# Ring Bologna in beef rounds



## DanMcG (Oct 4, 2010)

While talking with Bmudd in chat Sunday morning I mentioned that I haven’t posted any Q-view in a long time due to no good reason, just life I guess, But I told him I post the ring bologna that I was smoking at the time as it was a new recipe for me and some might find it interesting.

So here it is.

This is a recipe I used from Len Poli’s collection, I copied his recipe to the T, and will use this for a baseline for a stronger garlic ring bologna that I’m looking for. The sausage is called *Lykens Valley Pennsylvania Ring Bologna. *His site is down at the time of this post, when it’s back up I’ll link it.

The recipe was contributed by; _Don Fasnacht-Robert M.Lesher Meats  Elizabeth, PA_  

 It’s a great tasting recipe in my opinion, but I’ll be giving out a few pounds of sample to friends tomorrow for a true taste test.

The recipe called for beef rounds which is a first for me, but I really enjoyed working with them. They are thick and tough which makes them easy to really pack the meat in tightly. (these are edible but you want to peel the casing off when you slice it otherwise you’ll be chewing it all day)

They are also very easy to get on the horn being almost 2“ in diameter.

I didn’t get any pic's of the mixing or stuffing, but here’s a shot of them the next day hanging in the frig waiting for the smoker.  








This next pic is after I dried them at 120°for an hour then bumped the temp to 140° and added some pecan smoke for maybe an hour, i was looking for a light smoke flavor.
	

		
			
		

		
	







I kept bumping the temp up until they were smoking/cooking at 180°.

This is after about 5 hours







I pulled them when they hit 156° internal (about 6 hours total cook time)and place in 180° water till they floated. ( this is suppose to aid in peeling the casings, which seems to work. Another first for me)

 Hung out to dry,







I have them pack away in the frig since yesterday to let the flavor develop, and when I get done with this , I'll slice some up and taste test it again.

thanks for looking.

_Edited to add credits_.


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## scarbelly (Oct 4, 2010)

Those look great Dan. I am looking forward to the link. Can you elaborate on what you did not like and will change


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## beer-b-q (Oct 4, 2010)

Those Look Great...  How long do you have to let them set before trying them?


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## DanMcG (Oct 4, 2010)

Scarbelly, I'd give these a 10 out of ten for a classic northeastern ring bologna. the only thing I will change next time is to add more garlic, so I can call it a garlic ring bologna. this has garlic but it's not a dominate flavor like some friends want.


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## DanMcG (Oct 4, 2010)

Beer I tried some after 6 hours and they were good. I just tried some after30 hours and they are Very good, but I think it takes two or three days for a suasage to really develope it's flavor.


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## DanMcG (Oct 4, 2010)

Here's a sliced view, although a little out of focus, or maybe I need my glasses


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## bmudd14474 (Oct 4, 2010)

Looks Great Dan. Glad you posted it.


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## boykjo (Oct 4, 2010)

You definitely have talent even without the glasses  ......nice work


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## mballi3011 (Oct 5, 2010)

I would like to have the recipe for that one Dan. Send it to me if you would or atleast link it when it comes back up. It looks good and the wife and I really like a good Tire Patch Sandwich every now and then.


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## banacanin (Oct 5, 2010)

This is very cool. I am glad I joined this forum, it looks like I can learn a lot here.


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## Bearcarver (Oct 5, 2010)

Looks Great Dan!

Looks a lot like the better ring bolognas we get around here from small "PA Dutch" butcher shops.

Thanks for showing,

Bear


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## placebo (Oct 5, 2010)

DanMcG said:


> It’s a great tasting recipe in my opinion, but I’ll be giving out a few pounds of sample to friends tomorrow for a true taste test.


Can I be your friend? That looks incredible! I'd be interested in that recipe also. I've heard about ring bologna for years from friends that I've known from PA but I've still yet to try it. After seeing yours now I REALLY want to try it!


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## DanMcG (Oct 5, 2010)

For anyone looking for the recipe, Mr. Poli's site is back up. so here's the link; http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Ring Bologna-Lykens Valley .pdf  

I went with exactly what was posted and it was top notch stuff, and like I said earlier I hope I can please some friends  with added garlic in the next batch.


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## squirrel (Oct 6, 2010)

Wow! Dan, sir, that looks totally awesome! That may be a new venture for me as I have never tried anything like that. What an inspiration!


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## venture (Oct 7, 2010)

Haven't had that stuff since I was a kid.  Mom used to work in the family business and sometimes needed to make quick dinners. I miss it and can't find it in stores around here.

Yours looks awesome!


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## dnvrdv (Oct 10, 2010)

One word.  "WOW"


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## solaryellow (Oct 10, 2010)

That looks fantastic Dan! This is going on my to-do list. It looks tasty.


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## tasunkawitko (Nov 10, 2012)

I'm actually in the middle of trying this one right now, and things seem to be going well. This is my first ever "official" attempt at a real sausage of any kind ~ I took photos and will prepare a complete pictorial, but here are some notes:

I used three pounds of very-well-trimmed ground deer (no fat) and two pounds of ground pork. The reason for the adjusted ratio (the original recipe calls for 4 pounds beef and 1 pound pork) is due to the lean-ness of the deer.

Instead of Cure #1 and salt, I used Richtee's "TennerQuack" TenderQuick clone in an amount appropriate for 5 pounds of ground meat (7.5 teaspoons, or 2 tablespoons + 1.5 teaspoons), and added no salt.

Instead of the water and soy flour (which is unavailable to me) called for in the recipe, I used followed the advice of Curious Aardvark and used beer and oatmeal (pulverised in the food processor until it was nearly the same as flour) in the same amounts as specified for their counterparts in the recipe.

I washed and re-washed all equipment, bowls, mixing devices etc. in hot, soapy water, then dried thoroughly and put the grinder parts in the freezer to get good and cold. Looking back, it wouldn't have hurt to have the sausage bowl in there, too.

I measured all spices by weight, using the specified amounts in the recipe.

The ground pork was from the store and looks to be of a fine-ground consistency. As for the deer, it was all about 90% thawed and - thanks to careful trimming and packaging - as fresh as the day it was frozen. My grinder (a Universal #2) doesn't have a plate with the holes in it; it just has the two rotating doo-hickies (one with three blades (coarse) and another with a dozen or so (fine)). The venison went through the "coarse" blades pretty well, but when I tried to run the coarse-ground meat through the "fine" blades, I just got mush that wouldn't feed through the grinder blades, even though the meat and the grinder were both pretty dang cold. Because of this, I stuck with the original (coarse) grind, but I don't think this will be a problem, for reasons I will explain below.

I ground the meat into and mixed this bologna in a very old, well-preserved, porcelain-lined metal bowl that we "rescued" from my wife's Slovak grandmother's posessions as her greedy children were preparing to auction everything off after her death (don't get me started). We've all probably seen one of these bowls at our grandparents' (or maybe great-grandparents') home or farm; they're white, wide, low and have a blue or red rim. This bowl is for, among other things, MAKING SAUSAGE! You can tell because there's one section along the rim that is chipped from the grinder knocking against it. It will be my "sausage-making" bowl for all of my projects, and I hope that one of my children has enough interest to adopt it as his "sausage-making" bowl when the time comes.

Following the recipe directions (modified for the cure, beer and ground oatmeal), I mixed the dry ingredients and beer with a whisk into a slurry, then added the meat; a little deer at a time, then a little pork at a time, then deer, then pork and so on. I then got a plain, old-fashioned, hand-held potato masher and had at it, mashing and twisting everything together while rotating the bowl. (When using the masher, I transferred the project to a large, wide Tupperware bowl, so as not to damage the porcelain bowl with the metal masher). This mashing action seemed to have the effect of helping to emulsify and bind the meat with the cure, and the mashing/twisting seemed to pulverise it to the point where I am pretty sure I was able to compensate for the "coarse" grind, which really isn't that coarse with venison anyway, since it is a pretty fine-grained meat.

I followed Curious Aardvark's advice when mixing, making sure to blend everything well and continue through the first "sticky" stage and well into the second "firm and spongy" stage. This worked quite well as the two meats, beer, ground oatmeal, cure and spices all melded together so as to become one well-integrated mass.

Right away I noticed two things:

1) It was really starting to smell like GOOD bologna; not the cheap stuff that you buy on sale toward the end of the pay period, but the high-end stuff that goes beyond any of the lunchmeat brands. The spice combination and amounts seemed a little strange to me at first, but I took a leap of faith, and it paid off big time.

Also,

2) This entire operation was really, really much easier than I thought it would be, and once again, as I have done so many times, I kicked myself for not trying this sooner, on the flimsy excuse that the project seemed "intimidating" or that I was waiting for all the "right" stuff, the stars to align and for conditions to be "perfect;" such a waste of time, when I could have been enjoying good food and the satisfaction of making it myself! I see it all the time and am guilty of it myself, here and elsewhere, and not just with charcuterie projects: _"Someday.... when I have a fancy set-up. Or when the time is right. Or when I feel ready. Or when my skills improve....Yadda yadda yadda."_ Trust me on this: you're wasting time! Go to a garage sale and get a 10$ grinder, and get started MAKING stuff and building your experience and skills while you save up for a more-advanced set-up. You will be glad you did!

Anyway, I got everything mixed, and I really think it came through like it is supposed to. When I was finished, I covered the bowl well with three offset layers of plastic grocery bags, each tied well to make everything air-tight, and put the mess into the fridge, where it will cure overnight.

Tomorrow, I will make my first-ever attempt to stuff sausage into a casing of any kind. Previously, I had simply rolled meat into tightly-saran-wrapped logs, where the exterior of the log would make its own "casing" while cooking or smoking (saran wrap removed, of course!); other times I would employ the same general concept with aluminum foil, cooking the meat in the foil. This time, however, I wanted to use actual casings, but I'm out of money (another long story), so I couldn't get any ring-sized bologna casings (which probably aren't available for a 130-mile radius around me anyway).

Then I remembered that a few years ago, I had bought a "sausage-making kit" from the makers of Little Chief smokers:

http://www.smokehouseproducts.com/pr...=9740-002-0000








I had completely forgotten I had this! I lost the "seasoning package" long ago, but I still had the rest of the kit, including the casings, 10 of them. As I recall, each casing does 1 pound of sausage, so this might work perfectly. [EDIT: After doing some checking and some math, it actually takes 8 cases for 5 pounds of sausage "logs" - 10 ounces per log.) I'll also, for the first time, be able to use the stuffing apparatus (tube and plunger).

So there it is - I'll give this a shot tomorrow, then smoke in my Little or Big Chief smoker, most likely with hickory for this first attempt.

Questions:

Based on your knowledge of sausage- or bologna-making in general, am I on the right track so far? Have I made any huge, glaring errors? I've tried to follow all instructions available, including proven methods from people I trust here and elsewhere; but have I missed anything? It seems almost....TOO easy!

Tomorrow: I just stuff the casings, tie them off, hang them in the smoker and get 'er done? Is it that simple, or are there steps along the way that I should be sure to observe?

What's the best way to check internal temperatures? Can you stick a probe into casings and meat? what about the hole?

One crimp in the plan: I just read that the HIGH for tomorrow is projected to be 14 (FOURTEEN) degrees, with up to10 MPH winds.

With that information, I'm not sure how well the Big Chief will perform, so there's a strong chance that tomorrow morning, I'll be adding liquid smoke (i believe 1/2 teaspoon per pound is about right) and doing this in the oven.

Yeah, I know - give me a second to don my asbestos suit, then let the flames begin! lol ~ but then again....FOURTEEN degrees! 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





 What would YOU do?

As always, thanks in advance!

Ron


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## DanMcG (Nov 11, 2012)

Welcome to the sausage making club Ron, you're going to love it :sausage::sausage::sausage:



TasunkaWitko said:


> Questions:
> 
> 
> Based on your knowledge of sausage- or bologna-making in general, am I on the right track so far? Have I made any huge, glaring errors? I've tried to follow all instructions available, including proven methods from people I trust here and elsewhere; but have I missed anything? It seems almost....TOO easy!
> ...




Looking forward to your results Ron, Good luck


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## big casino (Nov 11, 2012)

sounds like your going to have fun... what is 14c? is that like 60f?


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## BGKYSmoker (Nov 11, 2012)

Good looking rounds there Dan.


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## tasunkawitko (Nov 11, 2012)

Big Casino said:


> sounds like your going to have fun... what is 14c? is that like 60f?


not 14c.... 14f!


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## tasunkawitko (Nov 11, 2012)

Yep ~ 2 below zero (Farenheit) at 9:00 this morning....
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






Looks like I can give it a cold smoke for a few hours in the Big Chief and then finish it in the oven, or just give it the liquid smoke treatment and do it in the oven....

What say y'all?


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## big casino (Nov 11, 2012)

WOW I assumed you were giving us the temp in Celsius  cause I thought you were in upper Canada LOL  it is supposed to hit 70f here today Sorry bout your luck man


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## DanMcG (Nov 11, 2012)

Holy crap it was 2 years since I posted the original thread....I still got some rounds left in the frig packed in salt. I wonder if they are still useable?

So Ron .....How they lookin?


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## thoseguys26 (Nov 11, 2012)

Looks tasty. Any changes in the recipe over the years?


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## tasunkawitko (Nov 12, 2012)

extremely impressed so far, dan! i will prepare a pictorial as soon as i can, but here are my notes from yesterday:

fry test patty was really, really good, nearly perfect, i'd say, with absolutely no need to adjust! tasted exactly like the really good bologna you can get, not the cheap stuff but the real thing. the beer substitution really put a good spin on it. thanks to my grinder, this was almost country-style coarse, maybe a little finer than that due to the mixing and binding method. it held together really good with no hint of crumbliness and no mushiness; just about right, considering it wasn't completely ground into paste ~

i then stuffed the mixture into nine 10-oz chubs of synthetic casing, then let them hang around for an hour or so before i smoked them. i had enough left over at the end to roll 4 "links" and fried them up for lunch for my son and me - outstanding!

my smoking process was a little unorthodox because i was using a non-adjustable big chief smoker in sub-zero temperatures; they got about 6 hours worth of hickory smoke (4 pans total), but no real temperature.

when i judged the smoke was good, i brought them in and finished them in the oven. oven temps were 170 degrees. following the recipe, i removed from heat at 155 internal. my instincts said to throw them in the ice bath at this point, but the instructions said to drop them into 180-degree water until they floated, so that's what i tried, since this was my first time and i didn't know what i was doing anyway - lol.

anyway, after 10 minutes of not floating, i decided it wasn't going to happen, so i removed them from the water and ice-bathed them for 10 minutes, then i gently wiped them dry and laid them on oven racks with the oven off and at room temperature in order to finish drying andso they could "bloom." after about 2.5 hours, i put them in the fridge overnight.

i will let the flavours etc. marry in there during today, then try one tonight before vacuum-sealing the rest and freezing them. first impressions are that i really think this recipe nails it. in fact, i'm going to see about getting some sort of natural 52-55mm casing that will fit my stuffer so i can make rings with this sometime.

if you want bologna, this is the stuff to try. i think a person can experiment with fat, grind and texture according to their preference, and it will be excellent no matter what - just stick to the flavour profile and spice ratios, and you will love it, i think


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## tasunkawitko (Nov 13, 2012)

we had a power outage last ngiht, so while sitting around in the dark, what else was there to do but crack one of these open and see what the finished product is like?

i didn't get any pictures due to the circumstances, but here are some notes:

were there any issues with case sticking to the bologna? nope - peeled right off, just like it was supposed to.

bologna chub was firm, and sliced very easily with no dryness or crumbliness at all - reminded me of slicing a summer sausage. looks like the combination of ground oats and beer worked perfectly as a binder, as advertised.

colour, as far as i could tell, was just right. i'll be able to better evaluate this tonight, where i'll have good light by which to see it, but it seemed that there was just the right amount of pink with no gray or brown to speak of. more on this later.

the texture of the bologna was not totally smooth like commericial bologna, but it was not coarse like a commercial bratwurst or kielbasa, either - somewhere in-between, with good body and mouth-feel.

flavour was very good - the coriander and pepper came through well and it had a nice, mild savoriness that was really nice. the hint of sweetness from the brown sugar was just right to bring everything into balance. the beer not only worked very well with the ground oatmeal to hold the product together, but also - as far as flavour goes - it came through just right, adding a little extra something to the background that, to me, gave it a nice german character.

smoke flavour was not present as much as i personally would prefer, which is unusual for the big chief since usually i have to be careful not to get TOO much smoke in. the flavour was there, but really hanging in the background - a farther back than optimum, i think. four pans of hickory should have worked quite well, so i can only assume that the sub-zero outside temperatures somehow kept the smoke from penetrating well into the bologna, even though it was indeed warm inside the smoker. i think the next time the temperature is below 20 degrees, i'll simply add liquid smoke and do it in the oven, and see if there is a difference.
 

i would have liked more garlic, but that's just me.

because i used TQ, i did not add any salt. the resulting bologna did taste like it needed more salt, and i am not sure why. i suppose it is possible that the oatmeal soaked up the salt - or, it is also possible that they bologna simply needed salt added. the salt level seemed just right when i did the fry test, so i am guessing that the "cooking" process somehow had some effect, but i am not experienced enough to know the particulars. next time i make this, i will add salt and see what happens

hot water soak - after trying it, i absolutely do not see any point in the "soak in 180-degree water until it floats" part of the instructions. for one thing, it never did float, and for another, i think it might have robbed some of the salt and smoke flavour away (i could be wrong about this). in any case, from now on, i will simply smoke it, finishing in the oven if necessary, then do the ice bath for 10 minutes and bloom for an hour.

bottom line - very, very good recipe, and the adjustments that i used in preparation and also decided on after tasting it should tweak it right in line with my tastes and available ingredients to give me a "perfect" (for me) house bologna recipe. this will definitely be made again.

reccomend? yes! i absolutely would recommend this to anyone looking for a good bologna recipe. if you do want to try it, i suggest making it as closely to the recipe as possible the first time, adjusting for your preferred cure or binding product if necessary, so that you have a base line from which to tweak, if needed, to your individual tastes.

very good stuff, for sure!


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## big casino (Nov 13, 2012)

I think your hot water soak is to make the casing easier to peel off or otherwise it may stick, the water bath should not effect your smokey flavor,  the casings should be completely dry to the touch to absorb smoke and color, and even then I think it will still absorb smoke flavor but not  "color" well if the casings are wet,

but it sounds like you have a great sausage to enjoy, so what sausage are you making next????


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## tasunkawitko (Nov 13, 2012)

definitely good stuff, and this will be made again for sure ~

future sausage projects:

kolbasa from slovakia (i've got a great-looking recipe that is actually slovak, where my wife's grandmother is from)

hungarian kolbalsz (another traditional family recipe)

spanish chorizo (checking with contacts in spain for a tried and true recipe)

after that, who knows?


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## tasunkawitko (Nov 15, 2012)

ok - last round of notes. this one is in the books and i have to say it is definitely a success.

last night we were able to break another one open and get a good look (and some pictures). colour was a beautiful pink, exactly like it should be, with flecks of fat and spices in it. the meats were perfectly bound and this, to me, is the final word on the oatmeal/beer issue. it works, and works very well, when done right. not having any specialised sausage-making ingredients available to me, it is a perfect, natural, readily-available substitute.

as before, casings peeled with absolutely no effort. texture was just right - as before - very similar to summer sausage or something like that, but with much less fat. no graininess or coarse-ness - another testament to the oatmeal/beer binding and the judicious mixing during the prep stage.

the thing that interested me was the flavour. having another day or two for the tastes to develop and mature, it was even better than before. the spices, as before, really made this bologna what it is, and i can't stress enough that even though it looks a little heavy on coriander (and maybe pepper), trust the recipe where those spices are concerned! the same goes for the brown sugar, which might seem strange, but it does its job of providing counterbalance and really brings this around to a superior product.

the garlic also came through a little better after maturing for a couple of days, but i personally would still add a little more - not sure how much, but it is one place where i am willing and eager to experiment. pulverised garlic cloves or home-made granulated garlic might work better, as well - since the commercial, "bargain-rack" granulated garlic is probably lacking in intensity.

it still needs a little salt, but not nearly as critically as i had thought before. TQ aside, i would still add a teaspoon or maybe two of some kind of salt.

i would also infuse a little more smoke in tothe bologna; although it also came through a little better this time. i think "normal" people (who are not as obsessed with that wonderful, old-timey, sweet-savory hickory smoke aroma and taste as i am) would find the smoke level to be just right, however, i believe it could definitely benefit from just a little more, and smoking in better weather would certainly achieve this.

that's what i know - pictorial to come up as soon as i format and size the photos. it will include most of these notes, plus anything else that crosses my mind. if anyone has any questions, please ask them here. i will try to provide answers and also incorporate those answers into the pictorial.

ron


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## tasunkawitko (Nov 20, 2012)

alright, everyone ~ complete pictorial, with pix, for anyone who is interested. all you gotta do is click here:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/130719/pennsylvania-dutch-bologna

enjoy!

ron


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## weisswurst (Nov 22, 2012)

After looking these rings over , if I were you i m not sure I would trust them. I would be more than willing to sample them , along with some good 10 year old Wisconsin cheese and Lowensenf German mustard. Some good german Bauer bread.If you care to send them , I wouldnt feel put upon. I am always willing to help a fellow ring bologna maker.It may take a while. I could be your official taster for these rings.A mans got to do what a mans got to do.        Your rings look great and the texture looks very good . Deciding on a flavor that one likes is always difficult.A little more garlic . a little less pepper; smoke it a little longer? Thats part of the fun and learning process of SM. Congratulations on something homemade , done professionally! Weiss wurst.


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