Ok I’m addicted to sweet Lebanon bologna !

[Billymons]

I grew up with sweet Lebanon bologna sandwiches and I must admit, I am addicted to sweet Lebanon bologna! Here goes another round of six chubs 6.5 lbs of beef. This time I made my own muslin bags. Under five dollars for the unbleached muslin material at Walmart and a little bit of sewing got me 18 bags. I think I could’ve made them shorter and gotten more bags out of it. I also modified my master built 30 and put some hooks on the ceiling. I like using zip ties with a mounting holes. I posted my sweet Lebanon bologna recipe in my last post. And stay tuned, I’m trying my hand at charcuterie, being a refrigeration mechanic and access to a lot of free refrigeration units I made my own fermenting /curing unit. I’ve given the unit some trial runs now I’m ready to stuff some hog casings. My first try is some spicy salami we’ll see how it comes out.

 

[zwiller]

Looks great! Just modded my MES to hang and plan to run some bologna myself. What smoke times and IT are running?

 

[Billymons]

I use my tube smoker with pellets no heat for a couple hours( it gets maybe 90° at the most ) then I put the heat on 140 an hour 160 an hour then 170 until internal is 152, then I pull it, throw it in the freezer for maybe an hour, then hang it out to bloom in the house. I use full smoke the entire time, that’s just me.

 

[zwiller]

Interesting, that's pretty dang close to what I was thinking. How long to bloom? Do you use a stuffer? Don't have one yet but thought I could just scoop into the casing. Might be a PITA though.

 

[Billymons]

Interesting, that's pretty dang close to what I was thinking. How long to bloom? Do you use a stuffer? Don't have one yet but thought I could just scoop into the casing. Might be a PITA though.

I usually let it sit out over night to bloom so maybe 8 hours. Then refrigerate. I use to stuff it by hand, what a PITA! I bought a sausage gun(caulk gun) and I love it. Just like in the pic. I put a piece of cling wrap over the plunger part before I start stuffing and it works great! After words I clean it up real good, even spray it down with some bleach/water and dry real good. I want to upgrade to a LEM vertical stuffer one day. I just use the nozzle that came with the sausage gun and cut the tip off.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Looking great now the wait.

Warren

 

[chef jimmyj]

Nice work. Sweet Bologna and Cream Cheese Roll-ups. A favorite snack...JJ