Ref; Bear Loaf and Summer Sausage!!

[TomKnollRFV]

So I got a mess of ground meat pretty cheap..2 bucks a pound for 80-20 and 1.69 a pound for 73-27..and just a bit over a pound of ground pork to round every thing out on the bearloaf weight wise.

When I was pouring out the dry spices..the cap of my onion powder fell off and well, I got more onion powder then I wanted, I'm sure ..it'll be alright. I hope. The dry spice mix rather reminded me of pizza, which isn't a bad thing.

Pictures will be added as I go. Meds are doing their normal 'You have to feel sick and try to make some thing from ground meat' routine. I blame the Asian Carry Out. Always tastes good, but I should know the oily food and what not makes me sick.

PS: Bear; I honestly thought the spice blend would just smell like soy sauce with the 3 ounces I put in :)

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Alright bear loaves in their pans and now in the fridge..and sausage meat mixed up and in the fridge for a bit to cool back down and me to cool down as well. We're cooking pears in light syrup to go in the fridge in cans as well. I can tell ya the kitchen is mighty warm.


So the Summer Sausage is a mostly full package of LEM backwoods seasoning, to which I added garlic, black pepper, some fennel, rosemary and thyme, and my last handful of mustard seeds! <Good thing I had enough for the bear loaves!.> I have no idea how that'll taste. I hope it's a good addition. I didn't think it needed more salt, thats for sure, the LEM backwoods seasoning is crazy salty as is.

I'm going to let the bear loaves and my bacon sit till saturday, then I'll take them out of their nice safe havens and start drying in my curing fridge, I plan to smoke every thing Sunday till their required safe temperatures. <I basically plan to bring every thing to 155f or so to be on the safe side. Maybe only 145f on the bacon>.

As for why fennel in the summer sausage? Well..the bear loaves needed it..and I spent 15 minutes looking for my mortar and pestle and darned if that stuff didn't smell amazing when lightly crushed in it..

 

[nanuk]

I made some of Bear's unstuffed pepperoni stix in loaf style, but I cut back on the pepper, as SWMBO isn't a fan of heat...

to me, it tasted like summer sausage... or something like that.

I LOVED it!
makes an awesome sammich!

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I made some of Bear's unstuffed pepperoni stix in loaf style, but I cut back on the pepper, as SWMBO isn't a fan of heat...

to me, it tasted like summer sausage... or something like that.

I LOVED it!
makes an awesome sammich!

I spice mine up a bit, but I also dump tobasco into ramen along with Sriracha. We'll see how the loaves turn out!

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Every thing snugged away in my curing fridge. Which also has some left over asian food in it <General Tso's chicken. There is two places we order from and we didn't order from the one with double cooked pork. Which I LOVE!>. Between this sausage and the bacon, I got 20 pounds of meat curing away now!


And then the famous LEM one pound casings. Which never hold a pound. 5 pounds equaled six casings+scraps. Getting low on my casings, so next time I'll order ones from some where else. Yes, I know, it's on my floor, but I had to re-arrange shelves. Don't worry, the actual meat never landed on the floor before stuffing!

 

[crazymoon]

TKRFV, Nice looking goodies in your fridge !

 

[TomKnollRFV]

TKRFV, Nice looking goodies in your fridge !

Worth the whole 25 dollars or what not I spent on the fridge I tell ya! Freezer can't hold more then an ice cube tray and a small bit of goodies, but ah well :P

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I forgot to take a picture of the fry test..I had enough to basically do a burger patty..which I did! Coulda used more savoury ingredients, ahh well! I'm actually wondering if you can add garlic sauteed onions into summer sausage now..

 

[nanuk]

[QUOTE="TomKnollRFV, post: 1867710, member: 207366".... Yes, I know, it's on my floor, but I had to re-arrange shelves. Don't worry, the actual meat never landed on the floor before stuffing![/QUOTE]

Just tell 'em your floor is clean enough to eat off of.... then show 'em the pics for PROOF!

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Ha! It probably is Nanuk..since before that thing was there, that segment of the floor was covered by plywood and cardboard. You can tell it was pressed down by all that for years.

 

[Bearcarver]

Sounds like the hard work is done.
Be back.

Berar

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Sounds like the hard work is done.
Be back.

Berar

It is, unless we count trying to figure out how to fit in drying tracks as well. I might have to skip doing the overnight dry on the bear loaves because I lack room and drying racks!

 

[Bearcarver]

It is, unless we count trying to figure out how to fit in drying racks as well. I might have to skip doing the overnight dry on the bear loaves because I lack room and drying racks!

No problem!!
An hour or two in the smoker @ about 140° without Smoke will get your pellicle better than over night in the fridge.

Bear

 

[TomKnollRFV]

No problem!!
An hour or two in the smoker @ about 140° without Smoke will get your pellicle better than over night in the fridge.

Bear

Fair Enough! The actual smoke flavour isn't the biggest appeal of these compared to that perfect level of peppery goodness. That is what every one loved on the unstuffed snack sticks. I need to visit a good will to find some extra cooling racks...I should check if my smoker racks will fit in the mini fridge first, but I highly suspect the answer will be no. <Also I'm pretty sure the air flow will not be good enough even for my bacon>

 

[TomKnollRFV]

So after doing the bacon and my parents returned from the overnight trip out of town. <Family Reunion trip; I unfortunately couldn't attend as we were unsure what to do about Valkyrie. She likely would have been fine but you never know how a dog will react to 150 people around her. Especially given she isn't used to more then 5 people around her..> I decided to ask my mother if she had any idea where the missing cooling racks were. She had decided to put a newer one away to bring up North to the cabin up there. We aren't sure why since no one has ever baked in the oven. <Old thing, it has two settings.. Off and tempermentally on>. At any rate, I could put two of the loafs on that third rack.

Going to try and re-arrange the bacon to fit the third one on a rack but it isn't likely to occur..and I'm not sure about these things getting dry- I'll check them before I smoke them. It's not the biggest thing to me if the pellicle isn't perfect. I can either run them at 140f for an hour or two with no smoke, or just place the lot in front of a fan for an hour. To be fair the back bacon I did had a good pellicle and I still couldn't taste much smoke adhering to them.