Let me first say that I went into this with all the confidence in the world after many months of watching all the veterans on this site perform their craft time and again. They make it look so easy! All you have to do is get a pork butt, cut it into cubes, put into freezer to harden up, grind, mix spices, regrind, then stuff, set over night, and smoke. The cutting up and first grind went great. Like I said, “this is easy”. Then a big fat piece of humble pie hit me in the face. Added the spices and cure and ready for second grind. The stuff was sticking to my hand, didn’t go through the grinding hole like the big chunks of meat did. I had the stuff all over my hands, and I think by the end, I used every bowl/cookie sheet in the kitchen. Then to the hog casings, I did go to my local butcher and buy a full hank of good quality ones and soaked and rinsed for two days. But then getting them on the plastic stuffing tube was impossible, so I used my smaller stainless snack stick tube. BIG MISTAKE. Easy to get on but filling these huge 35+mm casing did not work. Over stuffed or had air pockets everywhere, so second batch I put casings on snack stick tube to open them up, and then put onto the plastic tube. This worked but I still didn’t get what I thought was the right size. As you can see I don’t have any photos of the stuffing because I was freaking out. Once they were stuffed, next came the twisting part. It looks easy, but again more humble pie. That sucker was twisting everywhere but got it done.
I used Hi Mountain Spicy Beer Brats but add some of my home made Habanero/Jalo/Serrano pepper blend and 3# of venison.
I will be putting them in the MES 30 tonight with the AMAZN pellets using apple. Will post photos when done.
I used Hi Mountain Spicy Beer Brats but add some of my home made Habanero/Jalo/Serrano pepper blend and 3# of venison.
I will be putting them in the MES 30 tonight with the AMAZN pellets using apple. Will post photos when done.
