Kevin A's Lebanon Bologna and Polish Kielbasa

[texbbqpits]

I usually lurk on this forum rather than post, but I was so happy with the outcome of this past weekends sausage that I wnted to share.  First thanks to Kevin for his help and answering questions, and thanks to Kirby.  I have not been  happy with the texture of some of my sausage attempts and he sold me one of his bucket mixers and it worked great and the texture of these two sausages was outstandking, Thanks Kevin and Kirby.  I did not take pics of the grinding, mixing or stuffing as you've all seen plenty of them.  Here are the bologna logs after stuffing:

Three hours in of heavy smoke:

After 8 hours of smoke and 2 hours of poach at 160 to internal temp of 155, bloom and overnight in fridge:

Sliced and ready for vacuum sealer:

Kielbasa after stuffing:

In the smoker after 2 hours of heavy smoke:

After poach and bloom and fridge overnight, ready to vacuum seal:

Money shots:


Bologna was very smoky and plenty of tang.  Kielbasa was moist and tasty.  Thanks for looking.  Tom

[Tenpoint5]

Looks really good.
Looks like the bologna might have gotten a tad warm while poaching and started to fat out on you.That would explain why the edges got crumbly on you when slicing.  I would suggest next time you do your poaching only put one of the chubs in at a time. This will allow for a faster recovery of your water temps and your single chub will be done in 15-25 minutes instead of 2 hours. Leave the other chubs hanging in the smoker during the whole process. That's the fun part about our hobby you get to do it again and again.

[Saber 4]

That's looking real good, what part of East Texas do you call home, I'm in Kemp over by Cedar Creek Lake.

[texbbqpits]

Thank you Ten Points and I indeed did get some fatting in the poacher even though temps were kept to 160-162.  I wondered if my therm was off, but checked two different therms and both showed 160 on the nose.  I will try doing one chub at a time next time and I really appreciate your help.  Tom

[texbbqpits]

I'm in Trinity at the North end of Lake Livingston.  Cedar Creek is a beautiful area.  Tom

[Saber 4]

It's been years since I've been in the lake Livingston area but I always liked it when I was a kid. Glad your enjoying your Bradley they are very addicting.

[Tenpoint5]

Classicrockgriller is in your neighborhood at thd other end of the lake.

[pikeman_95]

Tom
I think everything looks great. If you had some fat out it wasn't much from what I see. I still bet everything will be eaten up. Did you use Kevin A's bologna recipe. It sure looks like a good one. I think the texture on the kielbasa looks great.
Kirby

[texbbqpits]

Thanks Kirby and yes I used Kevin's recipe, simple and straight forward.  Thanks for the mixer and the texture and taste was great.  I really don't understand the fat out as I kept a close watch on the poacher temp, but I will try Ten Point's suggestion of one chub at a time the next time I make this recipe.  Tom

[IdaSmoker]

Tom.

I think you did a wonderful job with poaching.  Keeping the water temp at 160 is the way to go.  Yes, you will always get a tad bit of fat leaching out, but that's to be expected.  How big of a vessel did you use to poach?  I use a full size steam table pan which can handle at least 10 lbs at a time and always have good results ever since I went with the 160 F max water temp rule.  I use an Auber dual temp controller so I know the water will stay at the right temp and the heater turns off once my IMT hits 152.  Anyway, you definitely have some fine looking sausage.  I'm especially impressed with how you don't have any air pockets in your sausage - that's difficult to accomplish.

Here's my poaching set up in action (there's 10 pounds of gyro loaf stuffed into 4-3/8" diameter casing in there):

[NePaSmoKer]

Air pockets occur from improper packing of the meat in the stuffer canister tight and start/stop with the casings on the tube.

[texbbqpits]

Thank you IdaSmoker.  For these I used my turkey fryer pan on the stove.  It was the only pan I had that was big enough for the bologna which was placed in the pan vertically.  Water temps were checked with the turkey pan thermometer and the temps of the bologna was checked with a thermapen in the center of the log.  Tom

[pikeman_95]

Nepas is right that improper loading the stuffer will cause air pockets.
I supply a little invention with my stuffers that solves the problem. I call it my fart eliminator. I make these little adaptions and electrical tape them to what ever tube I am using. They don't effect the loading of the casings or the casing coming off of the tube. What they do is allow any air that comes out of the stuffer to escape out from under the casings that are on the tube. This way it does not go into the sausage as it is stuffing. You will not notice it is there when you are using it. What you will experience is a poof of air that comes out of the stuffer and then it just disappears. Here is a picture of the part.
Kirby

[IdaSmoker]

Air pockets occur from improper packing of the meat in the stuffer canister tight and start/stop with the casings on the tube.

Yes, I agree, but how do you pack sticky emulsified mixture into the canister without introducing some air pockets?  I realize the commercial processors use specialized vacuum equipment to evacuate the air, but in our case, I can't seem to find an inexpensive solution.

[IdaSmoker]

Kirby,

You are a brilliant entrepreneur but I don't quite visualize how your device works.  Will this work with the 5 lb vertical stuffers that almost everyone uses?