# Hi all, I’m glad to be here, let me start with a little about myself:



## JoePD (Nov 20, 2022)

Hi all, found this forum yesterday and decided to join in. I’m here to lean and share experiences! 

A little bit about me: I’m Joe and live in Rhode Island USA- love family, near shore living and the outdoors, particularly boating/near shore/deep sea fishing. About 15 years ago I was given the opportunity to utilize professional shop equipment to build an offset smoker using primarily recycle metal. Four months later had an overbuilt offset smoker for less than $400. Well, I’ve smoking all kinds of meat cuts, roasted whole pigs and smoking home made Portuguese sausage (chouriço) a couple times a year which we share with family and friends. Our “old school method” consists of hand cutting the meat and fat, blending all ingredients, keeping it refrigerated for four days, mixing it and sample tasting tiny portions once per day before stuffing, subsequently these sausages are hung  overnight then smoked for about ten hours, starting at 100F then up to 125F finishing at 150F/until good smoking appearance and internal temp reads approx. 130F( partially cooked), then vacuum packed and frozen.

Our recipe is simple:


30 lbs pork butts (trimmed) cubed 
1 lbs skinned back fat 
Approx. 1/2 gallon of freshly ground  mix of chili peppers (to taste) 
3 small heads of garlic (to taste)
2 cups of white wine 
Sweet pepper paste 
20 tsp Morton TenderQuick salt 
10 tsp sea salt (to check and adjust) 


Never had an issue with spoilage and/or with Morton tender-quick which contains small portions of nitrates and nitrites. I’ve leaned recently that one should not taste sausage samplings before sodium nitrates are fully converted for a minimum of 30 days. conversely, TenderQuick contains small portions of nitrates & nitrites and since we start tasting tiny bits of our chouriço 24 hours after blending the ingredients, I wonder now if our practices of tasting these little bits of sausage are fully safe? I’ve considered replacing the TenderQuick with Cure #1 (sodium Nitrite) at proper amounts which gets converted in less than 24 hours and not worrying about getting poisoned? 

Guys and gals, I realize that I’m coming in a bit loaded for my introduction but any educational on this subject from this group will be much appreciated. 

Kind regards 

Joe


----------



## bill ace 350 (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome!

Ignore the Tender Quick haters!


----------



## tbern (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome aboard from Minnesota!!  Sausage experts hopefully will be along shortly to give ideas.


----------



## JLeonard (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome to the forums from Mississippi.

Jim


----------



## Buttah Butts (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome Joe
Born and raised in Rhode Island for over 40 years before moving to NC. This forum has many knowledgeable people on this forum willing to help. Where in RI are you from?


----------



## boykjo (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome to SMF. We had a recent discussion about sampling food with nitrates and nitrites.

Here ya go






						Doing this one thing while making sausages can KILL you, please STOP! "2 guys and a cooler"
					

@Cajuneric




					www.smokingmeatforums.com
				






Boykjo


----------



## gmc2003 (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome aboard

Chris


----------



## JoePD (Nov 20, 2022)

Buttah Butts said:


> Welcome Joe
> Born and raised in Rhode Island for over 40 years before moving to NC. This forum has many knowledgeable people on this forum willing to help. Where in RI are you from?





boykjo said:


> Welcome to SMF. We had a recent discussion about sampling food with nitrates and nitrites.
> 
> Here ya go
> 
> ...


Thanks for this link!


----------



## JoePD (Nov 20, 2022)

Buttah Butts said:


> Welcome Joe
> Born and raised in Rhode Island for over 40 years before moving to NC. This forum has many knowledgeable people on this forum willing to help. Where in RI are you from?


Thanks, I’m in South Kingstown, love it here!


----------



## Bigtank (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome from Iowa


----------



## noboundaries (Nov 20, 2022)

Joe, welcome from NorCal. Decades ago, I spent one glorious university summer in Newport playing Navy. All fun memories of amazing food and friends. 

Ray


----------



## Buttah Butts (Nov 20, 2022)

JoePD said:


> Thanks, I’m in South Kingstown, love it here!


Grew up in Portsmouth and hung out in Bristol and Newport.


----------



## Brokenhandle (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome from Iowa! Glad you joined us. Would love to see pics of your smoker!

Ryan


----------



## DougE (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome from Kentucky.


----------



## 912smoker (Nov 20, 2022)

Welcome to SMF from SE GA!

Keith


----------



## DougE (Nov 20, 2022)

bill ace 350 said:


> Welcome!
> 
> Ignore the Tender Quick haters!


Listen. We can debate the pluses and minuses of its use elsewhere, as men, but to put the label of hater on those who might disagree with some of its uses in a noob's introductory thread is in bad form.


----------



## Brokenhandle (Nov 21, 2022)

DougE said:


> Listen. We can debate the pluses and minuses of its use elsewhere, as men, but to put the label of hater on those who might disagree with some of its uses in a noob's introductory thread is in bad form.


We are glad to welcome new members into this forum! It is why we are here.  
As far as tenderquick vs cure 1 is concerned...here's a good analogy...are you a glass is half full or half empty type of person?  Or 6 of one or half a dozen of another.  

Ryan


----------



## DRKsmoking (Nov 21, 2022)

Welcome from Nova Scotia

Enjoy your time here and the many great posts that have come before you and the many new ones you can be apart of.
Great place to show and tell and a little fun along the way.

David


----------



## jcam222 (Nov 21, 2022)

Great intro! Welcome from Ohio!


----------



## GonnaSmoke (Nov 21, 2022)

Welcome Joe, glad to have you...


----------



## WaterinHoleBrew (Nov 21, 2022)

Welcome from SE ID, glad ya joined us!


----------



## normanaj (Nov 21, 2022)

Hello from a fellow RI'er.


----------



## JoePD (Nov 21, 2022)

Brokenhandle said:


> Welcome from Iowa! Glad you joined us. Would love to see pics of your smoker!
> 
> Ryan


Thanks Ryan, I’ll gather some pics of my project and post it on a different thread.


----------



## SmokinAl (Nov 21, 2022)

Welcome to SMF!
Looking forward to seeing some photo’s of your cooks!
Al


----------



## bill ace 350 (Nov 21, 2022)

DougE said:


> Listen. We can debate the pluses and minuses of its use elsewhere, as men, but to put the label of hater on those who might disagree with some of its uses in a noob's introductory thread is in bad form.


You listen.

Relax.

It was said in fun, tongue in cheek.

If it wasn't taken that way, I'm sorry.

Don't tell me to listen.


----------



## normanaj (Nov 21, 2022)

Buttah Butts said:


> Grew up in Portsmouth and hung out in Bristol and Newport.


Grew up in Portsmouth also and moved across the river to Tiverton.


----------



## DougE (Nov 21, 2022)

bill ace 350 said:


> You listen.
> 
> Relax.
> 
> ...


I apologize. Some things said in fun don't come across that way in text format. And when I said "listen" it's just kind of a normal part of speech in face to face conversations where I live. I didn't mean anything by that either.


----------



## bill ace 350 (Nov 21, 2022)

DougE said:


> I apologize. Some things said in fun don't come across that way in text format. And when I said "listen" it's just kind of a normal part of speech in face to face conversations where I live. I didn't mean anything by that either.


All good.... Keep on smoking!


----------



## JoePD (Nov 22, 2022)

JoePD said:


> Hi all, thanks for the kind welcoming! Here’s a link to my building project: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/my-offset-smoker-project-12-07-03-08.318392/post-2379748


----------



## JoePD (Nov 22, 2022)

JoePD said:


> Thanks Ryan, I’ll gather some pics of my project and post it on a different thread.


https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/my-offset-smoker-project-12-07-03-08.318392/post-2379748


----------



## JoePD (Nov 22, 2022)

SmokinAl said:


> Welcome to SMF!
> Looking forward to seeing some photo’s of your cooks!
> Al


Thanks Al, here’s the link:
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/my-offset-smoker-project-12-07-03-08.318392/post-2379748


----------



## CTXSmokeLover (Nov 22, 2022)

Welcome from TX, your smoker looks awesome!


----------



## Buffalo Smoke (Nov 22, 2022)

Welcome from North central Wyoming


----------



## Tinner340 (Dec 3, 2022)

JoePD said:


> Hi all, found this forum yesterday and decided to join in. I’m here to lean and share experiences!
> 
> A little bit about me: I’m Joe and live in Rhode Island USA- love family, near shore living and the outdoors, particularly boating/near shore/deep sea fishing. About 15 years ago I was given the opportunity to utilize professional shop equipment to build an offset smoker using primarily recycle metal. Four months later had an overbuilt offset smoker for less than $400. Well, I’ve smoking all kinds of meat cuts, roasted whole pigs and smoking home made Portuguese sausage (chouriço) a couple times a year which we share with family and friends. Our “old school method” consists of hand cutting the meat and fat, blending all ingredients, keeping it refrigerated for four days, mixing it and sample tasting tiny portions once per day before stuffing, subsequently these sausages are hung  overnight then smoked for about ten hours, starting at 100F then up to 125F finishing at 150F/until good smoking appearance and internal temp reads approx. 130F( partially cooked), then vacuum packed and frozen.
> 
> ...


Welcome from Montana!!


----------



## hoity toit (Dec 26, 2022)

Welcome Joe from us in New Braunfels TX. Been making sausage for over 50 years now. Plenty of good folks here that can help in many ways. Look forward to more of your posts.

HT


----------



## Sven Svensson (Dec 26, 2022)

Welcome, from California. Great introduction. There’s always lots of great, friendly advice here. We’d love to see a picture of your smoker build.


----------



## JamesBarber (Dec 27, 2022)

Welcome!!


----------

