Thanks Ursula, I have my moments.

In all seriousness, what about things like dried fruit (cherries, apples, etc) or nuts? Thoughts CW?

What if we instead drank the grain alcohol and then ate the sausage, would we be safe then?

Or maybe we won't be safe but we just won't care....

Might I recommend never eating out in a restaurant ever again? Just sayin' you only assume how your food is being handled but even at the finest restaurants the best tool available for many jobs is your hand. Hair and skin aside studies have proven that good handwashing is superior to gloves in rega...

Looks great!

Though blood-sausages on my to-do list to be honest I have no personal experience with it, however, I believe I remember seeing or reading that you should stir the blood almost continuously during the cooling process to keep the coagulation at bay. This is often done slowly with a whisk but not so v...

I'm a huge fan of terrines. I had to sub veal liver when I couldn't get my hands on pork liver. Recipe here: http://hgsausageworks.blogspot.com/2013 ... tloaf.html

I like the idea of using a raspberry pi, I was looking at Arduino for a control unit myself. My personal thoughts from a quick look at the site is that it doesn't seem worthwhile. Typically you'd check pH a certain points in the fermentation to start of drying part of the salami making but having a ...

You might want to split your times into two columns. One for fermentation and another for drying which would apply to ground salami-type products and if you're just drying, for instance whole muscles you'd go straight into the drying phase. As part of the recipe you might want to track what starter ...

alcohol might kill the majority of pathogens but wouldn't destroy any residual toxins. Alcohol and acid are just band-aids, it's better to keep them safe during the cooking, handling before serving and hold on ice when out. Personally I don't eat eggs at picnics, just too dicey. Also, the mayo is a ...

Nor do I...additionally, if you used it to avoid adding nitrites and told your friends the sausage did not have added nitrites you wouldn't be much of a friend. It's basically for marketing, no more, no less.

In a word, "marketing". The ability to label a product as "uncured" as gov't agencies consider sodium nitrite to be curing and this is just celery powder. Never mind that it has a load of naturally occurring nitrite.

I was going to say the same thing as Chuckwagon. Yours if the first that I've seen with the humidifier piped in and can't figure out why no one's thought of it before. Depending on ambient weather you might have to shorten the hose as you might have issues with condensation.

I'm going to purchase the product, just haven't gotten around to ordering yet. IMHO it's really no different than using Cure#1, just a different source of the nitrite.

Count me amount the supportive ranks. While Chuckwagon and I have had our differences in opinion in the past I fully support him and his role in this group and respect the time he invests and the vast knowledge he freely shares. This forum wouldn't be the same without him. My only disagreement is pe...

I had some abysmal failures when I started making bacon, lots of products that were wicked salty. My typical cure time with salt, cure #1 and honey is about 7-8 days, 1 day to dry, 1 day to smoke, 1 day to freeze, last day slice and seal. It's a long process but worth the time.