Truthfully, not as 'hot' as I thought they would be so must work on that. Started with 5 pounds of butt through the coarse plate then ground a good sized onion through. Mixed in all the seasonings & cure with about 6 ounces of water and re-ground through the fine plate. Stuffed 2 lengths of hog casing and finished off the batch by using collagen casings making oversized Slimmies, mainly because I had not used collagen casing before. Overnight rest in the fridge, brought back to room temp and air dried for an hour. Into the pre-heated 150 degree smoker for one hour with no smoke. Then heavy smoke with hickory and cherry chunks for about 4 hours at 150. Bumped the smoker up to 170 degrees and they took about another 4 hours to hit 150 IT. Let them bloom & cool for about 2 hours. I wanted to experiment with a smoke to completion. Yes, they are a bit more wrinkled & dryer appearing. Will have a couple for dinner and see if a huge difference in taste vs half smoke & half poaching which is a lot quicker. Also, I added no powdered milk assuming the double grind would make a very smooth interior. It's not bad but seemed a little grainy last night. Thinking the NFDM and a little more water would fix that? I'm thinking some spicy brown mustard and a cold beer on the side will do wonders for these but always seeking sausage nirvana just because I'm my own worst critic. And thinking I should have loaded into a cold smoker, I got some condensation early on. Thanks for looking....Willie
first grind with the onion
second grind, seasoning added
OK...looks real 'hillbilly' BUT was 48 degrees with a stiff breeze--dried them fast
collagen ropes....worked better than I expected & pretty thick
cardboard separator tip from SMF. S-hooks from Home Depot worked good
tangled bloom....I did hang them after the shot
2 blow-outs--pan fried close up for you-know-who
first grind with the onion
second grind, seasoning added
OK...looks real 'hillbilly' BUT was 48 degrees with a stiff breeze--dried them fast
collagen ropes....worked better than I expected & pretty thick
cardboard separator tip from SMF. S-hooks from Home Depot worked good
tangled bloom....I did hang them after the shot
2 blow-outs--pan fried close up for you-know-who