First Fatties-Not my best

[HCT]

I made some fatties on friday and it wasn't my best smoke unfortunately. The consistency was too dense for what I was expecting and I know it was my fault. This is what I did;
I ground 4lbs. of chuck with medium grind.
Added 1lb. of hot italian sausage.
Added the rest of NePas' basic ingredients, doubled them.
Added a few more herbs and seed, cumin, coriander.
Added about 3-4 ozs. of hot sauce.
Added packet of powder skim milk.
Mixed with paddle on my kitchenaid. This is where I made my mistake.Instead of mixing by hand which would have given me a meatloaf density, the paddle made it like a sausage density, tight I guess you could say.
Divided the mix into 4 logs, rolled them with saran to get the roundness.
Smoke them for 2 hours, IT of 160, under 2 racks of ribs and a pork shoulder letting the juices drip onto the fatties.
The final result was good, I mean you really can't screw up a fatty, but I would have like a looser consistency.
Oh well, smoke and learn. :)

[West Coast Kansan]

Good post with a very good point on handling ground meat roughly. Thanks ;D