First time making pepperoni meat sticks

Post by **redzed** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 20:07

Netspyman, that method will not work if you are using a prepared seasoning mix that of course has the salt content. It would be difficult to evenly distribute the small amount of nitrite into the meat. However, what would probably work, is to still cube the meat and mix it with your seasoning package and the cure and place it in the fridge. After grinding give it a good mix and add the water and stuff right after that. And here I'm only speculating, but I would leave the cubed and cured/seasoned meat in the fridge for no more than 24 hours. And the reason for that is that there are often herbs in the mix that might go stale or even spoil once they are re-hydrated and not cooked.

Post by **redzed** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 20:15

rgauthier20420 wrote:Something I've done the last 2 times making a sausage that is to be slow smoked was have 1/2 cup of cold water per 5 lbs blitzed in the Bullet Mixture until mixed well and then pour that over my minced meat. I'll hand mix it really good and then cover it in a damp paper towel and then lid and into the fridge. It's produced a nicely cured product and the meat remained the appropriate color. It's how I did the CW's Polish Kielbasa. There are picture in the recipe thread of the resulting links.

The majority of our colleagues on the Polish site still cube and cure the meat for 48 hours. But there are a few recipes there that use exactly that method, one is a nice recipe for kiełbasa chłopska, (peasant sausage) that I will translate and post when I get a chance. This this method works fine if you are able to stuff easily and not have a sausage ridden with holes from trapped air pockets.

rgauthier20420 · Post by **rgauthier20420** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 20:20

The very first time I researching technique and what not, I read Red's post about cubing and curing for 48 hours. I've done that every time and will always do it. When I'm ready to grind, I'll take it out of the freezer or fridge and grind away and then stuff after a bit of cleaning and chilling. I've never had any issues with the stuffer not cranking or any extra resistance with this method.

To make sure there as few air pockets as possible, I put a handful of the mixed meat into the stuffer at a time and punch it down each time with my fist. I'm usually only pricking a few pockets before smoking, but this has to do with stuffing technique rather.

netspyman · Post by **netspyman** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 23:21

Thanks guys for all the good information. Redzed I am using a premix for my seasoning so i will only leave it to cure for 24 hours as you suggest. I can see the benefit for this kind of process and will do that for my next batch. It will probably be this weekend when i start it. I may cube it all tomorrow and do the grinding and stuffing on Saturday. Should i leave it sit for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature before i smoke it then? Again thanks for all the great information this site rocks

NETSPYMAN

Post by **redzed** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 16:54

netspyman wrote:Should i leave it sit for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature before i smoke it then?

Yes. Drying/Setting the sausage is a fundamental part of the process. Your meat should not be cold when you are placing it into the smoker and the casings should be dry. But of course if your ambient temp is above 22C, you have to be careful as to how long you leave it out.

Oh, and one other thing. Maybe your pics of the farce from the last batch are not clear, but it looked like you ground the meat very fine and maybe overmixed it. What size of plate did you use on the grinder?

netspyman · Post by **netspyman** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 04:47

Hi Redzed i did not grind this batch. I used preground meat. I did mix if for about 5 min by hand when i added the spices and cure. I then stuffed it and left it sit in the frid over night. They do taste good and the texture is fine just need to get the smoking down. I just got my external temp prob today and also made a cold smoker. I tested the smoker and it works great i will post pics tomorrow.

NETSPYMAN

netspyman · Post by **netspyman** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 23:17

Here is my cold smoker that i built yesterday. It works great and all i need to do is design a way to attach it to my smoker.

Here it is sitting on top of my smoker

Here it is in operation. I have to say this thing rocks

Post by **redzed** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 06:36

You don't need to "attach" it to your smoker. especially until you know that it will work as expected. Drill a hole in the bottom side of your smoker, insert the pipe from the generator and place the generator on a concrete block. That's all.

netspyman · Post by **netspyman** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 01:56

Started my second batch. I added the cure and spices to my cubed pork and beef. I had 8 lbs of pork and 2 lbs of beef. I left it sit overnight before i ground it.

After it sat overnight.

First grind and i also added 1 lb of back fat that was frozen.

Second grind. I will leave it sit overnight and stuff tomorrow.

Post by **Bob K** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 18:08

Just wondering why you ground it twice?

netspyman · Post by **netspyman** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 20:14

After stuffing i set on rack and let sit for i hour to bring to room temp.

This is the finished product after smoking and brings the IT to 155 degrees.

This is the final product after letting them bloom.

These turned out much better than the first batch and the taste is great. The texture is also spot on. The second grind did the trick. It also added the proper mixture of the fat in the sticks. Thanks to everyone for the help with the process.

NETSPYMAN

Post by **redzed** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 05:00

Great improvement over the first attempt! Congrats! Did you re-position the sausage a couple of times during the smoking process?

netspyman · Post by **netspyman** » Tue Oct 28, 2014 01:38

No Redzed I did not even open the door until it was done. I used a remote probe that gave me an accurate smoker temp and internal meat temp. I then just opened the door and with the outside temp being about 65 degrees outside the internal temp of the meat dropped down in about 30 minutes. I made 10 lbs of these things and they are already 1/2 gone lol.

NETSPYMAN

Post by **redzed** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 16:21

Yes, I see that it is not easy to move the sausages around in your smoker while smoking, but if you had them on sticks and moved them around, you might have have ended up with a batch of more evenly smoked sticks. Even so, with only the second time for you they look great.