The home deli

I didn't know whether to put this in off topic or build threads, but I think build threads is appropriate with the scope of some of the projects coming down the pipe. 

So as everybody pretty much knows, I've always been a big meat fan, and I started making my own hams closing in on 10 years ago. I've been smoking meat since I could reach the fire box, I've built smokers, imported exotic meats before they went viral, and have had no problem sharing my failures and success along the way. 

Well for Xmas this year, I got a toy deli slicer. This one actually. I've always wanted one as a novelty, but I'm actually taking it kind of serious. New years day I got a ham in brine to turn into lunch meat probably early February it should be ready. This morning, I was able to taste test my first homemade lunch meat. 

Old fashioned loaf, or Dutch loaf, depending on where you shop. Probably other names as well. 

It's turned out considerably better and less salty than the storebought stuff, so I'm happy and motivated to continue.

Now as maybe not everybody knows, I started to get into sausage last year towards the end of the chemo bullE36 M3 because it was something I could do with my hands all berkeleyed up. Turns out I was doing it kinda wrong, but it was some of the best sausage I've ever had anyway.

This winter I've started going onto a deep dive into sausage making. 

Current tool load out: 

• Sharp as berkeley knives
• KitchenAid mixer with grinder attachment
• Toy deli slicer
• Spare fridge
• Wine fridge with two different temp zones
• Freezer space
• Access to a 15lb stuffer 
• Hot smoker, but no cold smoker

I'm hoping to make the upgrade to stuffed sausages this year.

Other plans for the year: 

• Stuffed sausage 
• Standalone meat grinder 
• Rig up a cold smoker with the pellet smoker or buy a digital cold smoker 
• Consistency
• Learn to debone turkey

So far, the KitchenAid is already showing it's limits. I'm fairness, I'm using the 40 year old plastic grinder setup my mom had, so I can't freeze the parts before hand. But it takes 5-7 minutes to grind a pound of pork, and that's way way too long. I could upgrade to modern stainless, but for an extra $20 I can get a refurbished LEM #8 grinder, so I'm probably just going to do that. 

So far, the sausage making subs on Reddit are almost helpful, which is a stark contrast to the cooking and baking subs. So that helps. 2 guys and a cooler on YouTube have been amazing for above and recipe ideas though. 

I don't necessarily want a Boars Head load out at home, but I hate other storebought deli meat, and they won't sell whole chubs direct to the general public, and $12/lb is really expensive. Seriously, I can get ribeye for $9.99/lb why should I pay more for freaking lunch meat?

So I guess follow along on this journey if you want. Feel free to pop in with books/recipe/materials suggestions. I'll answer whatever questions I can, but this is a really deep rabbit hole and I've barely scratched the surface. 

Recipes I've made so far

Alton Brown's breakfast sausage this was my first go at making sausage. I substituted lard for fatback, which is apparently a big no no in the sausage community because you want unrendered fat, but it still came out awesome. 

Low sodium old fashioned loaf this is pictures above. Way better than store bought. 

This spicy Italian sausage still in the fridge, there was a change of dinner plans last minute. I also added some smoked habanero pepper 

And I've also done a couple pounds of pork just mixed with my dry rub, which came out awesome and is stuffed inside a bunch of peppers in my freezer currently. 

About that slicer. 

It is very much a toy. The feed can only go about 5 inches in diameter, so my bread bolles don't fit. The back piece your meat or cheese goes on flexes, so pieces tend to come out angled. It's kind of a passion to clean, but supposedly all the pieces that can come off are dishwasher safe. The suction cup feet don't hold it in place at all 

That said, it is consistent, even angled a little. The thickness knob holds position well. Replacement blades are $20, and available serrated and non. I currently only have the serrated blade it came with, but it does fine with cheese, raw half frozen pork loin, and the homemade Dutch loaf so far. 

I actually think I should have cut the pork more frozen, but I didn't want to burn the motor up risking it. Now I know for next time.

 

 I just wanted to test it on some sharp cheddar when I took it out of the box

makes me wish I had known gfs was going down. They had a fresh refurbished 13" blade death wheel sitting in back that was my best friend.

We've had a similar slicer for probably 10 years now. We use it a fair bit and I only just sharpened the blade. One of our favourite things to do is cook a nice prime rib medium rare, put the leftovers in the fridge then slice it thin for sandwiches a day or two later. We also buy meat ends from a local Italian grocery store, slice them thin, put them in bags and freeze them for later. 

Pro tip, use it to slice iceberg lettuce thin just like the sub shops do for your sandwiches, which also makes for a nicer salad, IMO. 

In reply to Peabody :

I tried to use it to slice potatoes, but they all wanted to turn long wise. Not fitting my bread round on it makes me think that lettuce will be a pain too.

My adjustable mandolin makes short work of leafy stuff like lettuce and cabbage already and is far easier to clean. 

There's a blurb in the slicer manual about using it on hot, or fresh cooked, meats. That's something I'm looking forward to trying, because if I can take a chuck roast, or ham, or something off the smoker and get consistent 1/4" slices on this I will be a very happy boy.

I'm a little bummed I can't just fit a pork belly or brisket on it and slice it down, raw or cooked. Slicing those up gets painful with my regular slicer.

Looks like 2 more days before I try that spicy Italian sausage blend.

I approve this as a build/project car thread.

I use a Weston #12 grinder. I bought it after the smaller one ate it guts in the middle of a batch of liver pudding. It gets the job done and should last my kids lifetime. 

This guy.

My meat slicer is a 10" Amazon special that does a pretty good job. It's been around 10 years or so and keeps going. 

I've never actually made a stuffed sausage. I generally make bulk. It's on my list to try. The above grinder came with sausage stuffers that are supposed to work pretty well. 

I saw your FB Post about the Dutch loaf. That looks very tasty. I'm going to have to give it a try. 

Ok, back on the hunt for a spicy Italian recipe. 

I just cooked up that pound from Saturday to put into calzones tonight. It's ok. There's a nice heat, and an ok flavor, but it tastes like it's missing something I can't quite put my finger on.

When I feel like cleaning the grinder again I'll try another recipe, but also retry this recipe with more mixing time. 3 days in the fridge should have melded the flavors together better, so I'm going with under seasoned.

In reply to RevRico :

Try it again in a week or so, the flavor will be better. 

RevRico said:

Ok, back on the hunt for a spicy Italian recipe. 

I just cooked up that pound from Saturday to put into calzones tonight. It's ok. There's a nice heat, and an ok flavor, but it tastes like it's missing something I can't quite put my finger on.

When I feel like cleaning the grinder again I'll try another recipe, but also retry this recipe with more mixing time. 3 days in the fridge should have melded the flavors together better, so I'm going with under seasoned.

You got fennel in there right?

I've seen some pretty cool ghetto-rigged cold smoker boxes made out of defunct refrigerators, some dryer ducting, and sheet metal screws just daisy chained off of your conventional smoker.

This is super cool, following along for inspiration.

In reply to golfduke :

Ya, I toasted then coarse ground fennel seeds, so some powder, some whole seed, and some in between.

It's too damn cold to do any reliable testing, but my plan when it warms up is to run a duct from my smokers exhaust into a box or metal garbage can and see if I can't get a reliable temperature that way. I've seen it done a bunch of times, but I don't know how consistent it is. 

I used to have Little Chief and Big Chief electric smokers. They were a flimsy sheet metal box with a heating element that you put a pan of wood chips in. No temperature control whatsoever, but they stayed around 130f pretty constantly. I might get another one of those and dig up an old write up I used to have about a thermal controller for a crock pot to do sous vide with. Fermented sausages want like 75 degrees for 12 hours and that's really hard to do in Pennsylvania, outside, any time of year. 

While I normally would jump at the chance to buy another smoker, I'm buying a rotisserie soon for my kids birthday pig roast and can't really afford to buy both things this year. 

Of course, seeing a big fancy convection smoker for only $1000 that will hold 150lbs at a time also has my interest long term. 

What I feel I should be doing is researching my wine fridge and see what kind of options exist other than dry age bags to use it as an aging chamber. When I traded the pit boss for it last year my plan was to do hams in it, but 5 gallon buckets don't fit, and only one side gets cold enough. I think with some kind of humidity control it would be a nice little setup for steaks and cured goods. And with my recent discovery that A, I can't fit a whole butt on my slicer, and 2, brine scales, I might start using it more for smaller hams in different brine recipes. It won't hold a 5 gallon bucket, but it will hold a few 1 gallon ziplocks, which will let me test more than one recipe at a time.

This is what I hate about winter. October to March money doesn't really exist in our house, it's too cold and snowy to do stuff outside, so I get into indoor projects, and run into things that a little money or some good weather would make worlds easier, then go do it the hard way anyway because I'm impatient. 

I have this one from Cabelas:

https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/cabelas-deluxe-meat-grinder

I grind at least 4x deer through it per year and its been great (conservatively 100lbs of meat). gobbles up half frozen shanks like no ones buisness. i think they go on sale for like $100 periodically.

thanks for sharing!