So when I first got my smoker I made some venison Kielbasa. And it came out terrible due to my fault. I cooked at too high of heat and all the fat rendered out.
So after being on this forum for a while now and reading tons I have learned alot. I have upgraded my smoker with an Auber PID too for sausage making.
So here we go. I bought 2 picnic shoulders and deboned and cleaned up all the meat and cut into chunks for grinding. I added some pork back fat to get the ratio i was looking for as the picnic shoulders were not too fatty. I ended up with 8lbs of lean pork and 2 lbs of back fat. Ran all the meat through the course plate and then the fine plate. The seasoning I used was a package of LEM Backwoods Kielbasa seasoning. Mixed the seasoning and cure up into water and mixed till I got that nice tacky cake your hand feel. I then added 2 cups of NFDM and mixed into the meat. Now I have used High temp cheese in the past and I can't see spending the money on that stuff so I have read guys using regular store bought cheese. So I gave it a test run. I cut up some extra sharp cheddar into some small squares and mixed into the meat. Finally time to stuff. The meat was stuffed into hog casings using my LEM 5 lb stuffer , tied into rings and hung in the fridge overnight.
As I type all this I wish I got pics of the whole process. Oh well. hang in there pictures coming soon.
The next morning the Kielbasa came out of the fridge and onto some racks on the counter to get some additional air dry.
Next fired up my MES 30 Analog smoker with the Auber PID running. Set a program of 110 degrees for 45 min, 130 for an hour, 145 for 1 1/2, 160 for 2 hours and then 168 till finish.
For the smoke. Used Todd's AMNPS started with some cherry pellets for about 2 hours and then apple for another 2. I did have some trouble with the pellets going out but I think my issue may have been I had it on top of my water pan turned upside down for a deflector. I switched that out for a small cast iron pan and then had no issues.
Now I did have issues with heat flow in the smoker. The rack hanging in the back finished way before the front. The meat in the back was pulled at 155 degrees. When I pulled them the front hanger was only at 133. Is this normal? Anything I can do to improve this?
So meat pulled at 155 and into some ice cold water till they cooled down below 100 degrees.
And then onto some racks at room temp to bloom
And finally the cut view!!!!!!!!
Regular cheese worked perfectly!!!
Thank you everyone for your help!
So after being on this forum for a while now and reading tons I have learned alot. I have upgraded my smoker with an Auber PID too for sausage making.
So here we go. I bought 2 picnic shoulders and deboned and cleaned up all the meat and cut into chunks for grinding. I added some pork back fat to get the ratio i was looking for as the picnic shoulders were not too fatty. I ended up with 8lbs of lean pork and 2 lbs of back fat. Ran all the meat through the course plate and then the fine plate. The seasoning I used was a package of LEM Backwoods Kielbasa seasoning. Mixed the seasoning and cure up into water and mixed till I got that nice tacky cake your hand feel. I then added 2 cups of NFDM and mixed into the meat. Now I have used High temp cheese in the past and I can't see spending the money on that stuff so I have read guys using regular store bought cheese. So I gave it a test run. I cut up some extra sharp cheddar into some small squares and mixed into the meat. Finally time to stuff. The meat was stuffed into hog casings using my LEM 5 lb stuffer , tied into rings and hung in the fridge overnight.
As I type all this I wish I got pics of the whole process. Oh well. hang in there pictures coming soon.
The next morning the Kielbasa came out of the fridge and onto some racks on the counter to get some additional air dry.
Next fired up my MES 30 Analog smoker with the Auber PID running. Set a program of 110 degrees for 45 min, 130 for an hour, 145 for 1 1/2, 160 for 2 hours and then 168 till finish.
For the smoke. Used Todd's AMNPS started with some cherry pellets for about 2 hours and then apple for another 2. I did have some trouble with the pellets going out but I think my issue may have been I had it on top of my water pan turned upside down for a deflector. I switched that out for a small cast iron pan and then had no issues.
Now I did have issues with heat flow in the smoker. The rack hanging in the back finished way before the front. The meat in the back was pulled at 155 degrees. When I pulled them the front hanger was only at 133. Is this normal? Anything I can do to improve this?
So meat pulled at 155 and into some ice cold water till they cooled down below 100 degrees.
And then onto some racks at room temp to bloom
And finally the cut view!!!!!!!!
Regular cheese worked perfectly!!!
Thank you everyone for your help!