Two Birds With One Stone?

JerBear · Post by **JerBear** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 07:09

I'm curious to know how some of you guys face challenges of conflicting cooking, smoking or curing requirements when you've got more than one product to make.

For instance, if I was to want to make both Mysliwska and Podhalanska (Marianski's Home Production pages 239 and 241) but they have very different smoking times, temps. Is this something that you can maybe split the difference or basically two smoking sessions? I'm hoping to have a smoker soon that can accomodate many many lbs of meat and I don't want to do all of one recipe and waste all that lovely smoke.

On the flip side of the same coin is curing. I know that some recipes require specific temperature and humidity settings for the curing stages but how would that affect another salumi that I may have already had curing for a few weeks? Once again, split the difference and hope for the best?

Dave Zac · Post by **Dave Zac** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:25

The one thing I have learned here is to follow the process as impeccably as possible. Seems every time I would try to split the difference or do something for the sake of time, I would lose. The product would lose.

My advice is to split the projects, do each one correctly and you won't have to hope for the best. It is definitely a challenge for sure at times, but in the long run you should have a product you will be happier with.

Dave Zac

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 14:46

I have been considering these questions and have come to the realization that what we get for recipes is the best product that the writers can produce. I have no doubt that they have tried other conditions and found them inferior.
I think that if you had a farm and one large smoke house and six hogs that needed to be killed, cut. cured and preserved then you would just do the best you could but we aren't hampered by time. We are endowed with cold storage space so that we can make one batch at a time and still not loose any meat.

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 02:36

What?

Never!

Jer, if you had ulcers, athlete`s foot, and high blood pressure, would you mash up a smidge of Prevacid with a pinch of Zantac, then spray it down with a few dashes of Tinactin and "hope for the best"?
What would you do with a cake in the oven... share it with a roast? Would you "hope for the best" with the "split" time for your prized sourdough rolls?
Making sausage in such a manner is haphazard. Frankly, one of the very reasons we have a "sausage forum" is to discourage just that - haphazard sausage making. We are all about precision and regulation. That`s the reason home-made sausage is do danged good and a 100% cut above the bland crap you pass up in a store.
All that "lovely" smoke is... just smoke! It doesn`t have to cost an arm and a leg if you don`t get into pre-pressed pellets, disks, etc. Shucks pal, moisten (don`t soak) sawdust (not chips) and go for the controlled smoke using the proper amount of heat in a stainless steel dish with a drip-shield (heat shield) on it. You can`t go wrong... IF you do it consistently each time and don`t "split any differences" while "hoping for the best". Sorry Jer, it`s just like me... (won`t work)!

DaveZak wrote:

The one thing I have learned here is to follow the process as impeccably as possible. Seems every time I would try to split the difference or do something for the sake of time, I would lose. The product would lose.

That is one of the most profound statements I've ever come across on any sausage board. I agree 100%!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

JerBear · Post by **JerBear** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 06:03

Killjoys.

Actually, doing separate batches means more time to sit around and drink hop juice.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 06:08

I have remodeled about twenty-five houses and a couple of boats and I have been cooking for fifty years and I have never gotten into trouble following instructions. If it says to wait 8 hours between coats of paint there is good experience behind those instructions.
With food if it says to blanch the peppers before you freeze them there is good experience behind those instructions. The closer we can get to the conditions called for the better will be the results.
Yea you can bake a pumpkin pie at the same time as you roast a duck but the pie might taste a bit strange.
There was a Bill Mauldin cartoon in Stars and Stripes from WWII, the GI's sitting around a primus stove and someone about to add some cans to the pot to heat them. he is advised to drop them carefully into that coffee because they have a chicken stewing in the bottom.

JerBear · Post by **JerBear** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 00:38

I've been mulling this over and all of your responses sound pretty solid but something else came to mind. Assuming that most animal fat that we use in sausage preparation has the same or close melting points and the only difference between smoking product A and product B was total smoke we wanted the product to have, shouldn't the majority of smoking schedules be the same? I know that most cut off at the same point 150-156 degrees F internal but what about differences in starting temp, time to hold until heating begins, etc?

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 03:30

Just returned from a few days of being irresponcible. While we were away we toured a colonial plantation that had a well preserved smoke house. It was about 15 feet square on the foundation and probably as tall. There would have been cold corners and rather warm places close to and over the fire pit in the center of the space. I should imaginge that an experienced manager of such a smokehouse could cold smoke and dry a ham in one area and hot smpke and cook another closer to the fire. I think that the concern about getting the sausage too hot is that the fat will settle in the lower ends of the links leaving them swimming and the upper end dried out and grainy. You fat was/is valuable both for flavor and for cooking so care is taken to not spill it during the smoking process.