50+ thread

That is exactly what Christmas should be.

 

i do sticks with and without casings! boys like em just as good without. with casing i use stuffer plate on the meat grinder.and if you want a tang like store bought use encapsulated citric acid not regular. regular will make sticks mushy

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

 

Recycling bin is full, the Goodwill pile is ready to go. Breakfast is done, and off to Grandmas house we will go. Gotta take a pic of the big lake, South Haven, Mi.

 

Going to visit friends later. They told my wife DO NOT bring any food. She's cooking something.

 

your ass is late lady. typical.

 

i likes

 

I debated for years, a good start is Michael Ruhlman

$22 Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing

book Charcuterie. Although double check his amount of curing salt he uses sometimes it way too high IMO.

It does take special equipment if you want to cold smoke. Even with the dehydrator you have to be cautious of the danger zone of meat where bacterial actual multiplies which is 40°-140° for more than 4 hours. And that is total time including resting\cooling times. When it comes to ground meat I don't feel safe without using curing salt (#1) in the dehydrator even though mine will go to 160° which is "the other" safe temperature for meat smoking\curing.

After it was all said and done went with the Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator and LEM jerky cannon. Don't think I will end up using the round snack stick nozzle much. Last night I used the jerky nozzle because I wanted it as thin as possible to add a little tougher texture. My youngest said it tasted like gas station meat snack sticks which is what I was after. I used

$26 Nesco BJ-18, Jerky Spice Works, Original Flavor, 9 count, Beige|beige, 19.8 Ounce (Pack of 1)

NESCO Jerky Spice Works in large part because of the reviews. I found it somewhat salty though, they mix the salt in with the curing salt so next time will add my own prague powder with salt reducing the salt.

When it is gone I will start experimenting with my own mixes but will still use #1 curing salt. And of course still make my own bacon with #2 curing salt but could get by without it as long as I keep smoke times short. And have done that before. Would like to get into pork sausage but that is a whole different animal if you want to get into cold smoking, etc. which you already know I am sure. For now I don't feel it is worth it in my case, be basically just me eating it.

 

she'll get over it. shes the queen and knows it. wont be my first headsmack. im sure more to come

 

nice to meet you ms weesa. merry xmas

 

Morning all

Merry, Merry

Coffee

Atta girl, we are rubbing off on you

 

Merry Christmas
Got any ketchup?

 

Ketchup is the new coal

 

Not changing his name from coal to ketchup.

 

It only gets better.