1st time bragging here but I wanted to thank Walton’s for some excellent sausage seasonings. I made close to 25 lbs. of sausage that were a hit with the family. I smoked some Walton’s Jalapeño summer sausage with Hi Temp hot pepper cheese. While the summer sausage was smoking I made some fresh Holly breakfast sausage, chorizo and Blue Ribbon brats with Hi Temp cheddar sausage.

Made some Jalapeño Summer Sausage for Christmas gifts and personal use this week. I used Excalibur’s Jalapeño summer sausage mix along with Walton’s Sure Gel, cheddar cheese and cure #1. Unfortunately I didn’t check my stock and I was out of ECA. I used 8 lbs. chuck trimmed off all hard fat, 4 lbs. pork butt and I added and additional 1 lb. of pork fat back. 1st grind through a 10mm plate followed by an additional grind through a 3mm plate. Once ground I used my 20lb. mixer to get protein extraction. Then they were stuffed into 2 1/2 x 12 fibrous casings and then put them into the refrigerator overnight for the cure to work. The next day they went into my PID modified electric smoker with a mailbox mod for my AMPS pellet tray. They were smoked at 120 no smoke for an hour then I bumped the temp up to 130 with Apple/hickory smoke. Remaining smoke schedule was 140 for and hr., 150 for an hr., then 160 until the internal temp hit 130. At the 130 mark they were removed from the smoker and placed in a 150 sous vide bath until the internal temp reached 150 Since I used pork in the mix I held the sausage in the sous vide bath for an addition hour to make sure the meat was pasteurize. After their sous vide bath they went for an ice bath plunge and were then hung up at room temp for 2 hrs. to bloom. I was very happy with the result but all recipients loved them.
Thanks to Walton’s for all their excellent products, tutorials and Livestreams.

There is nothing like pork wrapped in pork. Recently I made a pork loin stuffed with Blue Ribbon brats. I took my boning knife and a 12” carving Carving knife to make the hole length wise in the pork loin for the sausage. I cooked my brats first to make sure the pork loin would not be over cooked while waiting for the brats to come to a safe temp. Once the brats cooled off I stuffed them into the pork loin and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I then tied up the pork loin and smoked it on my Big Green Egg. Once the internal temp of the brats reached 150 I pulled it off a let it rest for a few minutes. I sliced it up and served along with my homemade sourdough rye bread. It was a big hit with the family!

After watching all of Jonathon’s tender jerky videos I decided to give it a go. But before I go on I need to explain the topic heading. In reference to the last time in the heading, this will be the last time I make my jerky the old way I used to make it. The tender jerky was a Grand Slam! The jerky was the best I’ve ever made it. It was tender, flavorful and a bit hit with the family. I started out with 6 lbs. of eye round and after marinating and smoking I wound up with 4. lbs 6 oz. of the best jerky I’ve made. I did make one change to Jonathon’s method that I think really works well. The total weight of the meat was 2,746 Kg. I did 18% low sodium soy (496 grams) and 18% brown sugar 495 grams) with 2% water (55 grams) . I treated this mixture the same way I would as if making a simple syrup. The day before I started to make the jerky I combined the soy, brown sugar and water and weighed it. I then heated it to a low simmer and kept stirring until I had what I would call a nice cohesion. After everything was combined I weighed it again and added water to repl ace whatever water loss I had during the simmering process. This was then put in the fridge overnight to get nice and cold. The next day there were not sugar crystals on the bottom. I sliced the partially frozen meat against the grain into 1/4 inch strips using my Walton’s slicer. The meat was then cut in half to make nice size edible pieces. I took the soy/brown sugar syrup and added Walton’s pepper and garlic jerky seasoning as a base flavor along with 2 TBS. of garlic power, 4 tsp. of cayenne pepper and the proper amount of cure #1. The meat and the mixture was placed into a Marinade Express Pro and vacuumed tumbled for 60 min. and then placed into the fridge. The next day I opened the vacuum tumbler and hand tossed the meat in the tumbler and then vacuumed tumbled it again for another 60 min. The following day when I smoked the jerky as my smoker was coming up to temp I opened the tumbler again, mixed the meat by hand and did a final 20 min. tumble. I followed the smoke schedule that’s listed in the Waltons Tender home jerky post.

As stated I started out with 2.755 Kg (6 lbs.) of meat and with all the tumbling I wound up with a total meat weight of 3.828Kg (there was very little fluid left in the tumbler). After the smoking process I was left with 2.106 Kg or 4 lbs. 6 oz. of jerky. That to me is incredible.

A big shout out of appreciation to Jonathon and Walton’s for not only their excellent products but also for sharing their knowledge and also for this awesome community.

During today’s Livestream I notice the bottle of Maxim sanitizer on the table. How about a topic on the proper way to clean and sanitize your equipment (grinders, slicers, stuffers etc.) . There seems to be quite a few newcomers who may not know the difference between cleaning and sanitizing.

I finally got around to try my hand at chicken sausage. I used Walton’s Supreme Pizza Bratwurst Seasoning with their hi temp mozzarella cheese. I ground up 3.5lbs of chicken thighs with some of the skin through a 4.5mm plate. Once the chicken was ground I added the Supreme Pizza Bratwurst Seasoning per Walton’s conversation chart. Instead of water I used low sodium chicken broth. With everything mixed I then mixed in the 7oz. of the hi temp cheese. I stuffed them into 24-26 sheep casings. Grilled a few up for dinner and the rest will be going in the freezer. Two things I will do a little different next time. I’ll reduce the amount of cheese as the cheese seemed to be the predominant flavor. I will also reduce the amount of liquid as it seems chicken needs less then pork or beef as the slurry was a little loose.

Never mind the Lifestream, giveaways or any thing that’s not important. What’s important (if I’m reading this last few posts right) is your and your families health. Things can be replaced, People can’t. Prayers and Karma being sent to you.

On Sat. I started a Eye round roast in my sous vide. First I coated it with Excalibur’s Ultimate steak and roast seasoning. I set the sous vide for 135 and left it for 24 hrs. Once out of the sous vide I seared it in my Big Green Egg that was cranking at 700. Once seared I sliced it nice and thin on my Walton’s 10” slicer that I won on their Livestream. Man was that good piece of meat! The eye round was tender with excellent flavor from the seasoning. The only mistake I made was didn’t take into account the temp rise of the meat when searing at 700 so the Eye round was more medium then on the rare side. Next time I’ll do it at 125 for a more rare roast. Excellent products from Walton’s.

I have solved my temp swings in my old Masterbuilt smoker with a PID controller . I now how temp swings of ± 4 deg. on all my racks. Please let me know where I should post pics of the mod I made as I would love to share it with you. Just an FYI it’s not for the faint of heart. Its cost was around $200 and it requires a little knowledge of electricity and some mechanical skills.

John Belvedere (that guy from Long Island)

Jonathon Thank you!

processhead said in Tubed Natural Sheep Casings Lengths:

John Belvedere said in Tubed Natural Sheep Casings Lengths:

Awhile ago (before I found Walton’s) I bough a hank of 22-24mm sheep casings from a different supplier. I bought a hank because I hate the home pack lengths. Unfortunately the hank I bought were all 4-6 ft. lengths. Does anyone know the average casing length of Walton’s 22-24mm Tubed Natural Sheep Casings.

I hope you can share the source of those short length casing with the rest of us so no one else spends their money there.
I can’t imagine any reputable supplier selling casings like what you described.

Processhead, While I would like to share the name of the company that I purchased the sheep casings from I’m not. I’m so fed up with political, company and personal belief bashing that the net seems to have nurtured so well. I also do not want to bring any of that negativity here. I was brought up with the saying if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it. I’m sure we all can agree that anything we have purchased from Walton’s exceeded our expectations. With that said I just bought their tubed sheep casings and I’m sure I’ll be very happy with them.

DennyO said in Tubed Natural Sheep Casings Lengths:

I do too, just never have used them yet. Do you have much of a blow out issue? What do you believe are issues to deal with?
Trust me I’m not a newbie to sausage, just new to naturals. (oops, sorry I didn’t mean to leave it like that, LOL.)

No matter how good you are an occasional blowout will happen. I’m a firm believer of prepping my casing way before stuffing time. I soak my casing in water with just a little bit of white vinegar. I soak them for an hour or 2 and change the solution and then soak for another hour then stuff or put in the fridge until the next day. Sheep casings are more tedious to use as they are thinner and more prone to blowouts. Plus the smaller size makes it that much difficult to load onto the stuffing tube (tubed casings help eliminate that problem). Hog casings are larger and thicker then sheep casings so they are more forgiving.

Joe Hell said in Tubed Natural Sheep Casings Lengths:

John Belvedere They will vary in length considerably from my experience. Sometimes I’ll case 5 lbs, other time times twice that or more. Don’t fret…soak an estimated amount for your project and if you have leftover just saturate with plain/kosher salt (non-iodized) and vacuum seal then refrigerate for later use.

Thanks Joe, I always over estimate casing length. I’ve been down that road where I have plenty of farce left but ran out of prepped casings. Naturally the left over farce became patties.

Awhile ago (before I found Walton’s) I bough a hank of 22-24mm sheep casings from a different supplier. I bought a hank because I hate the home pack lengths. Unfortunately the hank I bought were all 4-6 ft. lengths. Does anyone know the average casing length of Walton’s 22-24mm Tubed Natural Sheep Casings.

wdaly said in sous vide questions:

I use a Neater thermometer for about every cook. Have you guys tried inserting the Meater into a summer sausage and then vacuum sealing it in the bag? Just wondering if that would give you an accurate constant temperature of a summer sausage in a sous vide.

I use my MEATER all the time in sous vide. I vac seal on with the MEATER while the rest of my sausage go straight into the water. The vac sealed one gives me a real time temp. When the MEATER goes off at the desired temp I then use my Thermapen on some just to double check for temp. Hope this helps you.

This is a really good brat. On my palate it does have a little heat on the backend but very very flavorful.

PapaSop nicely done sir, nicely done

Vacseal one of the products with a MEATER + in the meat. No more guessing

After watching all of Jonathon’s tender jerky videos I decided to give it a go. But before I go on I need to explain the topic heading. In reference to the last time in the heading, this will be the last time I make my jerky the old way I used to make it. The tender jerky was a Grand Slam! The jerky was the best I’ve ever made it. It was tender, flavorful and a bit hit with the family. I started out with 6 lbs. of eye round and after marinating and smoking I wound up with 4. lbs 6 oz. of the best jerky I’ve made. I did make one change to Jonathon’s method that I think really works well. The total weight of the meat was 2,746 Kg. I did 18% low sodium soy (496 grams) and 18% brown sugar 495 grams) with 2% water (55 grams) . I treated this mixture the same way I would as if making a simple syrup. The day before I started to make the jerky I combined the soy, brown sugar and water and weighed it. I then heated it to a low simmer and kept stirring until I had what I would call a nice cohesion. After everything was combined I weighed it again and added water to repl ace whatever water loss I had during the simmering process. This was then put in the fridge overnight to get nice and cold. The next day there were not sugar crystals on the bottom. I sliced the partially frozen meat against the grain into 1/4 inch strips using my Walton’s slicer. The meat was then cut in half to make nice size edible pieces. I took the soy/brown sugar syrup and added Walton’s pepper and garlic jerky seasoning as a base flavor along with 2 TBS. of garlic power, 4 tsp. of cayenne pepper and the proper amount of cure #1. The meat and the mixture was placed into a Marinade Express Pro and vacuumed tumbled for 60 min. and then placed into the fridge. The next day I opened the vacuum tumbler and hand tossed the meat in the tumbler and then vacuumed tumbled it again for another 60 min. The following day when I smoked the jerky as my smoker was coming up to temp I opened the tumbler again, mixed the meat by hand and did a final 20 min. tumble. I followed the smoke schedule that’s listed in the Waltons Tender home jerky post.

As stated I started out with 2.755 Kg (6 lbs.) of meat and with all the tumbling I wound up with a total meat weight of 3.828Kg (there was very little fluid left in the tumbler). After the smoking process I was left with 2.106 Kg or 4 lbs. 6 oz. of jerky. That to me is incredible.

A big shout out of appreciation to Jonathon and Walton’s for not only their excellent products but also for sharing their knowledge and also for this awesome community.

anyone know why there is a different smoke schedule between tender jerky at home and tender venison jerky?

Home tender jerky schedule
Stage 1 - 20 Minutes at 110° (dampers wide open)
Stage 2 - 30 Minutes at 135° (begin adding smoke)
Stage 3 - 10 Minutes at 140° (dampers wide open again for drying)
Stage 4 - 30 Minutes at 150°
Stage 5 - 175° until internal temperature is 160°

ADVANCED THERMAL PROCESSING & SMOKING

Stage 1 - 20 Minutes Dry at 110° 0 Relative Humidity(RH)
Stage 2 - 30 Minutes Dry at 135° 0 (RH)
Stage 3 - 10 Minutes Dry at 140° 0 (RH)
Stage 4 - 30 Minutes Dry at 150° Wet at 126° 50 RH
Stage 5 - 30 Minutes Dry at 155° Wet at 130° 50 RH
Stage 6 - Dry at 175° Wet at 155 RH 60 until internal temperature is 160°

Tender venison jerky schedule
20 minutes @ 140 drying phase (no humidity and open vents)
30 minutes @ 150 (add smoke and humidity)
30 minutes @ 155 (add smoke and humidity)
Smoke @ 165 until internal temp is 155 and make sure it stays there for 5 minutes (add smoke and humidity)
15 minutes @ 160 with no humidity and vents wide open.