seemed to stick well. I plan on leaving the bags in the freezer all weekend to see what happens. If I still have label with or braille or braille on the bag after the weekend I’ll purchase the vp112s. My thinking is that I don’t need the automatic lid. Just one more thing to go wrong.

@gerygaub That would be gret Austin. I was terribly disappointed in the other company I was dealing with concerning the vacuum sealer. The address you have on file would totally work and that is awesome that you would send a few for me to check out whether or not it will work. Like your site says, family business. You guys are totally awesome to work with. I anxiously await the bags. Thanks!!

I recently made a batch of cheeseberger cheddarwurst sausage. I used the xcaliber cheeseberger cheddarwurst seasoning. I had about 6 pounds of ground serloin. I put the specified amount of seasoning and added about 2 pounds of bacon. I ground this and re-ground it through a 3mm grinding plate. I mixed in a bit over an ounce of carrot fiber and also added a pound of high temp cheddar cheese. It turned out great. I have a pic of the sausages but since I am blind I can’t post it. I would be glad to send to someone to post. I also experimented with collagen casing and as well as hog casing as can be seen in the picture.

I am considering purchasing a vacuum sealer. I am considering either the vacmaster vp112s or vp120. I am trying to find out if there is bag material above where the sealer creates the seal. I am looking for 1 bag to see if I can braille on it if there is material above the seal. For someone without sight, all bags in the freezer feel cold and there isn’t really a way to distinguish what is in a bag. If you attempt to feel shapes in the bags you loose feeling in your fingers and give up rather quickly. You then have to wait for sighted help. I’m looking for 1 bag to see if this is even a possibility.

I have some ground serloin. About 6 pounds. I put that with about 2 pounds of bacon. I plan to use the cheese burger cheddar wurst seasoning and some carrot fiber. I will also be putting about a pound of high temp cheddar cheese. I plan on putting that in casing and calling it bacon cheese burder cheddar wurst. Hoping the beef doesn’t make it dry, the carrot fiber and the bacon should help with moisture.

Jon, I tried to answer your questions about the hot dogs. This page isn’t totally user friendly for a blind person that uses speech and braill to access computers. So to recap;

1. I used about a pint or so of water, approximately 1.5 to 1.8 ounces carrot fiber, a bit less than half of the seasoning pack, and cellulos casing.
2. I stuffed the casings and tried to twist. The twists came undone when I cut the hot dogs to the length I wanted.
3. I followed the reccomended smoking schedule.
4. I got the internal temp up to 136 but it didn’t go higher. Could be my thermometer. I am going to try a blue tooth thermometer next time if I can get it to work with voice over on the iphone.
5. When the temp wouldn’t rise I eventually removed the hot dogs from the smoker. WHen I went to place them on a pan, the meat came out of the casing. The texture was dry and crumbly.
   in conclusion I have a few questions.
6. Why did the temp not rise or did it and my thermometer not pick it up?
7. Why did the casing not stay swisted and closed?
8. Since the casing didn’t stay closed could this be the reason the product was dry?
9. Should I use a different casing like collagen?

I’d really like to find a good thermometer that works with blue tooth and voice over on an iphone but don’t have the money to keep buying them to try them out.

Sorry for the long post it’s really different for a person who has no sight because I can’t be sure that the thermometer was working properly, I can’t tell you what the product looked like. Thanks for patience and understanding and trying to assist.