Base for LEM Sausage Stuffer

Our LEM 5 # Sausage Stuffer has to be gripped very tightly and still moves around when turning the handle to stuff casings. It comes with "C" clamps that would be great if we had a thin counter to fasten it on to.

The solution is to build a removable base that cleans up easily and is food friendly. 

I used an old wood cutting board that my mother-in-law let stay wet too long and warped it lengthwise. She gave it to me because she knows I recycle or refurbish all kinds of things. 

Well I found the perfect new life and purpose for the damaged board. I knew that because the bottom of the stuffer is flat that the stuffer would need to be elevated above the arched board to make it solid. I also needed to put skids under the ends to made it work on a flat counter. Skids move so I bought rubber non-skid feet for $1.50 at Wal-Mart. 

The skids are 1X3 select pine scraps from another project. I put Elmer’s Wood Glue on the ends and used my brad nailer to attach it to the cutting board then I put short brads in the gun and shot the sticky backed non-skids pads to the skids.

Well then I looked in my scrap nuts and bolts and looked for a set of 4 bolts with wing-nuts that would spin in the clear of the stuffer base for easy attachment and removal. I found a set of 4 commercial electrical section panel door seal-able studs. The holes in the stuffer are way larger than the studs, but the hex nuts are crowned perfectly to center the holes when the wing-nuts are tightened down finger tight. Awesome!!!!

Total cost is a couple bucks when you add the brads, glue and cutting board sealing oil. Everything else was just collecting dust.

After the glue dries, I'll seal the new base with cutting board edible grade mineral oil for easy clean-up the next time I use the stuffer. We have Javelina tags for a HAM (handgun, archery and muzzleloader) hunt coming up in a couple weeks, so it won't be long.

2nd Half of Javelina Sausage 1-8-18

The 2nd Half of Javelina Cheese Jalapeno Sausage was done on Monday 1-8-18 was smoked by my wife. My son helped her stuff the LEM 1 1/2" by 12" fibrous clear casings that we picked up at Sportsman's Warehouse on Sunday along with a bag of Maple Smoker Wood Chips. We never use pellets because they contain fillers and binders that can taste gross.

At 11:47 she started the smoker. I was at work when she got the smoker out, filled the shelves with the freshly stuffed sausage, put in 1 tray of Maple Chips and 1 of Apple Chips. She cold started the smoker set at 155*F and set the time for 6 hours. The VENT is Closed. My wife had finished sausage smokes, but had only done ribs and salmon smokes at 225*F by herself that we leave the vent closed some times.

I worked my normal amount of hours this week so my wife did the whole smoking by herself. She likes the electric smoker because it is easy and very predictable.

At 12:47 she added a mixed tray of 1/2 maple and 1/2 apple chips. It was not smoking very much so she checked it at 1:10 and removed the bayonet tray for 10 minutes and saw the chips pile start glowing in the middle and saw smoke rolling out of the closed vent.

At 2:06 she added another mixed tray of maple and apple but left the bayonet out until the chips where glowing. With the upper vent closed there wasn't enough air flow to get oxygen to the chips, so they go out at lower smoking temperatures. I found at 200*F+ the smoker cycles the burner on more often so this is not an issue. When making sausage I like the lower settings.

At 5:10 she pulled the sausage that was perfectly done. This is the 1st lime we used maple and it really complemented the apple.

We let the sausage cool on the counter for a couple hours and then Zip-Lock bag it in the refrigerator over night. Then we vacuum seal each stick and freeze it. 

When we thaw out a stick it is usually gone in a couple of days, so I really don't know how long it will last in the refrigerator. I will make a sandwich with the sausage that will be in my pack for over 6 hours at moderate or cool weather. I never try it in hot weather. I don't use Nitrate or Nitrites so my old school historic recipe cannot be left on the counter for years. My style of salt/sugar cure tastes better and is better for you than the Prague Powder cure.

I want to shift gears and give Kudos to a hunting buddy of mine that did Javelina Sausage in an old school charcoal smoker. Here is a quote from his email to me:

“I'm making 16 lbs of sausage this weekend with the remains of lasts years javelina. I did not have that much meat so I ended up with a mix if 2/3 javelina and 1/3 pork butt. This is the first time I have used a dual temperature probe for smoking. I really like it. It's a Therm Pro. Having the remote sure is handy especially dealing with a smoker that uses charcoal.”

He did 6 pounds of my sausage recipe and 5 pounds of another recipe that looked good on the web. He did not put cheese in the sausage because he was using a mix of Javelina and domesticated pork that has fat in it. He did the remainder 5 pounds into breakfast sausage. He used natural pork casings so they are about 1” diameter.

We had some discussion about Natural versus Fibrous casings. I have been using the fibrous casing since I started this Blog because I want larger sized sausage sticks. The natural casings are for Slim Jim's, Hot Links, Hot Dogs Brats and Kielbasa. A big difference is that natural casings are edible and fibrous are not. 

Years ago I bought sheep's casing at our local grocery store and made Elk Hot Links. I did not over soak or under soak the casings and used an very old Oster meat grinder to stuff them so over pressure was not an issue. They split open about every foot. I made them work and finished the sausage. They did not smell or look strange. I had used natural casings before without issue and used other natural casing after that too. My only thought for learning would be that the casings were very old. Make sure you use casing bought from a place that sells lots of quality casings. 

The cheese in my sausage recipe tastes great but also acts as a binder with the No Fat wild game meats. If you don't use any fat with Javelina, Elk and Deer meat your sausage will be crumby. Most Arizona Deer and Elk have a small layer of fat across their backs. You can save that fat and use it when making sausage or add thick grated cheese.

We went to Nebraska a couple of years ago and found that because of the very harsh winters these deer thrive in they store fat, lots of fat. When I am talking about no fat game meat I am talking about Arizona big game. Even our Kaibab mule deer don't have the 3 inch thick layers of fat the Nebraska eastern whitetail deer have. Arizona elk and deer have the ability to migrate to lower less severe wintering areas. They may see -20*F for a couple of weeks but rarely have months of deep snow to dig through for food or eat bark and twigs.

Speaking of winter temperatures in Arizona. I live at 4100 feet elevation in northern Arizona at noon today we are seeing 56*F with a low this morning of 42*F. I don't ever remember a January that is this warm. We watched the New York Times Square New Years Eve Ball Drop with the coldest temperatures ever recorded.

Smoking Javelina Sausage Archery 2018

My son and I both got drawn for Archery Javelina for January 2018. There were left over permits and bought another set of Javelina tags for a HAM (handgun, archery and muzzleloader) next month.

We both filled our archery Javelina tags. My son got an old boar on the second day and I got a 4 year old sow the next day.

My son is shooting a carbon riser Hoyt bow that sent the NAP Killzone Trophy Tip mechanical broadhead that deployed before entry blasting through both shoulder blades bones, split both ribs horizontally, cut a pencil sized limb off of a mesquite tree, trimmed some catclaws before stopping 40 yards away. The boar had 2 inch wide entry and exit holes. He shot his boar before going into work, packed it back to the truck and back to my home. I took care of the skinning and gutting so I got to see every detail of the Killzone.

A poacher tried and failed to kill my sons boar a few years ago. That is why the Javelina live in such rugged, steep and brush covered country. The Poacher Pellet from and air rifle did not brake a bone and get to the lungs of this boar. The dreadlocks big city thugs live in their cars and vans, leave trash and destruction behind. They poach and have campfires when there is a No Fire Ban active. These modern day Gypsies are not forced into anything, they choose their lawless, drug filled, living in tents and cars lifestyle. The picture below is of the poachers pellet.

My wife and son did all the butchering, vacuum sealing, grinding of the tough meat, seasoning and stuffing the casing for Javelina Sausage. I got home after working 12 hours at crime scene in Oak Creek Canyon where I made the area electrically safe and assisted in the removal of a pickup truck off of the overhead powerlines. After the violent crazy drug addict did not kill anyone with his truck he tried to injure and kill anyone around him. Luckily a US Forest Service Ranger showed up and tried to use non-lethal means of stopping the “suspect” finally ended up shooting and killing him. You can read more about it in the news. If you look at CNN you can read about fake news that never happened.

My wife and son modified the Javelina Sausage recipe from last year. In 26 pounds of ground meat from both Javelina they doubled the recipe, added 3 pounds of cheddar cheese and 1/2 pound of Asiago cheese, added 4 cups less pickling liquid, 1/2 cup garlic powder and added a 20 ounce jar of jalapeno's including  the liquid. When it isn't in the kitchen you just modify to taste.

The 2018 Javelina Jalapeno Sausage recipe:

26 pounds of fine ground Javelina

1/2 Cup - Sea Salt Ground

1/2 Cup - Black Pepper Ground

1 Cup - Onion Powder

2 Tablespoon - Cayenne Powder

4 Tablespoons - Paprika Powder (Simple Truth Oraginic brand)

2 Cup - Brown Sugar

1 at 20 ounce jalapeno's including liquid

1/3 Cup - Fresh Minced Garlic (1 Head)

1/2 cup garlic powder (not garlic salt)

3 pounds Cheddar Cheese

1/2 pounds of Asiago Cheese

Well I got home just in time to get my smoker out and put about half of the Javelina Jalapeno Cheese Sausage into the smoker. Notice the air space between the sausage's for an even smoke infusion.

At 1:30 pm after I put the sausages in the 30" Masterbuilt Digital Smoker, I added 1 tray of mesquite chips (from my acreage) and 1 tray of apple chips. I set the temperature at 150*F, the time to 6 hours, no water in the dip pan and the top air vent open. I ate some breakfast and then got caught up on so much needed sleep.

At 2:30 and at 3:30 pm my wife added apple wood chips.

At 4:00 my son noticed that there was no smoke coming out of the vent and added mesquite apple wood mixed.

I woke up and was informed of the lack of smoke coming out of the smoker. I'd seen this before in this electric smoker when smoking at lower temperatures on warm sunny days. 

At 5:15 pm I raised the heat setting to 155*F and removed the bayonet tray to allow oxygen to get to the chips. Chips in an electric smoker are ignited when the burner comes on. Because it was a sunny unseasonably warm day the burner was not cycling and coming on. Within seconds the chips began to smoke again. 

At 5:26 the chips were re-ignited and burning on their own. I put the bayonet back in before the chips burst into flames.

11 minutes later the smoker internal temperature was at 163*F because of all the chips that were heating  the smoker instead of the electric burner. The smoke was bellowing out of the top vent now.

At 6:00 pm the temperature settled back down to 155*F. I closed the vent on top to hold as much smoke in as possible.

At 6:42 there was no more smoke coming from the smoker. I opened the front smoker door and checked the sausage. The internal temperature of the sausage was perfect and the casings look like they do with an uneventful smoking.

Another batch of fantastic Javelina Jalapeno Cheese Sausage.

We will be stuffing the rest of the casing and do the final smoking on Monday or Tuesday when I get home from work.