I know what I will be doing for the next few hours....

[lowroadacres]

My friend called and as luck would have it he had some pork for me to process for our freezer.

The next several hours will be all about cutting into smaller pieces and getting the bacon curing.

Most of this batch of pork will end up cubed to be ready for making sausage in a couple of weeks.

The timing is good as it should keep us in farmer's sausage and fresh sausage until deer season.

 

[smokinj]

Sound like a great hobby. Post some Pic's if you can.

 

[lowroadacres]

Its funny.... When I hear hobby I think model airplanes, maybe golf or wood carving.

For me home butchering and gardening are lifestyle choices that we have made intentionally that help us stay connected to life processes that most people outsource blindly.

Wood heat is in the same category.

Here are some pics from our big venison/pork sausage making day from last winter.

Left to right...

-4 large pepperoni chubs in the smoker....

-Some of the meat cut into small pieces... pork and venison.

-About one half of the sausage we made that day as it cools after coming out of the smoker.

 

[smokinj]

Thats is Awesome! Wow very sweet opertion...................................

 

[lowroadacres]

Thank-you. We have learned from a combination of family traditions, friend's advice and through trial and error.

Our setup is actually quite simple but one of the keys has been when we moved our log home onto our yard almost four years ago my wife and I insisted that our kitchen work space needed to be huge. Well, it is huge. The main counter area is referred to jokingly as my wife's aircraft carrier deck.

Without a wide open work space one is starting behind the eight ball when it comes to doing home butchering, food preserving, baking, etc.

Our main equipment for the finer part of the butchering starts of course with sharp knives. Then lots of clean containers such as enamel bread bowls we have collected over the years. Then our meat grinder/sausage stuffer is actually quite a small unit that attaches to our Bosch kitchen machine. Our "sausage mixer" is actually just camping coolers in which we mix the sausage components by hand.

Once we have made up the sausage with the bosch we either smoke the finished product or wrap it fresh.

The smoker is an old map case which I traded a broken down rototiller for. We have rigged up dowels for hanging sausage coils in and racks for smoking larger chubs, bacon or other cuts of meat.

The one luxury we have allowed ourselves recently is a vacuum sealer for packaging the meat. While it ups our cost a bit we find that the meat lasts much longer in the freezer this way. We dream of the day when we have a large garage or shop on our acreage and we can re-locate everything to out of our kitchen but for the foreseeable future this setup does us just fine.

 

[rustynut]

lowroadacres,
Thats a good looking pile you've got there.
Been trying my hand at some of that in the last couple years.
Got any recipes you're willing to share ?
rn

 

[lowroadacres]

RN.

I am all about simplicity.

With that in mind we have found a local grocery store that is willing to sell us the mix that they use for their sausage. The ingredients are all listed on each type of sausage.

We like the consistency and the ease with which these mixes are able to be used. I have experimented in the past with making our own recipes from scratch but I am not organized enough to keep the ingredients on hand and to keep them fresh enough to compare to the mixes.

Most of the mixes consist of the binder and spices and some of the sausage types come with "cure". On average the mixes require 20- 25 pounds of ground meat and 2-5 pounds of water (into which one mixes the spice package) and the ideal is once they are mixed to let them sit for a few hours.

When it comes to bacon I have fiddled around with some different recipes but we have found that rubbing Morton's tenderquick into the meat, letting it cure in the fridge for 2-3 days or as much as 10 days if I get busy and then rinsing it off, packaging it up then popping it in the freezer.

I try to be a practitioner of K.I.S.S.

 

[rustynut]

lowroadacres,
I cant cook but i'm able to follow directions - thus the need for recipes
Getting ready to try my hand at some sausage sticks. Bought some skins about 21mm in diameter.
Also have a couple of the box jerky seasoning mixes. Thought i'd do a bit of each and see how it goes.
Looking at about 10 lbs of venison and thinking this might need some pork to fatten it up a bit?
Got any tips from here? Is that pork sausage or regular ground beef? How much should I add?
How about smoking time and type of wood chips ? (Little Chief smoker)
also are you freezing most of that load you have shown in the pics?
always looking for that special recipe
thanks
rn

 

[smokinj]

lowroadacres,
I cant cook but i'm able to follow directions - thus the need for recipes
Getting ready to try my hand at some sausage sticks. Bought some skins about 21mm in diameter.
Also have a couple of the box jerky seasoning mixes. Thought i'd do a bit of each and see how it goes.
Looking at about 10 lbs of venison and thinking this might need some pork to fatten it up a bit?
Got any tips from here? Is that pork sausage or regular ground beef? How much should I add?
How about smoking time and type of wood chips ? (Little Chief smoker)
also are you freezing most of that load you have shown in the pics?
always looking for that special recipe
thanks
rn

Awww your going after the secret sauce! lol

 

[lowroadacres]

I can cook and I can mess with recipes but what I usually do is buy sausage mixes.... Farmers, mennonite, ham garlic, fresh sausage, etc.

Simply follow the recipes on the bag that the mix comes in and it very difficult to go wrong.

The sausage in that photo was made in mid winter of 09-10. It is a 50-50 blend of pork and venison.

The smoker is simply a big metal case with a fire going in the bottom and I keep checking it until it looks like it is cooked lightly through.

No mystery just good old trial and error

 

[lowroadacres]

You wanted pictures?

Here is the first simple bacon of this batch getting done for a taste test from my group of discriminating taste testers.

For the record.. Kids loved it, wife loved it, mission accomplished.

 

[smokinj]

You wanted pictures?

Here is the first simple bacon of this batch getting done for a taste test from my group of discriminating taste testers.

For the record.. Kids loved it, wife loved it, mission accomplished.

Looks Awesome..

 

[gpcollen1]

One of the guys i work with lives down in Arkansas. He has hogs and plenty of wildlife to supplement that. He built a 10x10 shed just for smoking. Very primitive looking. He swears by using green hickory for the smoking. He swears by it - and his father - and his father's father.

Looks like a nice operation you run over there. Only thing that concerns me with those premaid mixes is if there are nitrates in them. One of the best things about doing it fresh at home is no need for stuff like that. And I agree with the Vacuum packer you bought - food lasts much longer = less waste, if any.

 

[rustynut]

well,
You caught me .........
Looking for that third generation (no nitrate) Secret Sauce recipe ?
Ya, thats it
rn