Just had to burn some personal time

[Drac]

Good day all,

Had this planned out but decided I couldn't wait so I took a couple hours of personal time.  Had some bambi burger from a hunting friend.  Deal was 50/50, his meat for my work and seasoning. 

Trying something new this time, adding hatch peppers and some high temp cheese.  Wasn't sure how much to add so I had posted but didn't get any info so I guessed for abour 1/2 cup of each for the 3lbs I was planning.

The main players -



2-1 venison to pork
Fermento
Seasoning
Roasted hatch chillies
High temp Monetary Jack cheese
Cure #1
Guinness

Beer is for mixing everything up. 

And here we go....





Did up the cheese/pepper SS in the large 3lb tube plus one of the smaller.  Also did up the 1 lb plus one of the smaller in regular SS.

Also decided to do up some brats with the left over venison, did that up at 3-1 venison to pork.  Some how had a pound of pork left over so decided to do up some fresh chorizo.  Made up some links plus had some left in the machine to do up some scrambled eggs and chorizo breakfast tacos.



A couple questions.  I have gone through several books but they all seem to have different processes.  About 50/50 on whether you start smoking immediately or cure over night.  I am resting over night just on the safe but can you go straight to the smoker?

Other one is how do you guys get the last part out of the stuffers.  In the case of breakfast links this isn't much and can be used loose.  In the larger links you can loose a half or whole link.  In the fibrous casings you can loose a whole lot in the big tubes.  Measured out over 1/4 lb left in the machine.

Thx,
Jim

[iceman]

Howdy Drac.
To get the meat out of my stuffing tubes I picked up some plastic dowls that just fit inside the tube. You could use wood also. Just take the tube off the stuffer with the casing still attached and push it through with the dowl to finish filling the casing.  :)

[Bigbirdoffroad]

Howdy Drac.
To get the meat out of my stuffing tubes I picked up some plastic dowls that just fit inside the tube. You could use wood also. Just take the tube off the stuffer with the casing still attached and push it through with the dowl to finish filling the casing.  :)

I normally empty out the stuffer tube into a frying pan and cook up the meat to get a rough idea on how it's going to turn out.

[smokeNcanuck]

You can mix, stuff and then smoke right away.  I know caus Nepas told me so! ;)
I does not hurt to let sit in fridge over night however.
Looks like you did a great job, hope everything comes out great.

[SouthernSmoked]

Dang Drac you done good!

I use the same technique as iceman by using a dowl to push what is left out of the stuffing tube into the casing.

[Drac]

Thanks guys.

Got the SS in the smoker this morning with hickory.  Will run 4 hours at 130F, than go home at lunch and up to 165F to cook it up.  If this is like last time I will have no issues with it being done before I get home :D

Will bag up the fresh stuff this afternoon, into the freezer for me and take the hunter his share Friday. 

On using water immersion (,aybe next time) how do you guys control the temp?  Won't work for this batch as I don't have a pan big enough for the big log but I would like to avoid the shrinking that always has happened.  I run it to the right temps and keep the cabnet at the required temp (as well as it can be without a PID) but I always get a little fatting out.

Thx,
Jim

[Keymaster]

Lookin Good, Usually the amount of cheese added is 10% of the weight of the meat, I am not sure about the Jalepinos.

[pmmpete]

For the water bath, get a big electric turkey roaster. My 22 quart roaster has a tank which is 17 inches long.  You can probably pick one up at Walmart or a similar store for under $50, which is less than the cost of a similarly sized pot.  To monitor the temperature of the water bath, and to monitor the internal temperature of the sausages, buy two digital thermometers with temperature probes on wires.  You should be able to pick up satisfactory thermometers at Walmart, Target, or some other discount store for $12-$15 apiece, or at a fancier store for about $25 apiece.  Get thermometers with wires covered in plastic, not wires covered with coaxial-like wire braid.  Seal the area where the wire enters the end of the probe with silicon sealant or the liquid rubber used to cover the handles of tools, because if you get water inside the probes, it may wreck them.  Then stick one probe in the center of a sausage, and the other in the water bath.  I attached a pair of metal clamps to large magnets, which I clamp onto the lip of my turkey roaster to hold the probes in place. 

The US Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety and Inspection Service recommend that ground beef, pork mutton, and similar ground meats be cooked until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 160 degrees F.  However, lower temperatures for longer times will also be sufficient to kill the microbes which can cause food poisoning.  Here is a list of the dwell times approved by the USDA and the FSIS for meat products which don't contain poultry:

160 degrees F - 1 second
155 degrees F - 23 seconds
150 degrees F - 72 seconds
145 degrees F - 4 minutes
140 degrees F - 12 minutes
135 degrees F - 37 minutes
130 degrees F - 121 minutes

There will probably be a pretty wide range of water temperatures in the water bath, particularly since the circulation of water will be impeded by all the sausages, so keep stirring the water.  Don't let the water bath get much above 160 degrees, or you may melt the fat in the sausage, which can accumulate under the casing and look unappealing, or can ooze from the pores in the sausage casings and dry out the sausage.  Hold the water temperature at around 160 degrees until the sausages reach the internal temperature you want, and then hold the internal temperature at that level for the dwell time required to kill pathogens.  Because there will be variations in the internal temperatures of your sausages, it's safer to hold the sausages at your chosen temperature for longer than the minimums listed above.  Even if you turn off the heat, the internal temperature of your sausages will probably rise above your target level as heat continues to migrate from the outside of your sausages to the inside.  When you've held the sausages at your chosen internal temperature long enough, stop the cooking process by removing them from the hot water and putting them into cold water.

[Drac]

Thanks.

Got them smoked yesterday.  Found out I need a new digital thermometer though.  It was 9pm and the temp was still 15F low.  This was after 15 hours, 4 smoking at 130F and 11 at 160-170F.  Something wasn't right so I got out my bi-metallic (always been the most accurate for me) and I was a little above the required temp on most, about 154F, on the thinner ones and dead on for the thicker one. 

Dropped them in to the ice bath and for once they weren't fatted out, no layer of grease around the outside.  Looks like I'll need to do some shopping here in the next week or two :(  Oh well, looks like I'll be able to get this - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004SZ10/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER  Maybe Amy will make it a Valentine's Day gift :D

I'll have a pic later.

Jim

[JZ]

Hey Drac are you using a DBS?

I did my first batch of SS today (15lbs) and based on feedback from others on this forum I expected this to take somewhere between 10 and 18 hrs, if I did the whole thing in the smoker. I had several recommendations to smoke then finish in a hot bath but since I don't have any pots big enough for an 18" long chub I got up at 5:30 am and expected to be finished around midnight, hopefully sooner (but plan for the worst case). Luckily I found a neighbor with a HUGE pot and I borrowed it from her. I think that saved my SS. I put the SS into the smoker at 7am at 120 for an hr to dry then bumped to 140 for 2 1/2hrs with smoke and another 1/2 hr without smoke and got a some fat dripping out of the casings. Put them into the hot water bath and about an hr later the IT was at 155*. Wow that is waaaay shorter than doing the whole thing in the smoker and since I was already having a fat out issue, the water bath probably saved the day. I pulled the SS from the hot water and gave it a cold bath until the IT hit 100 and was done around noon. Sure am glad I got talked into the hot water bath. Hope this info helps others.

pmmpete

Thanks for the table of dwell times. This makes me feel way better about the safety of the SS I just finished and I am sure it will help others.

[Drac]

Sorry about the delay -



The receiver is rater happy in the results.  He has plans for the brats and sausage for Sunday. 

Thanks for all the help you guys give.  It is making may work better.

Jim