Creating a group for every brand of smoker, would be awesome, but not sure that you want to really have that many groups. Rather than being brand or model specific, what do you think about grouping the smokers into similar categories because the methods for smoking in each can be very different and some methods are tailored to specific styles of smoker.

I could see leaving the PK-100 and other smokers that Walton’s sells in a separate group, but for the rest of the smokers grouping by smoker type might be a little more valuable.

just a rough draft of what the groups could look like:

High-End Electric (Pro Smoker, CookShack, Smokin-It, SmokinTex, etc.)
Bargain Electric - (Masterbuilt, Smoke Chef, Smoke Hollow, Big Chief, etc.)
Wood/Charcoal (Oklahoma Joe, Weber, Pit Barrel, etc.)
Ceramic (Big Green Egg, Kamado Joe, Broil King, etc.)
Pellet (Traeger, Green Mountain, Pit-Boss, Grilla, etc.)

No offense intended to the bargain electrics, but the higher end electric smokers are definitely different beasts from the bargain smokers.

Thank for the acknowledgement! I originally found Walton’s Inc and started ordering my meet supplies well before this. The earliest receipt that I could find in my records was from February 2014, but I think I had some orders prior to that that I didn’t save.

I initially found Walton’s Inc in my search for the Excalibur Smokehouse BBQ Seasoning (which is still my favorite all-around BBQ Seasoning) and have been ordering all kinds of stuff from seasonings to equipment.

I am looking forward to the new grinders and mixers that you have coming! :)

Hopefully my family can harvest some deer this year to use all this great stuff!

NDKoze

Just a quick follow-up here. We had a very successful sausage weekend and the Krautwurse turned out excellent!

We ended up using 6lbs of kraut to a 35lb meat block. We did saute the kraut as suggested in this thread and that seemed to be effective. I did also reduce the Tender Quick amount from 9.8 ounces to 8.8 and it turned out really well. We will definitely be making this again with a few small changes:

1. I will use more kraut. There was good kraut flavor, but it could have had more. I will use at leave 1 pound per every 5 pounds if not slightly more.
2. I might reduce the salt just a little bit more. This wasn’t bad, but I might cut it down another .5-1.0 ounce.

The one thing that I will caution anyone who tries this is that you should expect the smoking time to be a little longer (or at least it was in my experience). I had some regular sausage in the smoker with the Krautwurst batch (same recipe except no kraut) and the Krautwurst took quite a bit longer to get the temp and color that we like to get because of the inherent extra moisture that these rings had versus our traditional sausage.

But, in general, it turned out AWESOME!

Snack stick seasoned meat gets really sticky the longer that it sets and could be really tough on your stuffer to push that stuff through the smoker the next day. As others have said, the fresh sausage or even summer sausage would probably be OK. But, trying to push that sticky mix into snack stick casings would be a bear.

I really like to stuff all of my sticks and sausage right after grinding/mixing and then let hang overnight which allows the casings to dry out a bit prior to going in the smoker.

Obviously if you use the encapsulated citric acid, you need to stuff and smoke pretty quickly or the ECA will burst and mess up your batch.

Last weekend, we did grind up 250 lbs of meat on Friday night and let it set (covered) in our garage (nice and cool in ND), then mixed and stuffed the next day.

Yeah, I used to ask a lot of questions to customer service before we had this community. You guys were always so helpful.

I have sent many people your way over the years especially via the http://www.smokinitforums.com/ product form (for Smokin-It Smokers) where I am a moderator.

Dang, I missed my entry for today. I bet that would have been the one. ;)

You could mix in some Boston Butt with the wild hog, say 30-50%.

Jonathon I just ran across this post again for some reason and remembered that there was supposed to be a “Care Package” or something coming. ;)

Just kidding. You don’t have to send me anything. I have received much more value in knowledge since this whole thing started in 2016.

I don’t post a ton, but I do read quite a bit. :)

Thanks for all of the work that you guys do!

Just installed the app. I’ll be checking it out later tonight.

It’s awesome to see you guys always introducing new things and staying up-to-date on the trends.

KnucklHed BBQ

KnucklHed BBQ said in breakfast sausage:

doc_craig I’ve used the Holly Regular breakfast sausage seasoning and friends & family love it in links or patties.
I’d recommend mixing up a 1lb batch per the directions and fry up a patty and then adjust up or down from there.

I’ve got written down in my notes that I liked the flavor at 10 grams of seasoning per lb, that would make the 1/2lb pkg that it comes in season 22.4lbs of meat (the directions would be 8.96 grams per lb)

FYI - I thinks it’s always a good idea to fry up a test patty before you commit to stuffing or packaging, and for some reason I find that you always want the patty to taste a slight bit saltier than you really want if you’re making links, I find that the perfect patty usually makes kind of a boring link, dunno why tho…

Best of luck!

+1 Knucklehead

I too have found that when I make patties they should taste a little too salty. After stuffing them in hot casings and smoking they always taste perfect. If the pre-stuffed patty tastes just right, then I know the stuffed/smoked sausage will be too light on the sausage.

I don’t have an explanation either. Maybe Austin or John will have an explanation unless it is just you and I that experience this ;)

Jonathon I will check the alignment over Easter weekend.

I don’t really use the stuffer that much. I would say 3-4 times per year. Probably around 300-400 pounds pushed through it per year.

What type of lube should I get? Any suggestions?

I will check on the piston rod as I can see where that could be an issue. This seems like a likely cause since I am not seeing any indication of gear damage.

I will take some pictures too.

We were processing at my parent’s house and I left the stuffer down there since I figured I just needed a new gearbox, and I won’t be back until Easter most likely. But, I am glad that I posted here before ordering the gearbox as your suggestions seem like they might help diagnose the issue prior to having to order any parts.

So, I will check all of these great suggestions that you have made and update this post with what I find.

glen I regularly apply white oil and/or silicone spray, but haven’t used any lube.

I did not see any caked-up lube when I was inspecting the gear box.

Everything looked great. The gears did not appear to have any bad spots and looked good from what I could tell. It just seemed like they were binding.

craigrice That is an interesting suggestion. I’ll have to check that, but it seems unlikely because the issue was still occurring when I took the piston off of the rack the issue still occurred.

I did some sausage processing last week and toward the end of the session, I noticed that it was becoming harder and harder to crank the plunger out of the tank.

I only use the fast crank to pull the plunger out of the stuffer and the other gears for stuffing.

But, it seems like the gears are catching and not running smoothly. It works much better but is still noticeable when stuffing, but is much more prevalent when removing the plunger with the fast gears.

I took the top off and checked out the gearbox and I cannot find any gears that appear to be damaged. There was a small little bit (really not that much) of metal dust on the gear housing.

I see that there are some set screws that I tried adjusting, but that just made the crank handle higher and didn’t seem to fix the problem.

To me, it just seems like the gears are not seated together as far as they should.

I just bought this stuffer on 11/2016, so I am guessing well beyond the warranty period, but should I really have to be dealing with gearbox issues this soon?

Are there any other possible fixes? Or is my only option to order a new gearbox?

I am going to send a message to Walton’s Customer Service as well but thought I would ping this group to see if you have any other suggestions.

Thanks,

NDKoze

This is interesting, because I am pretty sure that while Meatgistics didn’t get started until 2016, I was buying stuff from Walton’s several years before that. 🙂

Yeah, I used to ask a lot of questions to customer service before we had this community. You guys were always so helpful.

I have sent many people your way over the years especially via the http://www.smokinitforums.com/ product form (for Smokin-It Smokers) where I am a moderator.

Jonathon I just ran across this post again for some reason and remembered that there was supposed to be a “Care Package” or something coming. ;)

Just kidding. You don’t have to send me anything. I have received much more value in knowledge since this whole thing started in 2016.

I don’t post a ton, but I do read quite a bit. :)

Thanks for all of the work that you guys do!

Just installed the app. I’ll be checking it out later tonight.

It’s awesome to see you guys always introducing new things and staying up-to-date on the trends.

When are we going to get the Wishlist option back, now that you have updated the site? :)