Easy Lunch Meat

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KBFlyer

Master of the Pit
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Mar 7, 2018
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Ontario Canada
I purchased one of those cheep ham presses from Amazon. The one I bought was $39.99 Canadian. Made of High Quality Stainless steel with capacity of 1.5 L or about 2 lb of meat. It is a form of the press for making ham, rolls and other homemade delicacies.
So I thought why not try and make a fast and dirty Lebanon Bologna. Found a recipe in one of my books and went and bought 1 KG of ground hamburger from the store. Should have bought extra lean. Not big deal though. Got the meat all mixed up with the spices and cure #1. I also added fermento to the mix to give it a little tang since it does not have any starter cultures added to it. Vac sealed the meat and let it sit in the fridge for 3 days. On the 3rd day you could see the meat getting a much darker red telling me the cure was working. So I set up my home made sous vide machine. Get the temp of the water up to 180F. Got the press out and the meat from the fridge and hand stuffed it into the ham press. Slide in the spring loaded top and fastened the lid. Just twists on, spring top holds the meat down with enough pressure to form the meat.
Pictures of the process:
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Final IT of 170 F
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Chilling in the sink with cold water
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Gelled grease on top, reason I said should have bought extra lean. But it clean up real easy.
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First cut:
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Taste was close to the Lebanon Bologna that I made the traditional what years ago but only close. Missing the smoke flavor for sure. Still it turned out way better then I thought it would. Went down pretty good with some cheese.
Lunch meat that I know what went into it :)
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I got one of those presses for Christmas and have yet to use it. Recipes dedicated to using them are few and far between. Gotta get off my behind and give it a shot.
Thanks for the tip on the extra lean. I normally avoid that stuff like the plague. (made burgers from it ONCE and took half a pitcher of tea to get the dang thing down).
 
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I got one of those presses for Christmas and have yet to use it. Recipes dedicated to using them are few and far between. Gotta get off my behind and give it a shot.
Thanks for the tip on the extra lean. I normally avoid that stuff like the plague. (made burgers from it ONCE and took half a pitcher of tea to get the dang thing down).
Here is a recipe that was posted on the Sausage Debauchery facebook page.
Recipe for 1kg.
Pork shoulder, 20-25% fat
Salt, 15g
Cure #1, 2g
White pepper, finely ground, 2g
Black pepper, coarsely ground or cracked, 4g
Paprika, 1g
Coriander, 1g
Caraway, 0.5
White mustard seeds, 4g
Garlic powder, 2g
Potato starch, 20g
100ml ice water
1. Cube meat, add the salts, mix well pack tightly into a plastic container cover and cure in fridge for 24-48 hours.
Grind the meat through the 4.5mm plate
3. Add the spices, gradually pour the iced water to the meat, mixing well until a ball of farce sticks to your hand.
4. Tightly pack the farce into a meat press, leaving a 4cm space on top. Alternatively you can use a water proof 60-75mm casing.
5. Poach at a temp of 80C until an internal temp of 70C. A sous vide circulator will work well. If using a meat press, the water should be 2.5cm above the meat line, but not reaching to the top.
6. Once the 70C temperature shows on the thermometer, chill in cold water for 15-20 minutes and transfer into the fridge for 8-10 hours.

Also you can convert many of the luncheon meat recipes from here.
 
Now that is pretty slick. I am duly impressed. Very creative from start (sous vide) to finish (the meal roll). The creativity of the people in this forum never ceases to amaze me.

Robert
 
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That looks great . The lunch meat type stuff is what I enjoy making the most .
I see potato starch in your recipe . In my opinion that's a key ingredient for doing this .
I don't have a press , but use high barrier water proof casings or an old plastic butter tub as a mold .
Nice work on that .
 
That is really cool! Has a lot of possibilities!
 
Any possibility of getting the recipe? I've done deli ham and chicken loaf but for the life of me I can't find any recipes using beef. This Lebanon bologna looks great. I live in the Philippines and specialty items like Fermento, encapsulated citric acid, Bactoferm, etc., are not available here and can't be shipped from Amazon. So can anything else be added for the tang, like regular citric acid or vinegar? Also, regarding the lack of a smoky taste, did you try cold smoking the end product? I have seen a couple videos where cooked meat was cold smoked afterward cooking and it still took on a smoky taste. I haven't tried yet because I find smoked paprika, smoked salt, or liquid smoke all do a good job of giving my ham loaf a smoky taste.

Also, since this post, have you tried any other beef recipes in your deli press?
 
Any possibility of getting the recipe? I've done deli ham and chicken loaf but for the life of me I can't find any recipes using beef.
Below are two good recipes. Our method is to put the meat mixture in a loaf pan with parchment paper.
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After cooking there is quite a bit of liquid and fat in the pan which is poured off.
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Next, I cover the meat with foil or more parchment, and take a second loaf pan with some weight in it and set it atop the meat. This sort of compacts the loaf as it cools.
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Below are two good recipes. Our method is to put the meat mixture in a loaf pan with parchment paper.
View attachment 712640
After cooking there is quite a bit of liquid and fat in the pan which is poured off.
View attachment 712641
Next, I cover the meat with foil or more parchment, and take a second loaf pan with some weight in it and set it atop the meat. This sort of compacts the loaf as it cools.
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Now that is what I call eye candy and tasty combo!
So you did not press while you smoked? Or did you just slow low temp on the grill then pressed afterwards like you said?
Thanks for sharing!
 
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Now that is what I call eye candy and tasty combo!
So you did not press while you smoked? Or did you just slow low temp on the grill then pressed afterwards like you said?
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the kind words. The pit temp was in the 260° to 275° range and if you look close at the 2nd photo you can see how the loaf had shrunk a bit while cooking, and you can also see the liquid that collected in the pan. The weighted pan was after we poured off most of the liquid.
 
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