Received my Owen's BBQ Seasonings just in time for a weekend snack stick cook (and a summer sausage for good measure).
Owen's Seasonings - using Chipotle Wildfire, Teriyaki, and Pepperoni today.
15 lbs of mince composed of:
10 lbs - 80/20 ground chuck from Sam's Club
3 lbs - Pork Butt
2 lbs - Bacon Ends and Trim
The pork went through a single course grind, and then beef and pork went through the #4 plate together for the final grind. Using a LEM #12 grinder.
Divided meat into 1850 gram lots and portioned the seasonings out accordingly. I will comment that the Owen's pepperoni uses Maple Cure instead of the speed cure that's in the other mixes. I was a little concerned I had gotten the wrong curing pack, but the instructions included with each mix specified the Maple Cure as well. It is a 0.88% Nitrite content, so the maple cure use rate is about 8x's higher than I expected. Double checking is always a good idea!
Everything getting STPP added at 0.3% and water at 7%.
Seasoned mixes went in to the fridge for an overnight rest then stuffed in to 18mm B&P collagen casings the next morning.
Summer sausage will be about 3lbs and seasoned with Cloverdale's Summer Sausage seasoning mix with a little extra garlic. Stuffed in to 2.9"x20" fibrous casings.
The kitchenaid doing the mixing. It's the 5qt version and does a good mixing job for about 4lbs of meat.
Day 2 - Ambient temps on the mid 30s but the wind was up. Started off around 100 degrees and bumped the temps 10 degrees every hour or so to 170. Loaded the pellet tube with Lumberjack fruit wood blend about 3/4 full for a solid 5 hours of smoke. Rotated racks at hour 4.
Moving right along. Using Thermoworks Signals to monitor the cook. I use a thermopen when I get a little closer to finish time.
Summer sausage pulled at hour 6, sealed, and finished for 2 hours at 152 in the Sous Vide.
Total cook time to 148 was about 9 hours. High afternoon winds kept dropping my temps. Everything got an ice bath to cool, 3 hours of bloom time, and an overnight ride in a brown paper bag in the fridge.
The haul.
Verdict: The teriyaki mix is really good as well as the pepperoni. There's no hint of maple in the pepperoni sticks at all. The wildfire chipotle is also good, but kind of 1 note - hot. I'd say it's a mid-heat level snack stick.
The cloverdale summer sausage is delicious. I avoided ECA this time as a test, but will likely add some next time.
Thanks for the read!
Owen's Seasonings - using Chipotle Wildfire, Teriyaki, and Pepperoni today.
15 lbs of mince composed of:
10 lbs - 80/20 ground chuck from Sam's Club
3 lbs - Pork Butt
2 lbs - Bacon Ends and Trim
The pork went through a single course grind, and then beef and pork went through the #4 plate together for the final grind. Using a LEM #12 grinder.
Divided meat into 1850 gram lots and portioned the seasonings out accordingly. I will comment that the Owen's pepperoni uses Maple Cure instead of the speed cure that's in the other mixes. I was a little concerned I had gotten the wrong curing pack, but the instructions included with each mix specified the Maple Cure as well. It is a 0.88% Nitrite content, so the maple cure use rate is about 8x's higher than I expected. Double checking is always a good idea!
Everything getting STPP added at 0.3% and water at 7%.
Seasoned mixes went in to the fridge for an overnight rest then stuffed in to 18mm B&P collagen casings the next morning.
Summer sausage will be about 3lbs and seasoned with Cloverdale's Summer Sausage seasoning mix with a little extra garlic. Stuffed in to 2.9"x20" fibrous casings.
The kitchenaid doing the mixing. It's the 5qt version and does a good mixing job for about 4lbs of meat.
Day 2 - Ambient temps on the mid 30s but the wind was up. Started off around 100 degrees and bumped the temps 10 degrees every hour or so to 170. Loaded the pellet tube with Lumberjack fruit wood blend about 3/4 full for a solid 5 hours of smoke. Rotated racks at hour 4.
Moving right along. Using Thermoworks Signals to monitor the cook. I use a thermopen when I get a little closer to finish time.
Summer sausage pulled at hour 6, sealed, and finished for 2 hours at 152 in the Sous Vide.
Total cook time to 148 was about 9 hours. High afternoon winds kept dropping my temps. Everything got an ice bath to cool, 3 hours of bloom time, and an overnight ride in a brown paper bag in the fridge.
The haul.
Verdict: The teriyaki mix is really good as well as the pepperoni. There's no hint of maple in the pepperoni sticks at all. The wildfire chipotle is also good, but kind of 1 note - hot. I'd say it's a mid-heat level snack stick.
The cloverdale summer sausage is delicious. I avoided ECA this time as a test, but will likely add some next time.
Thanks for the read!
Last edited: