I did it! 20 pounds of venison German Bologna in 5.5 inch fibrous casing, smoked then SV!!! Pics 1st then the write up!
Saturday I mixed and stuffed these big fattys!
This was my 1st time really diving into SV and being very successful with it (2nd attempt ever).
Lesson Learned:
I don't have any eating pics, but I had some egg that needed to be eaten so I used the crumbled bits and odd end slices to make a scrambled egg hash that was turned into a sandwich and then I also ate a bologna sandwich. Used store bought Keto bread and some plain yellow mustard. Was good to go!
Finally, it feels good to get that all handled. I have a bunch of ground venison and wild hog meat that is frozen in 6-9 pound vac seal bags that needs to be turned into sausage and other things. It was nice to get this converted. I also ground up 20 pounds of pork fat I recently got and vac sealed it into 2 pound bags so I can easily do 10 pounds of sausage.
Thank you everyone who helped with insights when I asked months back for SV info on taking on such an ambition project freaking giant 5.5 inch diameter chubs! :D
Saturday I mixed and stuffed these big fattys!
- 80% pure venison and 20% beef fat ( well 1 pound of 80/20 beef since I was a pound short and needed to get to 20 total pounds lol)
- Stuffed in 5.5 inch fibrous casings; Big chub was like 12 pounds and small chub was 8 pounds
- Owen's German Bologna seasoning once again confirming my measurements are way better (way less salty) than their instructions. I use 6gms of seasoning per pound, 8gms of their Maple cure per pound, added NDFM at 4.5gm per pound and 1oz water per pound so the mix slurry would be good to go. Going the SV route and not losing as much moisture I might be able to bump seasoning up to 8gms per pound for more flavor but if not SV and doing in the smoker (losing more moisture) I am sticking to 6gm of seasoning per pound
- Smoked at 135F with 100% Maple pellets for about 4-5 hours (until pellets burned out) then put in garage fridge to SV next day
- Sunday I put in an Sous Vide (SV) bath at 151F for 6 hours; Went of the Baldwin pasteurization chart for here https://douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Beef where 25mm is an inch and I multiplied that time for 151F for 6 inches of thickness and rounded up to 60 min an inch, vs 55min, just to be sure (thanks
chopsaw
for the suggestion) - Ice bathed for 2 hours then put back in the fridge until today (Monday)
- Sliced and vac sealed and ate on lol
This was my 1st time really diving into SV and being very successful with it (2nd attempt ever).
Lesson Learned:
- I used big thick turkey brining bags instead of vac sealing these guys and it worked very well: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CJ9VP5H4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 paid just under $15 for 6 of them but I could wash this guy out and reuse if I want though it did get a little nasty so will likely toss it
- To do it again I would probably use a temp lower than 151. I had some slight, slight, slight, fat melt. Nothing to affect anything with the sausage, but I would like there to be none at all... if that's even possible
- I would stuff about 10 pounds per casing with these giant 5.5 inch casings. They can hold about 11-12 pounds but 10 pounds would be shorter in length to better hang in the smoker while still holding 20 full pounds
- My coleman stacker SV setup performed well and was JUST big enough to hold these big suckers but I would like more room hence stuffing 10 pounds or a little less if needed
- The Hakka 7lb stuffer is working like a champ and so much faster than my 5 pound LEM. It is really filling the gap between the 5 pound LEM and the 21 pound giant that takes 2 people to work. It was TOTALLY the right call for me to buy so I can do solo sausage stuffing in 5-30 pound lots or so
- The 5.5 inch chubs sounded good in theory, then looked scary when stuffed, but turned out almost perfect once it was all done. The slices are a little bigger than bread size. I think 5 inch would be the sweet spot for me though i don't think I saw a 5 inch casing. And 4.5 inch would be acceptable and I have some that I need to revisit using now that I have the Hakka. My goal was to have good sandwich bread sized slices and I am there. My other goal was to have some SV success, which I did!
I don't have any eating pics, but I had some egg that needed to be eaten so I used the crumbled bits and odd end slices to make a scrambled egg hash that was turned into a sandwich and then I also ate a bologna sandwich. Used store bought Keto bread and some plain yellow mustard. Was good to go!
Finally, it feels good to get that all handled. I have a bunch of ground venison and wild hog meat that is frozen in 6-9 pound vac seal bags that needs to be turned into sausage and other things. It was nice to get this converted. I also ground up 20 pounds of pork fat I recently got and vac sealed it into 2 pound bags so I can easily do 10 pounds of sausage.
Thank you everyone who helped with insights when I asked months back for SV info on taking on such an ambition project freaking giant 5.5 inch diameter chubs! :D
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