Search found 96 matches

by Agoracritus
Wed Jan 22, 2020 04:35
Forum: Smoked pork products
Topic: Argghh Forgot to inject the meat
Replies: 21
Views: 11910

Re: Argghh Forgot to inject the meat

The Lonzino I’ve made a few times from pork loins was only EQ cured for 5-7 days (in the fridge) before netting and hanging it in my curing room. That seemed to be plenty of time for the salt and cure to completely penetrate the meat evenly. (Isn’t that all that really matters with the EQ part of c...
by Agoracritus
Mon Jan 20, 2020 22:33
Forum: Smoked pork products
Topic: Argghh Forgot to inject the meat
Replies: 21
Views: 11910

Re: Argghh Forgot to inject the meat

Are you also curing or just brining? 2-4 days isn't really enough time to EQ cure a loin, 10-14 days minimum. I only use liquid brines for brining/salting, and pretty much only for meats that are going to be smoked and/or cooked or dehydrated (like jerky). Sometimes I also use the EQ method for “dr...
by Agoracritus
Sun Jan 19, 2020 04:32
Forum: Smoked pork products
Topic: Argghh Forgot to inject the meat
Replies: 21
Views: 11910

Re: Argghh Forgot to inject the meat

Just a little more food for thought: You can also do a basic EQ liquid brine, you just need to factor in the volume of water as well as the volume/weight of the meat. The main advantage of using this method is that the thickness of the meat and the brining time don’t need to be factored precisely. I...
by Agoracritus
Sat Jan 18, 2020 17:44
Forum: Smoked pork products
Topic: Argghh Forgot to inject the meat
Replies: 21
Views: 11910

Re: Argghh Forgot to inject the meat

I concur with Butterbean and Bob K, EQ is the best method to achieve precise salt content in whole muscle meat curing. I still use liquid brines for odd jobs, like salting salmon “scraps” for smoked salmon bellies, or brining chicken hearts, etc...but otherwise I just use the equilibrium method. Wit...
by Agoracritus
Fri Jan 17, 2020 01:58
Forum: For beginners
Topic: Cold smoking pork what temperature
Replies: 7
Views: 2819

Re: Cold smoking pork what temperature

First time post here. I also have questions involving cold smoking. Is there a reason why I should not cold smoke uncured sausage as long as the temperature is kept below 40 degrees f? I am trying to flavor with smoke for about 12 hours, not really trying to dry the sausage. What humidity is recomm...
by Agoracritus
Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:10
Forum: For beginners
Topic: Cold smoking pork what temperature
Replies: 7
Views: 2819

Re: Cold smoking pork what temperature

Okay, in that case I would say that 55 degrees is your particular “ideal” smoking temperature, since that is the temp you will be curing at anyway. No need to go colder, and any warmer won’t improve smoke penetration as much as it could throw off the Ph by causing or extending wanted/unwanted fermen...
by Agoracritus
Thu Jan 16, 2020 03:35
Forum: For beginners
Topic: Cold smoking pork what temperature
Replies: 7
Views: 2819

Re: Cold smoking pork what temperature

If the meat you’d like to cold smoke is raw/uncured, then colder is better. As long as it’s not frozen, wet or freezing, it will take on the smoke flavor just fine. It’s an unusual practice, but I do it quite often during the cold season where I live, in order to add an authentic smoke flavor to lar...
by Agoracritus
Thu Jan 16, 2020 02:36
Forum: Sausages
Topic: summer sausage
Replies: 4
Views: 2266

Re: summer sausage

Yes, you can. Especially if you also fermented them to lower the Ph prior to “cooking” them. If they’re not fermented, you could still hang them for a day or so to firm them up a bit, but a lower temperature would probably be advisable.
by Agoracritus
Sun Jan 12, 2020 07:57
Forum: For beginners
Topic: Fermento or Culture for Tang
Replies: 4
Views: 3213

Re: Fermento or Culture for Tang

There are basically two different ways to create “tang” in sausages. One is fermentation, which is a process that converts sugars to acids, in the sausage. The other is by adding acid to the initial mix. If you just want to add some tanginess to a COOKED sausage recipe that you’re already comfortabl...
by Agoracritus
Sat Jan 04, 2020 07:18
Forum: Sausages
Topic: SAUSAGE PHOTO GALLERY (Without Original Recipes)
Replies: 861
Views: 454968

Resolutions?

My New Year’s resolution was to include more vegetables in my diet.

Mission accomplished!
by Agoracritus
Thu Jan 02, 2020 05:22
Forum: Hardware
Topic: grinder maintenance question
Replies: 2
Views: 3658

Re: grinder maintenance question

Thanks for the advice, Bob. The problem seems to be mostly with the coarse grinding plate, but it also messes up the blade a bit, which then messes up the surfaces of the other plates... So your suggestion makes perfect sense to me! I’ll order another set of plates and two blades, and keep them pair...
by Agoracritus
Wed Jan 01, 2020 06:16
Forum: Hardware
Topic: grinder maintenance question
Replies: 2
Views: 3658

grinder maintenance question

I just resurfaced the grinding plates and sharpened the cutting blade. I had neglected to do so for too long (probably about 300 lbs of meat ground in 6-12 lb batches since the grinder was new), and so it took quite a bit of work and metal removal to eliminate some of the grooves and such. While the...
by Agoracritus
Fri Dec 06, 2019 00:43
Forum: Sausages
Topic: First Liverwurst
Replies: 11
Views: 4914

Re: First Liverwurst

Thanks for the compliments! In regards to the air pockets, the air bubbles are actually pretty small. What looks like larger air pockets are mostly where bits of minced onion popped out when I made slices. I used a stand mixer with the paddle attachment to do the emulsification and a vertical stuffe...
by Agoracritus
Thu Dec 05, 2019 04:33
Forum: Sausages
Topic: First Liverwurst
Replies: 11
Views: 4914

First Liverwurst

I just made a few pounds of Braunschweiger (Leberwurst) for the first time. (Not really sure why I haven’t tried making it before, but probably because even though I’ve always liked Liverwurst, I don’t eat it very frequently.) I followed the recipe (Marianski’s?) on the sister site, except I substit...
by Agoracritus
Thu Oct 31, 2019 05:41
Forum: Dry Cured Meats and Sausages
Topic: Celery Powder Cure
Replies: 9
Views: 5686

Re: Celery Powder Cu

The “uncured” meat trend is problematic in that it’s very misleading. Companies that label bacon, deli meats, sausages, etc as “no added nitrites (or nitrates)” with a little * that corresponds to the fine print “*except naturally occurring in celery (powder)” are basically being deceitful. What, do...