Lynn, this was the first time I ever made these but each year try to try something different with the "odd" pieces of meat and like you, I really like this recipe so I'll definitely be making it again. I used a collagen casing - I think it was 100 mm but I'm not good with mm's. About 3 inches. Got t...

Since I have recently been slaughtering some hogs I ended up with a lot of offal meats that needed a home. Thankfully, Debi at Deejay's Smoke Pit shared this recipe with me and I found it delicious and is a perfect sausage for those who don't like too strong a liver taste. I can't really describe th...

That's a bell scraper. Pretty handy taking the hair off without cutting the flesh. The pig was fed peanuts, corn and a 12% ration along with some out of date tortilla bread. He was a plump bugger. A little moreso than I wanted cause he was hard to pick up by hand.

Speaking of metal bathtubs. Here is the latest modification to the operation.

I disagree. I think anything can be smoked WITHOUT curing salt. Albeit that it might not be safe to eat. Or did your post erroneously omitt the word SAFELY.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Its a typical Monday today and as Chuckwagon can attest my needle is stuck on these salts today.

I do like uwanna suggested and make a solution with water and dextrose and pitch the stuff in there to allow it to awaken and start multiplying just as you would do for yeast in wine. I do this in the beginning and allow it to sit while I'm getting the mince ready then I pitch it in at the last and ...

Why peel the bark? (just wondering)

We have those scrub oaks here too. Most are in the red oak family but like you say they grow on the worst soils imaginable. Wonderful wood for smoking. Great for grilling steaks too.

Butterbean,That doesn't work very well when I am preparing a dry mix to rub into the meat. A cupful of common granulated table salt is much heavier than a cupful of Morton's® kosher salt or Diamond Crystal® kosher salt but a pound of any of them dissolved in a gallon of water will produce t...

The salt in cure will effect it. Use a salinometer to test the salinity and then you will know for sure because not all salt has the same salinity. Or, you can look at this chart on this board and decide if the amount of added salt in the cure is significant enough for you to worry about if you are ...

There is a graveyard for the tanks not far from the house and I can pick them up very cheap. They are heavy but the thickness of the steel keeps the temperature consistant once you set the temp. Way cool! :cool: There's an army post nearby. I wonder if there's a spare Abrams... :lol: Might work but...

Personally, I'd love to make one out of brick but I don't know squat about laying brick but I do know how to weld and I have plenty of scrap metal and a good cheap source for tanks so I'd go that way. A very easy build and it turns out to be a very nice smoke is to stand a lp tank vertically and cut...

I tried to buy it yesterday and all they had on Amazon was the e-books. I'm gonna guess they sold out. Will try again unless someone has another way.

Didn't mean to sound critical cause that wasn't the intent. Its just I have a mental scar from witnessing a fluke accident which results in my cringing whenever I see fingers near fast moving sharp things. I cringe whenever I see stuff like this and my frequent use of a meat saw I'm pretty sure I'll...

Good idea and nice work. Seeing your fingers near the router makes me cringe.

A couple of years ago I did a whole hog for a college team and two sororities. You should have seen the puzzled look on some of the girls' faces. It was priceless. Once they got the hang of it they polished it off though and everyone had a great time.