What temp are you running your refrigerator at?
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What temp are you running your refrigerator at?
Those umai sausage casings are made to put the sausage, or meat to cure in the fridge. The casings let the water evaporate at a controlled rate. They prevent the meat from case hardening from drying too fast in the fridge. They work great. The rate of drying and humidity is as important as the temperature,
You begin the fermentation at room temp or above, then once it is going toss it in the fridge.
Right now I have some sausage in hog casings drying in the garage and some umai bag stuff in the fridge. both ways work.
According to UMAi mine runs a bit warmer than they would prefer.
https://umaidry.com/blogs/news/ask-m...-for-dry-aging
Now my old '40's runs between 34-36, but my rental's frig is turned down as low as it will go. It has the coils on the back of the frig and I keep them dusted so they are exchanging as much heat as they can.
UMAi insists that you can't use an old non frost free frig so I'd getting by with what I have available to me.
If I'm not mistaken back in the day things were dried in a cellar or perhaps a cave but I'm not sure.
Limited time offer on Open Box items at ThermoWorks--
https://www.thermoworks.com/open-box...21-Mulit-OP-cs
I have looked for these and they seem to be going away from what I want. I would like the option of going to higher temps.
Are you looking for something like this? :thinking:
https://www.thermoworks.com/ThermaQ-Blue-High-Temp-Kit
No they use to have more industrial units that I would like to use for my smoker.
Now they seem to be going towards the smoker end of thing witch is fine but I would also like the ability if i spent this much money to put it in my forge. [With a different probe!].
They still have the high end stuff.
https://www.thermoworks.com/WD-08467
https://www.thermoworks.com/ThermaData-WiFi-Type-K
When/if I build a forge, it’ll be using their probes in my pid circuit.
:tu
That might work
The Soppressata has been in the UMAi tubes and in the frost free frig for one week today. They are losing weight.
The original weights in grams:
163
685
738
923
Today:
143
634
689
835
Looking at those chubs reminded me of that old film "Motel Hell" with Rory Calhoun as Farmer Smith. He had a way with sausage and based on a true story out of Poland.
Just kidding of course.
ThermoWorks is discontinuing their Purple ThermoPens. Limited Supplies
https://www.thermoworks.com/?trk_msg...k4-closeout-cs
Attachment 330657
Chicken thighs and skin with a ton of onion and garlic and white and cayenne pepper. Poached and grilled for a bit.
A Barbie sized 1400g batch :)
Your stuffer was a little over half full.
Or was that closer to half empty?:hmmm:
I worked with a female meat cutter (Andria) who had escaped from East Germany when she was 18 because as she always said "I didn't want to be a Communist". I hated working with her as she was such a bitch. However after she retired occasionally we'd meet at different events and whoa was she a changed woman--pleasant, polite, courteous, charming :dropjaw:
Anyway after she had retired she called me and asked if I had a sausage stuffer she could borrow as a friend from Germany was coming to visit and he was going to make Bratwurst and would need a stuffer. I told her that I'd gladly loan her the stuffer on these two conditions:
1. I got his recipe
2. I got a small sample
She readily agreed so I asked if he needed my hand grinder, casings etc and she said no as she had a grinder and he was bringing everything else he'd need from Germany.
Within an hour or so her husband showed up and I showed him how to assemble the stuffer and gave him the run down on how to break it down and clean it well.
About a week later the husband returned the stuffer and thanked me very much and handed me a bag that had the samples and a note from Andria. The note said she was so grateful for the use of the stuffer and that she was very sorry she couldn't give me the recipe as her friend brought a mix------a mix he couldn't find in Germany, he had to travel to Austria to find and purchase it.
The note also included how to cook the Brats and that was to place them in a pot with cold water and turn the heat onto medium and wait till the water simmered and then to brown them in a bit of oil OR place them on a grill.
I checked the internal temp after the water simmered and it was 162 degs or a bit above so I removed them and quickly dried them off and browned them.
I found them very close to tasting like mine so I made a batch and gave her some to cook and try.
The only dings she gave me was that I hadn't ground the meat and fat fine enough and that I might have not had quite enough fat as they were drier than she preferred (lesson learned), other than that she said it was a very good sausage.
My best friend came to town a couple of years ago and we got together with a mutual very good friend and his wife for a BBQ and I made the Brats along with roasted red pepper slivers and sauteed onion slivers to top them with and cooked the brats like Andria had told me--big hit! With one exception.
I'd purchased some Sausage Rolls (sometimes called Stadium Rolls) as unlike hoagie rolls, they have a bit of a cavity for the sausage, peppers, onions etc to fit into. However I was the only one out of the group that used the rolls, everyone else wanted to save room for more sausage.
Oh well---
sounds like how to do potato sausage.
I've only made one batch of potato sausage and I didn't even sample it. I made it for a customer who's wife was from Sweden and she longed for that sausage so I made him a batch from the recipe I had from the book I learned from and gave it to him in a Ziploc bag filled with water so the potatoes didn't turn brown.
He said she really enjoyed it---but I didn't see him again--:w
The best recipe I have heard is 1/2 Pork, 1/2 beef, and 1/2 potatoes.
This is the recipe I used:
Makes 5 Lbs
1 small onion cut up
1 Tablespoon plain salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup non-fat dry milk
1 cup ice cold water
6 potatoes peeled and cut up (approx 6 cups)
1 1/2 lbs lean boneless beef
1 lb lean boneless pork
Grinding and mixing
Grind the meat, potatoes and onion through a 3/8" plate and place in a mixer. Add all the other ingredients with the water and mix well.
Then regrind through a 3/16" plate. Stuff into 35-38 mm hog casings.
This sausage is a very perishable product, it keeps best frozen.
The idea of keeping the finished product in water was my idea.
Well my dry cured soppressata is ever so slowly losing weight.
It's been two weeks to the day since they went into my frost free frig. Here's the progress report;
Original weights:
163--
685--
738--
923--
03/15--143
03/15-- 634
03/15--689
03/15--835
03/22--126
03/22--581
03/22--641
03/22--756
The small one is a ball shape and it's lost about 25% of the weight. I'm thinking this is due to not only being small but with more surface area for moisture to be drawn out of.
The largest has lost about 18% of the weight and the other two about 20%.
When I drop it in the grass it will be easier to find!
I have been looking at some of their more expensive units and want to check this one out.
I'm trying a small batch of breakfast sausage from a new recipe. The recipe is from the guy who had that great percentage way of measuring to make bacon.
It's 'OK', but I think I'll make another batch and add some ingredients from another recipe which my kids really like.
I've usually had help with guiding the sausage casings as they filled but yesterday it was just me and I struggled with blowouts. I used sheep casings and they are very easily torn.
I've always had the stuffer facing the middle of the table but when I went to stuff the last bit a light bulb came on Attachment 330731 and I turned the stuffer around and used a baking pan to catch the sausage and it worked great! In fact a little too great as the casings filled a bit too full and a couple of times when I used my thumb and forefinger to indent the casing to twist it the casing ruptured.
Attachment 330728
Here's before I made individual sausages.
Attachment 330729
I've packaged the links for the kids, my son picked his up last night. I'll take the rest to the others tomorrow. I used part of the slop from the stuffer to fry and get an idea of how it tasted. The rest is frozen and I'll take it to Ski to try.
C clamps on the dining room table.
My kind of guy!:rofl2:
Just ONE of the advantages of not having a SWMBO :w Plus that table is my workbench. I prep bread on it, make sausage, pin razors AND it also doubles as a place to serve food and eat on!:roflmao:rofl2:
Many, many years ago the company I worked produce for used an electric 'Lettuce Trimmer' to cut the butts of of head lettuce and other things. All it was was a 1/3rd HP electric motor mounted on a frame that had a coupling fixture that held an injector razor blade--Safety First???? Attachment 330739
At the time they used a company known as Harold's Electric for 99.9% of any repair work. Anyway the thing needed new bearings as you could hear it rattling from one end of the back room to the other when it was running but the store manager wouldn't pay Harold's to have it fixed so I took it upon myself to write down the motor's serial number and buy new bearings and brushes. Then one day when I got off at 2 pm I took it home and rebuilt it on my kitchen table and brought it back that night.
The very next day, the store manager came by when I was using it while it hummed away and he exploded! God Damn It Roy! I told you I wasn't going to pay Harold's to have that fixed!
I told him that Harold's hadn't fixed it that I'd done it at home.
He stood there like a deer in the headlights for a moment then said; God Damn It! That's working Off The Clock! I told him that I didn't consider sitting at my table drinking beers 'Work'.
He said that he'd put me in for two hours OT to cover my time and thanked me for caring enough about the companies property to take care of it.
Man I miss him. Cancer took him far too young. His two daughters were still in school. One in Jr High the Other a Sophomore in High School.
That breakfast sausage looks great. I wish you would adopt me, because your kids get the best food.
Hmmm :hmmm: 'Spaz Davis'--------------------------Sounds like you'd fit right in with the Davis Clan. :tu
Attachment 330763
I'm going to frame that
I would check for more detail on the Davis clan before I accepted.
For example do they have any ongoing feuds?
Now all you have to do is stop by regularly for family meals and pick up smoked meat and sausage.
ThermoWorks has some items on sale for 18% off--
https://www.thermoworks.com/?trk_msg...ewide-18off-cs
I got the orange pen in the mail today. Less than 3 days between thermopen and the USPS!
My first reaction was that it is bigger than I thought. I should have read the dimensions....
It seems to be well made and is fast.
I have only played with it a bit and I like the rotating display. 58' or 85'? Using it at higher temps probably wouldn't be such an issue but that is an actual instance on my front porch playing with it this afternoon.
Also interesting was the internal temperatures of different meatballs simmering in a sauce that was 204"F.
Another tool!
And fast response time Tim! Love that when the kid is open and the clock is ticking.