I had 60lbs of venison to grind so I gathered up what I needed. I was out of the spice packs I normally used so I went to Cabela's and bought boxed kits.
I have a friend that has been wanting some ring bologna and I saw a kit that said "Old Fashioned Bologna" so I picked it up thinking it would be what he was wanting. The kit included everything but the meat. When I got it home I discovered it didn't have the "ring casings".
I had a bag of snack stick seasoning so I decided to make 15lbs of that and 15lbs of the bolo, instead of putting 30lbs of good venison into bolo that I wasn't sure if we'd like or not.
The meat didn't thaw like I thought it would so when we got ready to start grinding, we fought with a lot of meat that was mostly frozen. This caused a major delay in my plan. I did the snack sticks first and they came out great, but by the time I got them done, I had run out of time to get the bolo mixed and stuffed, much less start on the 30lbs of German.
I ended up taking a day off from work on Monday to finish everything up. I took my time getting started on Monday, all the meat was ground, all I had to do was mix and stuff then get it in the smoker, right?
Once I finally got started, probably about 8:00, I knocked out the bolo and put it in the fridge. I got everything cleaned up and got ready to start on the German. Organization is definitely not one of my stronger suits! I remembered I hadn't rinsed my casings yet!
By the time I got the casings rinsed, ate a bite for lunch, it was almost 2:00 and I was ready to go. I opened the box to remove the seasoning and cure from the kit and there were two packs of cure and one of seasoning!!
Should've been just the opposite! I had to shut my process down, and make a run to my normal supplier. I spent a third of what the kit cost at Cabela's to buy what I needed and got back to the house to resume what at this point had turned into a major pain in the back side instead of a leisurely day of something I enjoy!
Since I'd already rinsed and soaked the natural casings from the kit, I went ahead and used them. I had one blowout after another and this project was about to get the best of me!
I finally got it all stuffed and hung in the smoker. The boxed instructions said to let it dry for an hour before applying smoke so I did that, although I'd never heard it before.
By the time I got around to lighting the AMNPS, the torch wouldn't work!! It went out and I couldn't light it again. It acted like it was clogged! Luckily, it was a cold day in Texas and I'd had the fireplace burning all day. I got a coal from there and set it in the AMNPS to light the pellets.
After all the fun I had trying to get this batch made, it actually turned out pretty good, except for the shrinkage. I'm guessing it was fat out, I was also having issues with the thermo on the smoker. I guess my next purchase will need to be a dual probe thermometer.
Here are a couple of picks, minus the snack sticks.
I have a friend that has been wanting some ring bologna and I saw a kit that said "Old Fashioned Bologna" so I picked it up thinking it would be what he was wanting. The kit included everything but the meat. When I got it home I discovered it didn't have the "ring casings".
I had a bag of snack stick seasoning so I decided to make 15lbs of that and 15lbs of the bolo, instead of putting 30lbs of good venison into bolo that I wasn't sure if we'd like or not.
The meat didn't thaw like I thought it would so when we got ready to start grinding, we fought with a lot of meat that was mostly frozen. This caused a major delay in my plan. I did the snack sticks first and they came out great, but by the time I got them done, I had run out of time to get the bolo mixed and stuffed, much less start on the 30lbs of German.
I ended up taking a day off from work on Monday to finish everything up. I took my time getting started on Monday, all the meat was ground, all I had to do was mix and stuff then get it in the smoker, right?
Once I finally got started, probably about 8:00, I knocked out the bolo and put it in the fridge. I got everything cleaned up and got ready to start on the German. Organization is definitely not one of my stronger suits! I remembered I hadn't rinsed my casings yet!
By the time I got the casings rinsed, ate a bite for lunch, it was almost 2:00 and I was ready to go. I opened the box to remove the seasoning and cure from the kit and there were two packs of cure and one of seasoning!!
Since I'd already rinsed and soaked the natural casings from the kit, I went ahead and used them. I had one blowout after another and this project was about to get the best of me!
I finally got it all stuffed and hung in the smoker. The boxed instructions said to let it dry for an hour before applying smoke so I did that, although I'd never heard it before.
By the time I got around to lighting the AMNPS, the torch wouldn't work!! It went out and I couldn't light it again. It acted like it was clogged! Luckily, it was a cold day in Texas and I'd had the fireplace burning all day. I got a coal from there and set it in the AMNPS to light the pellets.
After all the fun I had trying to get this batch made, it actually turned out pretty good, except for the shrinkage. I'm guessing it was fat out, I was also having issues with the thermo on the smoker. I guess my next purchase will need to be a dual probe thermometer.
Here are a couple of picks, minus the snack sticks.
