Busy week/weekend sausage/meat making!

[fatboyz]

With being confined from travel with Covid I have found myself really diving into processing. No spring get away to Mexico or to train in Thailand so I'm keeping the chamber full. I posted earlier about wanting to do a large caliber summer sausage in a textured casing my friend gave me from Germany. Last Monday I cut, sorted and salted/cured some moose and pork to make Marianski's summer sausage.
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausag ... er-sausage. I cut the sugars back to just 5g of dextrose and that's it.
Thursday night I made the sausage and put it to ferment. Will go in the smoker tomorrow.
I also picked up some bulk pork loins on sale a month ago and they have been equilibrium curing in Vac bags for Schinken for over 3 weeks. Those I took out and washed and hung to dry last night. They go for cold smoke today and tonight. I was given a small BBQ pig that a customer ordered last summer then cancelled. Has been frozen since then. Last thursday I put the head, feet and hocks into brine for Marianski's traditional head cheese. They brined for 5 days and wednesday I made the head cheese and stuffed it into 120mm waterproof casings and poached it.
I thawed some moose and lamb trim yesterday for Merquez. It gets cubed and salted this morning and make the Merquez tomorrow.
I killed a beef cow this fall for a friend that was prolapsed so I got that all for free. I have a piece of brisket thawed that will be made into corned beef. I'll put that into spice and vac bag sometime this weekend when I can squeeze it in.
Here is my summer sausage before fermenting, and the head cheese.

[Albertaed]

Looking good!

[StefanS]

WOW - you're really busy with that good looking staff..

[redzed]

Nice work Don! You are making me feel guilty since I haven't made anything for a few weeks. What is the product in the orange casing? You mentioned headcheese, but that does not look like it.

[Butterbean]

Wow! Looks great! You have been busy. I've been toying with the idea of butchering a cow myself as I have one that I fear would just as soon kill me than look at me. I'm vacillating on this because I usually don't care for grass-fed beef and the chances of me getting her in a pen to grain her is very slim. (She's shown me she has gazelle-like qualities). Your post has given me a bump and maybe I should chance it because keeping her will not be good for my health I'm afraid and craziness can be contagious in a herd of cattle.

[fatboyz]

Hi Chris. That is the head cheese! I followed Marianski's recipe for "traditional head cheese". The meats were ground through a 5mm plate after the brining and cooking. I also ground the skin twice through a 3 mm plate. The recipe also called for potato starch which I've never used before. I added just enough broth t the batter to make it into a wet slurry, rather than kind of floating the meat chinks in the broth/jelly like normal head cheese. My German friend said this was just like the Schwartenwurst his dad made with ground pork skin too. It turned out very nice and has a very firm texture.

[fatboyz]

Wow! Looks great! You have been busy. I've been toying with the idea of butchering a cow myself as I have one that I fear would just as soon kill me than look at me. I'm vacillating on this because I usually don't care for grass-fed beef and the chances of me getting her in a pen to grain her is very slim. (She's shown me she has gazelle-like qualities). Your post has given me a bump and maybe I should chance it because keeping her will not be good for my health I'm afraid and craziness can be contagious in a herd of cattle.

All our Alberta beef are grass fed, and like your this one was a real Cranky "old cow" and with the market prices in the toilet here for old flesh cows he said come get it. It took a run at me in the pen and I ended that with my Winchester lever 44 Mag.
It actually still had a bit of whiter fat on it too, not the dark orange that the real old flesh cows have. Been making great sausage and burger as well.

[Albertaed]

Winchester 44 lever mag! I love it!! yeee haww

[fatboyz]

Winchester 44 lever mag! I love it!! yeee haww

I shot 3 beef with it this summer/fall. Boy it flattens them quick!

[fatboyz]

My wife said since my equipment would be dirty tomorrow couldn't I make some pizza pepperoni! Well I took out another moose roast and a pork loin to thaw! I have a small amount of a pepperoni mix from Halfords I should use up, and thought I'd try some of the Halfords old world sausage Conditioner that I bought a while back before I started using cultures. It's a mixture of dextrose and GDL. My friend gave me some small 43 mm protein lined casings he brought in from Germany. I have 3.5 kg of meat so if it doesn't turn out great I'm not out too much. Good thing I get up at 5 every morning!

[Albertaed]

Sounds like a plan!

[fatboyz]

Hey Ed, If the time stamp is right you're an early riser too. Just came in for coffee, it's 6:30 now and the Merquez is done and the smoker is on!

[Albertaed]

Lol I actually slept in today. No sausage today I’ve Gotta tackle the honeydo list. Let us know how it turns out,

[fatboyz]

05:00 start this morning and was done by noon except the cold smoking.
Merquez:



Pizza Pepperoni ready to ferment:


Summer sausage and Schinken Speck in the cold smoke:


Corned beef is in a vac bag in the cure!
Even had time to go for a snowmobile ride this afternoon!

[Albertaed]

It all looks good! I’m making corned beef next weekend.I’m been dying for a Reuben sandwich.