Just doing a little work around the "house" this weekend.

[s2k9k]

Well actually started Thursday night with a lot of prep work.

10 lbs of bottom round sliced up for some jerky.
20 lbs of pork butt cubed, cured and seasoned.

Yesterday I smoked the jerky, ground and stuffed the sausage to be smoked today. Also set aside 3 lbs of the ground pork for some more breakfast sausage (haven't got around to mixing it yet)!

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• s2k9k
• Aug 10, 2013

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• s2k9k
• Aug 10, 2013

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• s2k9k
• Aug 10, 2013

What do you do with all those little bits and pieces of jerky meat when you take it out of the marinade?


Fry it up and have it for breakfast!

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• s2k9k
• Aug 10, 2013

 

[fwismoker]

Looks really tasty Dave. This is just pushing me to want to do snack sticks more and more.

 

[bamafan]

Looks tasty Dave. Got about 2 more degrees and I'll pull my sausages and cool them! Maybe a piece will fall off and have to be tasted!

 

[pgsmoker64]

Great looking jerky Dave!

Bill

 

[webowabo]

The jerky looks perfect!!!

 

[bad santa]

Sweet, everything looks great!

 

[jaxrmrjmr]

Beautiful color.  What kind of marinade did you use for the jerkey?  Mine turns out very dark brown in color as I use soy and worcheshire along with smoke the whole time.
 

 

[themule69]

Dave

Looks MY T TASTY

Happy smoken.

David

 

[kathrynn]

Yummmmm.....I am going to have to try these too.

Kat

 

[seenred]

Looks great Dave!  

Red

 

[pineywoods]

Looks outstanding

 

[s2k9k]

Thanks Everyone!!!

Beautiful color.  What kind of marinade did you use for the jerkey?  Mine turns out very dark brown in color as I use soy and worcheshire along with smoke the whole time.

 

I used Walton's Bold Jerky Seasoning. I made some a few weeks ago with Walton's Cajun Jerky Seasoning and it came out looking just the same, just different flavor. I really like the Walton's seasonings,
Here's a piece I did a few weeks ago:

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• s2k9k
• Jul 14, 2013

 

[s2k9k]

Well I've been wanting to try blanching my sausage and today I got forced into it. I had to go to an Eagle Scout Ceremony this afternoon and when I got back the house was at 120* when it should have been ramping to 160*. The circuit breaker had tripped so I reset it and a few minutes later it tripped again. The sausage had been in the smoke a little over 4 hours and the IT was just over 100*. I pulled out my stock pot which I didn't think would be big enough but it worked. Heated some water to 165* and started dropping them in. I was surprised how fast they got to 152*, only about 10 minutes so into the ice bath they went. They lost a lot of color in the water but it looks to be coming back as they hang. I think I like this blanching thing, it cut 3 to 4 hours off the cook time!

Well I've got some electrical troubleshooting to do so I'll see y'all later!

 

[JckDanls 07]

Dave... did you take the jerky the whole way in the smoke house or switch it over to a dehydrator ? might have to put the next size up breaker in....

 

[s2k9k]

All the way in the house, I don't even have a dehydrator!

I bought a 20a breaker because I was going to wire everything in 12awg wire because it is plugged into a 20a circuit. When I cut the end off the cord of the element I found it was 14awg so I just wired everything in 14awg. The element is only 1500 watts. I was concerned about the 20a breaker being too big but it was all I had, was planning on changing it to a 15a because of my wire size. I haven't looked at it yet but I'm thinking it is just a bad breaker. It was cheap and I don't think it can handle the constant heat load. I had a switch burn up yesterday, again cheapo switch, I had a few more so I just swapped it out. I'm thinking I"m going to just upgrade to much better components, so much for being a cheapskate!!!

 

[bamafan]

Sorry to herar that but keep me posted on what componets you use!

 

[s2k9k]

Sorry to herar that but keep me posted on what componets you use!

I will do that!

 

[s2k9k]

Here they are after a 1.5 hour bloom, getting ready to throw one on the grill and warm it up a bit:

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• s2k9k
• Aug 10, 2013

 

[woodcutter]

Everything looks great! You do nice stuffing job of your sausage. These and past posts.

 

[s2k9k]

Thanks Todd! I still feel like I'm really struggling with the stuffing but it's getting better. Collagens are pretty easy but the hog casings have a big learning curve, a third hand would really help!