A first x 2

[severn don]

Well as i said before, we were going to attempt making sausage today . My son and i decided that since it was our first time trying this. we would go with the sausage kits, with pre made spices. We got a mild Italian spice with collagen casings, if this turns out the next one will be hog or sheep. We also decided to try a ground jerky and got a classic spice for that. As we don't have a smoker we would be using the oven for the jerky. Between the three of us we had spent a fair piece of change. A sausage stuffer a meat grinder a scale good knives spices jerky gun and racks and a meat tub and spices and a vacuum sealer. A smoker would be in the future when we had more coin. Well we followed the inter net all week and studied the best we could ,on every thing. meat being cold pork back strap put parts in freezer to keep cold followed directions on the packages the only thing we did different was the sausage mix called for one cup of water and we used 3/4 and 1/4 cup of franks hot sauce. Fried up test patties of the sausage mix and jerky mix. All i can say is WOW do they ever taste good. We made up 5 pounds of each as we were basically just testing if we could do this with out a problem. Every thing went perfectly, The grinder worked great the stuffer worked great, going to let the jerky cure tonight in the fridge then do it in the oven tomorrow and vacuum pack the sausage as well. All day we talked about getting a smoker soon maybe next month. Even used ones were out of the question at this time. but we are sure looking forward to the barbecue sausage tomorrow. The wife asked were we were going to put all the equipment and suggested a large storage bin. Well off to wally world we go to get the bin, last place i want to be very crowded. Find a bin and start to leave, decided to have a look in the out door section for a deal who knows. Look up and what do i see, a sign that says clearance $300 dollars Pit boys copperhead 5 Smoker regular $800 dollars. I go over have a look, there is only one on a skid. I don't think the sign means its for this smoker. Call the wife and son over check out the phone, other stores want over $1000 for this smoker so i know its not for this. See a young guy working in the area. Just for fun asked him to check the price, darn near choked when he told me it was in fact $300 dollars. Well what could i do, but say sold. bloody thing was very heavy that surprised me. Now i have to figure out how to use one and what and how to smoke things. Its funny when you say you wanted one all theses years, but don't know the first thing about them. But because everybody says there great you want one. Cant wait to learn and find out what's great about them.
As always i will have many questions. All the best Don