Some tips for the youngsters?

[marsms]

Howdy folks. I'm new to the whole world of...well, most meat preperation, really. I'm a hunter and a rancher, so I've been field dressing, and butchering for the last 10 or 12 years. Also in about the last 4 or 5 years I've been making venison jerky quite regularly. I used to get my sausage made at the local meat processing plant, but this past year they closed their doors due to more stringent government regulations these last few years.

Anyways, all my babbling really adds up to one thing. Since my favorite meat processor is gone, I can either take to the "other guys" (much more expensive, and not nearly as tasty), or I can do it the smarter way, and go it on my own. I have a problem though. With such little experience in the variety of meat preparation, I'm really not sure how to make sausage. Also, I need to get completely set up to do this stuff.

This is where I turn to you older...I mean...wiser folks. I was thinking of getting (for starters) a Sam Baere SB-810 grinder. Has anyone every had any experiences with an SB grinder? For my next inverstment, I was thinking of going with a Bradley smoker. The question, what type of setup is best for me?I usually do around 3 deer a year, and since my family can't seem to stomach various "chunky" deer recipes, it's usually all made into pepperoni, sausage, and jerky. I've been doing some spying on this forum, and see that the PID is a favorite with many people. Is this a thing I need for sausage? Also, do I need anything for checking internal temperatures? Four rack, or six?

Any help, thoughts or advice whatsoever would be greatly appreciated!

Matthew

[LilSmoker]

Hi and welcome marsms, I'm not familiar with the SB grinder as i'm from accross the pond (u.k.) but my advice would be when buying a grinder, buy the most powerfull model that you can afford.

As for the Bradley, i'm sure you'd be happy with whatever model you choose, many members here have the digitals which they're very happy with, and many have the original version, and again they're very happy with them.

I have a 4 rack original which i love to bits, if you tend to smoke large ammounts of food, then the 6 rack might suit you better?, but the 4 rack will accomadate quite a lot of food, and is generally big enough for most needs.

PID is something that will make life much easier, but is not a must, i'm still not decided whether to build a PID or not?

I would recommend the Maverick ET-73 thermometer, it comes with 2 probes, and is a must have for the Bradley imo.

Also i would strongly recommend you get some "Bubba Pucks", these a aluminium discs that act as spacers, they push the last of the wood bisquettes off the burner plate, and make sure there is no wastage, very good investment, i would recommend buying three of these.

No doubt other members will give more advice and opinions, but don't be afraid to ask any more questions, we all like to help each other here  ;)

Regards........LilSmoker.........

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Mathew;

Welcome to the forum.

I don't have any experiences with the Sam Baere SB-810 grinder. I don't make that much sausage so I just use my Kitchen Aid grinder attachment.

These three books are good resources for making sausage. The first one listed is mainly recipes, and the latter two not only have recipes, but also technical information and photos.

Bruce Adell's Complete Sausage Book
Recipes from America's Premier Sausage Maker
by Aidell, Bruce and Kelly, Denis
Paperback - 314 pages Published: November, 2000
ISBN: 1580081592 Tenspeed Press
"Recipes for homemade sausages from a variety of regions; including recipes that use them."

Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing; 3rd Edition
by Kutas, Rytek
Hardcover - 516 pages Published: April, 2007
Additional Information: Black and White Photos and Illustrations
ISBN: 0025668609 Sausage Maker Inc.
"One of the most definitive manuals on sausage making. Good information on equipment."

Charcuterie
The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing
by Ruhlman, Michael and Polcyn, Brian
Hardcover - 320 pages Published: November, 2005
Additional Information: Black and White Illustrations
ISBN: 0393058298 Harvard Common Press
"Covers the history of charcuterie, in addition to providing 125 classic recipes for sausages, terrines, and pates. Good book for beginners, as well as the more advance."


Two excellent sources for supplies (though there are many):
SausageMaker
Allied Kenco

Besides a PID, you may want to take a look at these temperature control devices:
The BBQ Guru

[Wildcat]

In addition to the Maverick ET-73 I also have this little jewel: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/handheld/mtc.html  It comes in handy for a variety of applications with various available probes, is not very expensive, and is very accurate.

[marsms]

Boy, do you folks ever know how to make a guy feel welcome! That's quite a load of information in an awfully short period of time!

I just ordered the SB-810, and I imagine it'll be around two weeks before it gets in (I live in a slightly more remote area of Canada). It seems like a helluva grinder considering the price.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHBQUKC0DCQ
After shipping I'll end up paying about $670 CDN, compared to the $1400 for a comparable grinder at a local store.

What exactly does this Pit Minder unit from the BBQ Guru do? It seems like it is basically a thermostat that monitors meat temperatures instead? Also, if I were to go with a PID (or this deal from the BBQ Guru), would it be wiser to go with the digital smoker, or the original one?

Thanks alot for the titles, Habanero, I'll be sure to look into them!

[beefmann]

welcome to the forum marsms and there is a lot of good information here and a lot of different ways to do things  like you want to  do as other methods of food cooking  in the BS ..

[Habanero Smoker]

The BBQ Guru has three models. The Pit Minder is the cheapest model, and I'm not sure if it is a basic on/off thermostat, or a more sophisticated controller that controls the pit or cabinet temperature; it doesn't have a meat probe. Most of us that have the BBQ Guru have either the Competitor (no longer made) or the DigiII Q (which replaced the Competitor). These models monitor both the cabinet and the meat.

[Tenpoint5]

Marsms welcome aboard. If your looking for some recipes for sausage try this link http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/ I go there often and have tried many of the recipes that he has. With much delight. I would also suggest doing a search on Ebay for a 5lb Grizzly vertical meat stuffer. I have one and love it. So much easier than trying to stuff with the meat grinder. You can make Canadian Bacon with a trimmed venison loin. (Recipe same as for pork found on www.mortonsalt.com ) Give me a holler if you want some suggestions for starter recipes to learn on.

[marsms]

Habanero...is there any advantage to ordering a digital smoker over the original one if I were to use a third party controller?

Thanks alot Tenpoint5, I actually came across that website about 15 minutes before I read this. Full of great stuff! I actually haven't been able to find a website yet with the amount of information this one has! Thanks a bunch!

[Habanero Smoker]

Habanero...is there any advantage to ordering a digital smoker over the original one if I were to use a third party controller?

Thanks alot Tenpoint5, I actually came across that website about 15 minutes before I read this. Full of great stuff! I actually haven't been able to find a website yet with the amount of information this one has! Thanks a bunch!

I don't have the digital, so I couldn't answer that. Both will work with a third party temperature control device. If you are definitely going with the 4 rack and will be adding your own temperature control device, the the original is the way to go, since you will save money. If you want the six rack then your only option is to purchase the digital.

Also don't forget this site as good source to answer your sausage questions. There are quite a few very experinced sausage makers on this forum. You can't go wrong with the collective knowledge of this forum.

[marsms]

Is there any real disadvantage to going for a six rack unit over the four rack? I'm assuming that it may take slightly longer to cook food, but will this be noticeable?

Also, I've heard lots of complaints about maintaining cabinet temerature...would this be more of a problem with the  six rack? I see they both have 500 Watt cooking elements.

Has anyone had any experience as far as buying the smoke unit alone, and building a cabinet?

[Gizmo]

The only consideration I would suggest for the 4 rack vs. 6 rack is if you want more rack space for smaller pieces of meat like ribs and beef jerky.  There are a few inches of extra height in the 6 rack but the 6 racks are closer together than in the 4 rack  When using a double rack set up (one set inverted) you can get 12 racks of jerky or for ribs, you can do 6 bradley racks of ribs.

If you don't need the extra rack space and feel you need precise temperature control, go with the original bradley and purchase one of the PID type controllers, or buy the bradley smoke generator and mount it to your own cabinet.

As far as the temperature issues of the six rack, I don't normally have the problem.  I use the smoker for 4 hours maximum on ribs, butts, and briskets.   Jerky will only stay in there for 1 hour and 20 minutes or less.  I don't need to open the door for any of those operations and after the smoke, I move the meat into a dehydrator for jerky, or a foil pan with a foil cover then into an oven until the internal temperature is reached.  I also preheat the BS to 260 deg before loading.  The larger the load, the longer it will take for the box temp to regain.  I keep the set temperature up at 320 until the box recovers then start dropping the set temp down by 40 degrees for the first reduction, then by 20 degrees until the box temp stabalizes around 210 to 220 and the set temp is 220.  I usually see this around the time the meat has reached an IT of 140 degrees. 

[marsms]

Ah, perfect! I couldn't have wished for a better response.

What I could wish for, however, is an "original" style 6 rack smoker!  :P

Thanks alot for the input, Gizmo, you even manged to answer a few questions I hadn't thought of asking in the first place.

[Oldman]

If you don't need the extra rack space and feel you need precise temperature control, go with the original bradley and purchase one of the PID type controllers

I totally agree. Especially if you are going to make sausage. The temp swings that have been reported with the Digital unit are just to great IMO when doing sausage.

Remember at 170F / 76.6666667C your fat will start to render out. Nothing worse than dry sausage. Consider: You are smokin' your sausage at 165F /  73.8888889 and you temp out at 177F / 80.5555556C. It will take several minutes before the cabinet drops back down below 170F / 76.6666667C.

With a standard Bradley unit and PID controller depending upon where you get yours the max swing is only 2 degrees. For me this is important.

Good Luck in your selection.
Olds 

[marsms]

Alright, I just want to thank all of you guys again! Because of your response, I have ordered a bunch of stuff to make my experiment work.

For grinding, I've ordered the aforementioned Sam Baere.
For the smoking end of things, an original Bradley smoker with four extra racks, and an Auberin PID, an ET-72 Maverick wireless thermometer, and "the ultimate starter pack" with 12 pucks of every flavour.

Thanks again to everyone who provided input and helped me to make my decision. I'll be sure to let you know how everything works out!

Matthew