Len Poli recipe for Sweet Lebanon Bologna

[devo]

Had an itch to try this for some time now. To me this one is hard to understand and goes against the grain as far as cure #1 and cure #2 and my understanding of how they work  ::)   :-\
So I asked a couple of questions from  NePaSmoKer (thanks Rick) and he has made it a few times. He said it is well worth it and just follow the recipe.
So here is the recipe if you want to check it out:
http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Bologna-Lebanon-sweet.pdf

Now this is just not a grind it, stuff it and smoke kind of deal where your done in a day. So far I have 24 hours into it from the grind. I have just finished stuffing the casings and they are going into a 48 hour nap @85F
After that I can give it a good heavy smoke.
I am still up in the air as to when these will be ready to eat, but I am sure something will tell me when they are done.  :)

So here are some pics of the process so far.

Had 90/10 GB and ran it through my grinder with the smallest plate. This kind of gives it a emulsified look and feel. It got real sticky after the grind. It was still half frozen which is what you want, notice the GB chunks  ;D


Here you can see just how cold the meat was from the condensation on the throat of the grinder.


This is about 4 pounds ground up


All bagged up and off to the fridge to rest with the spices, cure and F-RM-52 culture


Stuffing time 24 hours later.


Lems bologna casings, these thing are so big I could have stuffed by hand  ;)


One down one to go


And here we have to 5 lbs twins  ;)



Off to my curing chamber where I can control the temp and R/H for 48 hours. . So now we wait @ 85F degrees

[NePaSmoKer]

Looking good.

Dont be alarmed if you have some slight dripping in the 48 hr time period.

[Tenpoint5]

Been pondering this one as well Don. Like you said the whole cure 1 cure 2 thing makes you really wonder.

[Saber 4]

Can't wait to see your progress on this one.

[NePaSmoKer]

Don

Sorry to hijack your post.

Here is the last batch of the Sweet Lebanon i did using Poli's recipe.



I used natural beef middles.


You can see that the SL is semi dry.

[devo]

Don

Sorry to hijack your post.

No problem Rick.
Those look really great. Is that a natural casing or synthetic ?

[NePaSmoKer]

Don

Sorry to hijack your post.

No problem Rick.
Those look really great. Is that a natural casing or synthetic ?

natural beef middles

[devo]

Smoking day, gave them almost 8 hours of heavy cold smoke from the  A-MAZE-N-TUBE-SMOKER hanging in the bradley. Started getting pretty warm outside and it was getting difficult to keep the temp down below 90F even with a large chunk of ice.



With these casings its hard to tell color change but you sure could feel the smoke on them.


I weighed them after the smoke and they have already lost 1/2 a pound each. Now they are back in a fridge for 10 -14 days depending on how much moisture they lose.

[Tenpoint5]

Cool

[devo]

Starting to shrink

[NePaSmoKer]

Don


Hows the sweet lebnun going?

[devo]

Don


Hows the sweet lebnun going?

Feels very firm already