Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

That is the only bologna I will eat willingly...it doesnt even qualify as bologna IMO.

 

just found a site that sells it...would be $50 for 3lbs

 

with next day is $70 total...

 

Mine is $4.99 a pound from back home. Pretty rural place and might have to wait for the meat to cure or butcher hogs, but something said for being rural. A lot IMO. 2 day shipping cost as much as the meat though.

Lebanon bologna is just basically lean beef mixed with good beef fat and salt and a few spices. Hard to go wrong with that!

 

Lebanon schemeanon bologna. Nothing beats homemade. I know exactly what's in it! No lips or assholes in my stuff

 

Last time I ordered something to be shipped like that pretty much all they did was take a styro cooler put the insulated wrap and then dry ice. Was still frozen solid when I got home work in the summer in FL.

 

About 4 years ago when my oldest son moved into a house I offered to buy him a Weber Genesis gas grill. He only cooks on gas. No... he said it was too much money even though I was paying for it. Moved him a couple of weeks ago. Took the sawzall but didn't need it. Picked the large box store special grill up and it fell apart. Went to the dump.



Winters are hell here, on everything.

But it gave me a 4th propane tank, I already have 3 so I would never run out. And haven't had propane for more than 6 months until I took the one from his grill

Cut up a bunch of bacon with the meat scissors and onions in the cast iron skillet. When done took half out and mixed it with a pound of medium spice pork sausage with grated cheddar. The rest in the pan I dumped a bag of spinach in it. Always amazes me how much it shrinks. I find most greens become edible once you cook them with bacon.



Put the grill grates on the gasser, it was my lunch and didn't have a lot of time. The more I use those grill grates the more I like them.



With King Hawaiian buns of course



Tempted to eat another one but then I would need a nap instead of work. One of the best meals I have had all week. @scottalot not sure if your a good influence or bad one on me. But either way I like it

 

Those bits are the tasty bits!

 

Making another wheel of cheddar cheese tonight and we are going to try and make a batch of double smoked kielbasa sat/sun for Easter dinner.

Last week made a habanero cheddar this week might do a cayenne cheddar.

 

Is that a lebanon bologna? I wonder if it would work with venison just add some fat? Also whats your recipe/mix you are using?

 

If its got dry Ice I think it needs to have some holes so it doesnt explode the package not a lot or big ones just enough so the pressure escapes.

 

Was going my to ask for a pic, then I saw the post below. How much lump, volume wise, did you use?

 

Found some hardwood firewood on craigslist...cheapest stuff so far is maple.$150 cord...I guess that would work, the rest is over $200 a cord or more... couple ad's have mixed hardwood but it has locust mixed in it and I cut some with my chainsaw and that stuff stunk. Theres some cherry, and apple but some are $275 1/2 cord!

 

This are not Lebanon bologna's but rather spicy bologna. Venison would work great as long as you get around 80/20 meat/fat ratio. Most bologna makers around here once deer season gears up use deer and pork shoulder around 60/40 to get some fat content. You could also just use 4lbs of venison and 1lb of fatback to get 80/20.

What I use in the bologna's pictured

Ground of chuck roast
Cure #1
Black pepper
Brown sugar
Kosher salt
Granulated garlic
Red pepper flakes
Smoked paprika
Onion powder
Jalapeno powder
Mexican style hot sauce
Water

Then smoked for 4 hours then Sous Vide water bathed for 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Up until a few weeks ago I used the same recipe many times using only the smoker until the internal temp was of the bologna was 155 degrees. 2 weeks ago I did a 4 hour smoke and then finished in the Sous Vide at exactly 155 degrees for 3 hours. Then hag to bloom for a couple hours and then into the fridge overnight to mellow. The end result was dramatic. The texture of the Sous Vide bologna is far superior and no sacrifice in flavor. Actually I think even the flavor is a little better. Since then I did another 5lb run and the results were the same. This is now my go to method.

Everybody who eaten this bologna has commented on how great it is. I've heard from more than one person "this is the best I've ever eaten"








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Nice! Looks almost like a summer sausage, what is your measurements for the mix? I havent gotten in to the Sous vide yet but seems like it would be good for consistent temps.

 

Looks like I’ll have a few pork shoulders to smoke soon. Power estimated back on March 7

 

Whaaaaaat??

 

Really that's all the Sous Vide machine does. It keeps and maintains a quantity of water at exact desired temperature for long periods of time. Since water is great at heat transfer you can cook at much lower temperatures unlike using your oven or grill where you run it at 350 to 500+ degrees to get meat to 135* internal temperature before it dehydrates from all the hot dry air around it. Cooking the same piece of beef using the SV I set the water bath at 135* and drop in the vac packed chunk o meat and let it go for 2 to 60 hours. When I pull it out it will be 135* the entire way through. Outside will be cooked exactly the same as the interior.

Fish is one that always gets overcooked. In the SV it comes out perfect every time. Soft boiling eggs is easy and also interesting. 1 or 2 degrees is the difference between a runny yolk or a custard like consistency. Lots of folks water bath summer sausage in things like Nesco cookers. It speeds up the process and gets you to a desired internal temp but you do not have the exacting control or water flow to keep temps even throughout like you do with a SV machine. I've read articles where deep water bath cookers can have a 5 to 10 degree temperature swing from bottom to top. If you are trying to target 152 to 155 to finish summer sausage and your cooker varies 10* you got to keep a watchful eye to make sure temps don't get too out of control and the sausage fats out.

Originally I bought my SV stick to make cheese. It took a long miserable process of keeping a sink full of water at 85* for 2 hours then 100* for 2 hours then 102* for 3 hours and made it a 3 second adjustment on the machine. Cheese making went from miserable to enjoyable and relaxing. For that alone the SV was worth it.

Amounts for my recipe:

5lb fresh ground of chuck roast
5g of cure #1
10g black pepper
8g of brown sugar
40g kosher salt
2.5g granulated garlic
6.5g red pepper flakes
0.85g smoked paprika
2.5 g onion powder
16.5g home grown dehydrated and powdered Jalapeno powder
16.5g Mexican style hot sauce
1/2 cup tbls water

 

Not being smart here but isn't bologna usually emulsified meat? This and the other pictures I have seen in here look more along the sausage lines. I honestly am not 100% sure what really makes bologna bologna.

 

Around here ba-low-knee is a colloquialism for any ground cased sausage that is pre cooked and eaten cold or w/o need of further cooking. Some bologna's are ground once others 2 or 3 times and others until they are emulsified to a paste like used in hotdogs. It really depends on how you want the texture of the finished product as to the number of passes/plate size through the grinder.

Ring bologna. Stick bologna, Lebanon bologna, Deer bologna etc. are generally the same meat to fat ratio. Spices, casing sizes, grind size and passes and process are what make them different.