Cured a 11lb. Pork belly for some bacon. Once the curing time was finished into the smoker for 8hrs. With hickory, Cherry and maple. Now it’s all sliced up, vac sealed and ready to fry up. Thanks for looking 🙏

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.

Re: What did everyone cook today?Not sausage related but if you put breakfast sausage on them I guess it counts.I’ve been wanting to make these for awhile now and I finally got around to it. I made the dough and left it ferment at room temperature for 18 hrs. After the 18 hrs. the dough was rolled out to around 3/4 in. That small one was made out of the left over scraps. I then used a 3” muffin cutter to make the rounds. After the rounds were cut out they were left to rise for 45 min. They were pan cooked at medium heat in the pan with no fat applied to the pan just some semolina flour to give them that extra crunch. They were cooked for 6 min. on the 1st side until they were golden brown then flipped for another 3-4 min. until the other side was golden brown. Once they finished cooking I checked with a instant read thermometer to check they were done. Fork split and look at all those nooks and crannies. I toasted them and put butter and some fig jam I recently made. Very happy with the result but next time I will cold ferment them for an additional 24 hrs after the initial ferment to get some more sourdough like flavor. Thanks for looking.🙏
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I bought this seasoning when it was 1st released just for Octoberfest. I finally got around to making it and it was worth the wait. I mixed the meat and seasonings with Guinness Stout instead of water and stuffed the farce in Walton’s 30-32mm pretubed casings. The flavor profile is a little hard to describe. The closest thing that comes to mind and it really is not that close would be think of a Blue Ribbon brat with a fermented flavor. My wife and I really enjoyed the flavor. I cooked a few on my Big Green Egg and my wife made some German potato salad along with a couple of pretzel rolls. Thanks for looking 🙏

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.

Re: What did everyone cook today?It’s the end of the season so what to do with all those left over green and red cherry tomatoes? Over the weekend I made Hot Pickled Cherry Tomatoes. While they are canned and ready to eat they really need to be left alone at least 2-4 weeks with 4 weeks being the sweet spot. I will post the recipe in the user recipe section. Thanks for looking 🙏

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.

This is the recipe I used to make English muffins that I posted in the bragging board. I got this recipe from Gemma’s Bigger Bolder Baking website. [undefined] https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/homemade-english-muffins/(undefined). The only thing I changed is I increased the salt form 1/4 tsp. to 1/2 tsp. Next time I may up it to 3/4 tsp. and instead of letting it rest at room temp for 12-18 hrs. I’m going to go either 48 or 72 hrs. in the fridge in order to get a little sourdough flavor. Thanks for looking 🙏

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2oz /355g) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups (5floz/142ml) milk
1/2 cups (4floz/115ml) water
1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
In a medium bowl, add the flour, yeast, and salt. Mix briefly.
In a separate jug, add the milk, water, and butter. Pop it into the microwave for 15-30 seconds or until it’s lukewarm and the butter has melted. Take care not to let it get too hot.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until you form a dough. The dough will be quite soft and a little sticky. (NOTE: See video about holding back liquid until you get the right consistency of dough).
Once the dough has come together, just scrape down the sides of the bowl and cover tightly with cling wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Now let it sit at room temperature for a minimum of 12-18 hours. (If you want to cook off your muffins at a later time then pop the dough in the fridge after 18 hours)
The next morning, the dough will have doubled in size. Turn it out onto a floured surface. Cover with cling wrap and a kitchen towel and let rest for just 10 minutes.
After resting, the gluten will have relaxed. You can now roll it out to about 2 cm or slightly over an inch in thickness. (In the video I said roll to 1 cm however I found this to be very thin later)
Using a 3-inch cookie cutter dusted in flour, cut out rounds and transfer them to another a baking tray lined with parchment. Any scraps can you re-rolled and made into another muffin. Note: At this point, you can place the muffins in the fridge to be cooked off later.
Cover the muffins with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let it rest for about 40-45 minutes. After 45 minutes, the dough circles will have puffed up a little. Proceed to cook!
Cooking the English Muffins:
Heat a large nonstick frying pan over a steady, medium to medium-low heat.
Using a flat spatula, carefully move over the English muffins onto to a non stick frying pan and cover with a lid.
Leave at least a 2 inches between each muffin. It makes 8-10 muffins so you will probably need to cook them off in two batches. Take extra care when moving your muffins to avoid compressing the dough and knocking out the bubbles.
Cook on this side for about 6-7 minutes. The steam created with the lid on will help the muffins rise and cook through fully.
Flip over and cook on the other side for another 3-4 minutes.
Set the muffins aside to cool down before eating them fresh. These muffins also toast up really well.
Store for 4 days at room temperature or freeze for up to 8 weeks.

While the UMAI bagged copa muscle was in the refrigerator it was placed on a rack in order to maintain airflow around the bag. Every week I rotated the bag and weighed and recorded it’s weight loss. Believe me it’s not an easy thing to do seeing the Capicola loosing weight and not being able to smell or taste it. My patience eventually paid off as the Capicola is finally done. I opened the Capicola when I had a 38% weight loss. The aroma and texture was spot on. While I did have some case hardening on the outside there was no effect on the taste or texture of the meat when sliced thin. I sliced up 2 ounces for snaking and the remaining Capicola will be vac sealed in a regulate vac bag for 2-3 months in order for the meats moisture to distribute evenly. Capicola along with other charcuterie is only good when sliced thin and thanks to my Walton’s slicer that task was easy. Thanks for lookin.

John

You brought more then your “A” game to that party. Great looking sopprassata and nice work on the plating.

That looks great! I never had bread pudding but I would sure eat some of that.

Austin said in Meatgisitcs Podcast: Full of Flavor:

PapaSop I wish! They were on sale this weekend 10 for $10 at my local grocery store! I about died with excitement filling up the shopping cart! Haha!

Austin, just make your own pizza. Make your dough, let it cold ferment for 72hrs. Put on whatever toppings you want. Bake and eat. Here are a few of my recent pizzas, margarita, potato, Detroit and a pistachio truffle oil pizza.

Definitely would have lost the bet with Subway having more stores them McDonalds.

PapaSop said in How I make my bacon.:

Been thinking about trying bacon for awhile now. What’s a good price? Found some locally for 5.99lb. I know this will vary greatly.

Is that $5.99 for raw pork belly? I picked up my last pork belly at Costco for $3.99 lb. and I thought that was expensive.

Dr_Pain said in How I make my bacon.:

Bacon is on my to-do list!!! I will bookmark this for sure

The recipe I follow is just one of many bacon formulas. There are many others out there that are excellent. Once you do make your own bacon it’s very hard to go back to commercially made bacon. When I do run out of my own bacon I have two family run butches near me that mange a very good product. If you have any questions on my procedure or any other questions please feel free to reach out.

gus4416 said in How I make my bacon.:

The maple sugar really sets it off for maple flavor

Have you ever cold smoked your bacon rather then cooking it? That’s something I really want to try.

gus4416 said in How I make my bacon.:

Is this recipe from my back yard you tube Chanel I use this same recipe except no pepper

It’s actually a version I got from Michael Ruhlman’s book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing.

That looks delicious! I have 3 going right now using UMAI dry bags. Once it’s completed I will make a post about the process and result.

Sounds like this would make a great video for a podcast.