Polite forum protocol : If you disagree with a poster’s response a thumbs down would generally be considered bad form other than the friendly competition mentioned by Jonathon. Stating why you disagree with a poster, supported by verifiable data and facts and done in a polite, constructive fashion is a great way to maintain a happy forum, avoid hurt feelings and flame wars.

Everyone has opinions. Opining on a subject and leading in with " in my opinion", is a polite way to voice an opinion on subjects that may have no right or wrong answer.

All of the above is just " in my opinion"

I just took these two pheasants out of the brine tank where they have been curing for 3 days. Ready to go in the smoker this morning after a short drip-dry.

One of them shows some signs of being hard-mouthed by the dog. I need to have a little conversation with her about that.

Her side of the story goes like this. " If you were a better shot, I wouldn’t have to chase down these cripples and hard-mouth them"…

Yeah, she has got me there…

gChart said in What did everyone cook today?:

Yeah, nice Enterprise! (I’ve got one too). Salami looks great.

Thanks.
Another hobby of mine is restoring and using old equipment.
Here are before and after pictures of that stuffer.

I also added the “torque amplifier” to replace the OEM crank.

Fired up the Brinkman grill tonight to cook this 2 inch tomahawk.
No fancy prep. Just beef, salt, pepper and fire. You will have to forgive me for forgetting to get a picture of it right off the fire before slicing it up.
I just seared both sides over the fire and then moved it off to the side and closed up the grill till it got up to 130 degrees on the inside.

That tenderloin looks amazing and cooked perfectly.

We spend yesterday making 20 lbs of summer sausage and finished up stuffing 25 lbs of snack sticks this morning.

Some shots of the crew in my basement playroom.

Seems like a lot of folks just getting into meat processing and sausage making have trouble wrapping their heads around food safety and correct smoking time and temperature. Commercial processors live and breath the food science because they are required to, but DIYers like us mainly just want their finished meat products to taste as good as possible and not make anyone sick.

I wanted to share this link and maybe get folks to comment on it’s relevance to home processors. In particular, check out Appendix A on page 33.

Most commercial processors have equipment that gives them far better control over their thermal processes than us home-processing guys have. For that reason, I try and factor in a bit of safety cushion into my meat smoking and cooking.

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/bf3f01a1-a0b7-4902-a2df-a87c73d1b633/Salmonella-Compliance-Guideline-SVSP-RTE-Appendix-A.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

I do quite a bit of venison sausage and I would highly recommend increasing your fat content. If you can find mostly fat pork trimmings you would be good at 70/30. Most pork butts are too lean unless you go to 50/50 or higher when mixing with venison for many sausage styles.

Tex_77 Around here we call that lunch-porn. Wow.

bobfrapples
I had the same problem with my cast iron stuffer when making small diameter sticks. They just don’t have the mechanical advantage you need to push the meat through that tiny stuffer tube.

I made a longer handle for more leverage. It works wonders and makes the old cast iron stuffers usable for stuffing snack sticks.

KenfromMI That would be a “Thumbs Up”

deanlorensen Great looking bacon, Dean.
Yes, Digging Dog Farm was the origin of the data for my spread sheet. I just find working from the spread sheet to be handier for me, but the formulas and end result is the same. (I also don’t like to have to depend on someone else’s web site for critical data on the outside chance their domain goes tits up or something.

Your bacon process description is nearly identical with mine. I agree, that this method is practically fool proof and totally repeatable. I probably would not even bother with wet brine curing for bacon.

Personal preference for saltiness and sweetness in bacon is subjective and that is what makes creating your own so nice since you can tailor the amounts to suit your liking.

Lately I have been using brown sugar on the recommendation of a buddy. I like the caramelized flavors you get when frying.

YooperDog
Maybe you, or someone else here can tell me how to share the .xls spreadsheet file with others here?

I don’t see how to post any file type, other than .jpg/ pictures?

I guess if anyone is interested, I could email it to them.
Thanks

I use an XL spread sheet to calculate the amount of salt, sugar, and cure #1 for the dry rub cure I make.

The ingredient amounts in the rub are based on the weight of the belly used and gives a very consistent flavor if you enter the correct meat weight, and weigh out the ingredients accurately.

Since in is a dry rub cure, it is almost totally absorbed in the meat.

Like others mention above, once I apply the rub, I tightly wrap the belly in a zip lock bag or plastic film.

After curing in the refrigerator, I just give it a quick rinse in fresh water and let them air dry before smoking.

Since using this method, I find I do not need to taste test the cured belly before smoking. It just comes out right.

Hunter-Steve That’s a good idea. I have found pork belly and pork liver at the Asian market here. Good quality and priced reasonably.

Pork fat can be hard to find around here. When you can find it, you might pay more per lb than you do for pork butts.
All the pork shows up in grocery stores cut up, so no trimming required and no fat. Independent meat markets and processors are your best bet around here.

Being an intestine, casings are naturally curved. If they were straight, all hogs and sheep would be 75 feet long and 3 inches in diameter.

Fired up the Brinkman grill tonight to cook this 2 inch tomahawk.
No fancy prep. Just beef, salt, pepper and fire. You will have to forgive me for forgetting to get a picture of it right off the fire before slicing it up.
I just seared both sides over the fire and then moved it off to the side and closed up the grill till it got up to 130 degrees on the inside.

jjischke I personally have not experienced trapped air in my cast iron stuffers.

I generally just fill the cylinder with sausage mix and as I compress the mix during the first couple of cranks, I hear any trapped air vent out past the piston.

You can do a pretty good fresh breakfast sausage using 50/50 waterfowl and pork jowls.