@Joe-Hell Okay, I would have understood if it was used as a heat shield but I gotta say I’ve tried salmon and some sort of white fish o cedar planks and I didn’t notice any type of advantage. Maybe my pallet isnt sensitive enough or I was doing it wrong. Either way, I’ll try it again!

Okay, so I went to Sams and found some of the powdered franks red hot. Vinegar powder is a prominent ingredient and vinegar will drop the pH of the meat and start to denature the proteins and make protein extraction very difficult. I did 2 7 lb batches, both with the Ranch Flavored Snack Stick. On one batch I mixed 2 heaping tablespoons of the mix at the same time that I mixed in the seasoning, cure, sure gel and water, and hand mixed it for about 8 minutes. There was very little stickiness to the meat, it sort of got mushy but it did not stick together well. On the second one, I got good protein extraction and then added in the franks red hot powder. Once I added the powder it started to break down the proteins quickly. There was almost no difference in the meat when I loaded them into the stuffer.

I smoked them in our commercial smokehouse that can set the humidity, set up a good smoke schedule and cooked them. As soon as I opened the smoker I knew what had happened, the casings were very wrinkled for a batch coming out of that smoker. Sure enough biting into them produced a pretty bland taste, especially when you consider I added 2 big table spoons of the Red Hot Powder, and that stuff is strong!

So, basically, we fatted out. For those who don’t know this is what happens when the protein, fats, water, seasoning and additives don’t bind together and then the fat renders out of the snack stick. The odd thing is that I don’t see any fat between the meat and the casing. I couldn’t prove that the fat all ran out and dripped down because I ran a shower cycle at the end that would have washed it all down the drain but I am fairly confident that this is what happened.

This is exactly why Encapsulated Citric Acid is encapsulated. The cotton seed oil is designed to not melt until it reaches 130° and by that the point the meat has pretty much been set.

So, in my opinion adding powdered (and certainly liquid) Hot Sauce that has vinegar or vinegar powder into it is not a good idea.

@Joe-Hell Do you often cook on planks? I have tried it a time or two and never noticed a difference. Is it only supposed to be used for heat shielding?

@Ed_Orum The most popular starter culture that we carry for pepperoni would be the Bactoferm LHP but that requires warmer temperatures than 60° as its optimum growth is from 90-110°. Doing this in your basement will be a “proceed at your own risk” situation as we can only recommend doing these under controlled environments like a dry curing chamber.

There is some good information on that page, so even if you dont use the LHP I would recommend checking it out.

Anyone have any tips for Ed?

@North biggest difference between H Summer and Ton’s is that H summer has whole mustard seeds where Ton’s has ground mustard seeds. Either would be great but I’d probably go with H Summer, it is a best seller and with good reason!

For Breakfast links adding pure maple syrup is a better idea, I don’t have good luck with adding bacon,m gets mooshie (sp?) whenever I try to use it.

Regular hot dog seasoning (or closest we have) that gets great reviews Hot dog & Bologna then there is the Reduced Salt Frank & Weiner or the Chili dog is really good to but out of those I think the Hot Dog & Bologna will be the closest to what you are looking for.

For summer you can absolutely use the H or the Ton’s as a base, people do it all the time with good results. The gigawatt will give you a nice amount of heat but it shouldn’t be burn your mouth hot. I like to add ghost pepper hi-temp cheese to it so people sweat when they eat too much, it keeps people from treating them as “samples”!

For the salt the breakfast with probably the least salty taste would be the maple, so you are good there. I might stay clear of the Italians as I seem to remember them being salty but I love salt so it is hard to say for sure. For hotdogs, they are all going to have about the same saltiness aside the reduced salt frank and Weiner (linked above).

On your last bit, you said “mix spices with seasoning” did you mean with the meat? If so never mix the seasoning and cures in and then hold before stuffing, if you are using sure cure (or any cure really) then mix, stuff and then hold if necessary. If you wait then everything might start to “set” and you could break your stuffer, not to mention it will be much much harder to crank. If you aren’t using cure then just stuff, if you are using sure cure (and no accelerator) the stuff and hold in a fridge overnight to allow the cure time to work!

Good luck!

@craigrice out of pork beef turkey and venison the imitation bacon I made out of beef was by far and away my favorite. That might or might not be true in the video we made but since then and from the left overs of that it was 100% my favorite

@dbueling really is a matter of taste, last time I did 14 oz can to a 25 lb batch and that wasn’t enough for me. Maybe try 20 oz to 10 lb?

@Austin do you have any thoughts on this?

@sakepower ive tried the powder ranch and was disappointed, didn’t know about the powdered franks, will try that. I’m a huge fan of franks particularly on eggs

@Dave-R as @craigrice said that’s some good trussing, @Joe-Hell also has some really nice examples of trussing st home…I might make a post about that on social media this week, you guys deserve the recognition!

Rueben can be done either way, I personally prefer them fresh butter include the sure cure to give you the option! Good luck, Rueben is one of my favorites especially with some kraut!!!