Semi-Newbie from central PA

vette62 · May 23, 2014

Hello Everyone!

I am a newbie food smoker from Jersey Shore, PA. My wife bought me a Smoke Hollow 30" electric smoker last October. I have smoked numerous meats and vegetables since then and have enjoyed it immensely!! You cannot beat the flavor of properly smoked food!! I am going to attempt making Venison bologna for the first time this weekend. I have compiled a lot of info from the web and have come up with a tentative recipe. I am open to any good suggestions from anyone out there that have made some delicious bologna. I am stuffing it in natural 32mm casing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Wish me luck!!

chef jimmyj · May 23, 2014

Welcome to the SMF Family... Please post you Recipe and plan. There are many badly written recipes on the web that either don't taste good at the least or are Dangerous from using too little or too much Cure...JJ

vette62 · May 23, 2014

JJ

I am using 7 lbs. of venison burger, 3 lbs. of pork trimmings, 1 cup brandy, 1 cup ice water, 5 Tbl Kosher Salt, 2 Tbl ground pepper, 2 Tbl pepper flakes or chipotle powder, 4 Tbl brown sugar, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1tsp ground cloves, and 1 tsp ground ginger (maybe) How does that sound? what would you tweak? Thanks

gary s · May 23, 2014

Hello and welcome from East Texas, I'm not a sausage or bologna maker, I sure JJ or someone will be back to help you. Good luck, and let everyone know how it turns out.

Gary S

chef jimmyj · May 23, 2014

Sounds good to me. The only thing missing is something for Tang, sub 1 Cup Buttermilk for the Water or add the 1C Water and add 4T Buttermilk Powder, sold in Grocery stores near the powdered milk and 2 level teaspoons Cure #1 to give color and allow smoking at temps under 225°F...JJ

vette62 · May 23, 2014

JJ

Sounds like a good idea to add buttermilk, a friend of mine told me that they always add milk to their bologna. With adding the cure, should I reduce the amount of salt by the amount of cure? I do not want it to be too salty? I plan on smoking it with a combination of hickory and apple wood at between 160 to 180 until I get a internal temp of 158 and then a quick ice bath.

chef jimmyj · May 23, 2014

You can cut the Salt by 2 tsp, but in 10lbs of sausage, 2 tsp will not be noticed. With the Cure, not in the original recipe, you can follow your proposed smoking schedule. If you had followed the low temp smoking with the recipe as posted you would have risked some serious health issues. In the future, if you wish to use a recipe off the net that does not have Cure. You need to Hot Smoke it to an IT of 165°F or add Cure #1 at the rate of 1 Level teaspoon for every 5 pounds of meat and fat. Then smoke at any temp you wish...JJ

pc farmer · May 23, 2014

Welcome from the State College area.

Rafter H BBQ · May 23, 2014

Welcome, glad ya joined us !

vette62 · May 23, 2014

Thank you to all who welcomed me to the site! A special yell out to C Farmer, (local boy) in State College, I am only 45 minutes from you.

JJ, Thanks for all the tips, I cut back on the salt and added the 2 tsp. of cure per your recommendation. I went with 2 Tbl of red pepper flake and a tsp of chipotle powder and added the ginger. I thought that the bologna casings I bought, 35mm would come out with a bit more girth but the size will definitely reduce the 8 hours of smoking I was anticipating. Check out the pics! Since today is our 22nd wedding anniversary and my wife loaded and cranked out all the meat, while I manned the other end, she is calling this our Anniversary Bologna! I am really excited about tomorrow and getting these bad boys going!! I will post some more pics of finished product and process, along with my impressions of flavor and texture. Wish me luck!!!!

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vette62
May 23, 2014

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vette62
May 23, 2014

pc farmer · May 23, 2014

I go to a sale barn down there sometimes.

chef jimmyj · May 23, 2014

Happy Anniversary, I will be with Mrs. J 26 years June 25. It looks good so far. Best luck with the smoke and may all go well. Anything you wish to try, run a search of that subject, then feel free to post or PM me with any questions or issues you have. As I said, let us review any recipe you find. We are here to help and teach the Art we all love so much...JJ

vette62 · May 24, 2014

Well after 1 hour drying @ 100 F then 3 hours @ 160 to 180 F w/smoke then out of the smoker at a Internal Temp of 153 F then into a ice bath and then to the counter to cool and dry. The moisture level is medium, not dry and not real moist. As you can guess at only 3 hours in the smoker the smoke flavor is more mild than I would have liked. The over all flavor is mild with a slight after burn from the pepper flakes. If I use any alcohol again for anything recipe it will be beer!!! Not the best bologna for a first try but not a complete failure either. Better luck next time. Thanks again to everyone for the welcome and the tips. Since the bologna was done so fast I threw in some jalapeno corn bread, corn on the cob with a Old Bay rub, and boneless skinless chicken thighs with a b-b-q rub for supper tonight.

That will be some good grub!!

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May 24, 2014

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May 24, 2014

gary s · May 24, 2014

Look great, wish I had some.

Gary

biguglysmoker · May 24, 2014

Welcome to the group. I've cut up, fried, and grilled lots of Venison but never smoked it. Sounds good thou, looks good in the pics. Good luck on it and all the rest keep it LOW AND SLOW.

GaryHibbert · May 24, 2014

Hey

Welcome to the Smoking forum. You’ll find great , friendly people here, all more than willing to answer any question you may have. Just ask and you’ll get about 10 different answers—all right. LOL. Don’t forget to post qviews.

Gary

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