Recent content by oldvirginiajoe

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  1. oldvirginiajoe

    Sausage 101

    Since you all seem intense on soaking the casings longer than most of us currently do, please tell us WHAT the sausage will be like, IF one does not soak them as long as overnight. What problems will we experience? I soak mine for a couple hours, but I want to know how overnight will improve my...
  2. oldvirginiajoe

    Curing vs Preserving

    @ boykjo Did some of your post get lost, after the colon? Looks like you had more to post, on "factors that influence curing?"
  3. oldvirginiajoe

    Cure time required?

    Is the same thing true under this scenario: If I use pink salt (which number cure is that?) and the product goes in the danger zone within two hours, and stays there, OR if I immediately do a cool (about 90 degree) smoke, am I still OK?
  4. oldvirginiajoe

    When to vacuum seal

    do some research on vacuum packing foods. They create an anaerobic condition, no oxygen, which is known to (under certain conditions) cause botulism food poisoning. That's one of the most deadly poisons known to man! Please be careful.
  5. oldvirginiajoe

    Cure time required?

    Does anyone here know how long it takes for the cure to be in contact with the ground sausage meat, before the meat can be considered "cured?" In other words, after I add the cure to the meat block, how long must I wait before I can let the product hold in the temperature "danger zone?" Any...
  6. oldvirginiajoe

    time for cure to act

    oops. Egad. I have not posted in a long while, and forgot I was in the wrong location. Thanks! I hope I can figure out how to move it, or do the moderators do it?
  7. oldvirginiajoe

    time for cure to act

    Does anyone here know how long it takes for the cure to be in contact with the ground sausage meat, before the meat can be considered "cured?" In other words, after I add the cure to the meat block, how long must I wait before I can let the product hold in the temperature "danger zone?" Any...
  8. oldvirginiajoe

    tied sausages touching each other

    I made sausage this month, tying them in double links, as ropes of links. They were cured, and cool smoked, and turned out fine, except for this:  Where each pair of links touches each other, of course the surface along the length of each link, between them, did not dry like the rest of the...
  9. oldvirginiajoe

    Sausage Stuffers

    OK, to each his own---I just learned this way working at an upscale neighborhood meat shop which began in the 1960s, making sausage this way (+/- 35 mm casings) for all that time in a successful retail environment. They're still open today, doing the same . . . . . . Now, snack sticks, we never...
  10. oldvirginiajoe

    Sausage Stuffers

    I just stuff right off the horn of my old Hobart tabletop electric grinder. Why clean two machines when you can get the job done with just one machine you already had to get dirty with the grinding?
  11. oldvirginiajoe

    solution added meat? does it cure well?

    I would try to avoid using that kind of meat. I refuse to pay dollars per pound for water weight and sodium. I have repeatedly found, the average food shopper has no idea that the meat has been pumped up in this way, because most of them don't read the labels, and if they do, they don't fully...
  12. JRF holding links 2.jpg

    JRF holding links 2.jpg

  14. oldvirginiajoe

    seasoning + cure mix = too salty?

    Of course, the one you mentioned (Leggs) IS the one I have on hand and prefer (Pork #10), and it seems from the comments indeed it very well might be too salty going this way with the added cure mix. Does anyone know the amounts of basic spices that will copy that particular mix and flavor...
  15. oldvirginiajoe

    seasoning + cure mix = too salty?

    Reading on SMF, I understand that when I use a commercial sausage seasoning mix (which contains salt), and I like the taste JUST AS IT IS, if I then want to cool smoke those links the next time I make them, I must add a cure ingredient, which ALSO contains mostly salt.  It seems to me that with...
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