I purchased one of those cheep ham presses from Amazon. The one I bought was $39.99 Canadian. Made of High Quality Stainless steel with capacity of 1.5 L or about 2 lb of meat. It is a form of the press for making ham, rolls and other homemade delicacies.
So I thought why not try and make a fast and dirty Lebanon Bologna. Found a recipe in one of my books and went and bought 1 KG of ground hamburger from the store. Should have bought extra lean. Not big deal though. Got the meat all mixed up with the spices and cure #1. I also added fermento to the mix to give it a little tang since it does not have any starter cultures added to it. Vac sealed the meat and let it sit in the fridge for 3 days. On the 3rd day you could see the meat getting a much darker red telling me the cure was working. So I set up my home made sous vide machine. Get the temp of the water up to 180F. Got the press out and the meat from the fridge and hand stuffed it into the ham press. Slide in the spring loaded top and fastened the lid. Just twists on, spring top holds the meat down with enough pressure to form the meat.
Pictures of the process:
Final IT of 170 F
Chilling in the sink with cold water
Gelled grease on top, reason I said should have bought extra lean. But it clean up real easy.
First cut:
Taste was close to the Lebanon Bologna that I made the traditional what years ago but only close. Missing the smoke flavor for sure. Still it turned out way better then I thought it would. Went down pretty good with some cheese.
Lunch meat that I know what went into it :)
So I thought why not try and make a fast and dirty Lebanon Bologna. Found a recipe in one of my books and went and bought 1 KG of ground hamburger from the store. Should have bought extra lean. Not big deal though. Got the meat all mixed up with the spices and cure #1. I also added fermento to the mix to give it a little tang since it does not have any starter cultures added to it. Vac sealed the meat and let it sit in the fridge for 3 days. On the 3rd day you could see the meat getting a much darker red telling me the cure was working. So I set up my home made sous vide machine. Get the temp of the water up to 180F. Got the press out and the meat from the fridge and hand stuffed it into the ham press. Slide in the spring loaded top and fastened the lid. Just twists on, spring top holds the meat down with enough pressure to form the meat.
Pictures of the process:
Final IT of 170 F
Chilling in the sink with cold water
Gelled grease on top, reason I said should have bought extra lean. But it clean up real easy.
First cut:
Taste was close to the Lebanon Bologna that I made the traditional what years ago but only close. Missing the smoke flavor for sure. Still it turned out way better then I thought it would. Went down pretty good with some cheese.
Lunch meat that I know what went into it :)
