The goal was to brine and smoke most of the turkey breast and slice it into deli meat. The rest of the white meat will be mixed with the dark meat, ground beef and trim to make four different kinds of sausage which includes Smoked Sausage, Hotdogs, Fresh Bratwurst and Spicy Bratwurst (hotlinks). Also plan to make 40 pounds of snack sticks out of the dark and white meat turkey.
DAY ONE began with getting organized. First, I weighed and sorted everything. Available meat assets weighed over 215 pounds and included 24 pounds of ground beef; 28 pounds of beef and pork trim and pork backfat; and 117 pounds of Boneless skinless turkey breast and 40 pounds of boneless skinless turkey thigh meat.
I began to thaw all the frozen turkey and gave it several rinses, thawing it just enough to separate it and weigh it. After the rinse and partial thaw, I organized the meat. Beef and trim in one cooler and dark and white meat turkey in another cooler. I further separated the 71 pounds of boneless, skinless turkey breast and put it in a large trash bag to brine. I constructed the brine with a solution of 3 cups of salt, 3 cups of brown sugar, 4 cups of white sugar, 2 TBS of rum extract and four gallons of water and 1 ounce of instacure #1 (just for food safety). I reinstalled all the meat into coolers, as there was not enough room in my curing fridge.
This unattractive mess is Trim: Made from pork and beef fat and bacon ends and pieces composed from my many other jerky, bacon and brisket adventures thru the year. Nothing better for sausage. This sausage will be around 25 percent trim, but I like 40 percent - much juicer.
DAY TWO: The sun rose on Day Two and we made two 20-pound batches of hi mountain snack sticks using two parts dark meat to one part white meat turkey, mixing as prescribed with the instructions. I selected ‘inferno’ for the first batch and ‘low sodium hunter’s blend’ for the second batch’, because they were among the various jerky and snack-stick supplies I keep in bulk in the cabinet. The Dark meat on the turkey actually had some marbling in it.
I stuffed the snack-sticks into 21mm mahogany collagen casings using my LEM 5-pound sausage stuffer. The first batch went immediately into the smoker and finished in six hours. The second batch went into fridge, and then into the smoker when the first batch finished and smoked all night, finishing in about 6.5 hrs. I smoked on the FEC 100 at 160 degrees, hanging the snack sticks off of ½ inch galvanized electrical conduit which had the edges flattened to slide in the top rack slot on the FEC. I have three of these and can really hold a lot of sausage.
I used BBQ delight pecan pellets and smoked to an internal temp of 153, having to boost the smoker up at the end to 190 to get the internal temp up.
DAY THREE will live in my memory as one of the longest days in my processing history. It began with removing the second batch of snack sticks out of the smoker and hanging them to bloom while I packaged the first batch that had been hanging all night.
A great way to slice the sticks close to the same length is to use a bread slicer and a large knife. These 100 percent turkey snack stix tasted great of course, very lean, but not any leaner than lean beef snack sticks.
It was time to turn my attention on the 71 pounds of boneless skinless turkey breast. By the way, these were amazing chunks of meat. Two big tom turkeys were among the gaggle, and the breast on them weighed nearly 4 pounds per side. For perspective, imagine a boneless skinless chicken breast 12’’ long, 8’’ wide and 4’’ thick – yes really!!!
The brined breast looked amazing, almost like salmon. I managed to heft the cooler full of all the breast and brine and let it drain in my deep sink before patting each piece dry on paper towels and putting in the FEC 100 on 7 different racks. Most racks held 5-6 breast, but the larger ones, from the tom turkeys, only managed 4 to a rack.
I smoked for 3 hours at 170 with pecan pellets and boosted the temp up to 225 until an internal temp of 160. I used some green hickory logs on the log-burner to enhance the smoke flavor a bit. Some of the pieces simply would not get up to the desired internal temp despite boosting the temp at the end and smoking for over 14 hours. Fearing they would dry out, I pulled them anyway. All looked fine after slicing.
While the turkey was smoking away, we began to work on the 100 pounds of sausage. Having all the remaining white, dark, beef and trim separated we worked one batch at a time, constructing the meat lug from all four meats. We then added the spices for which I used AC Legg spices for all the sausages. I really like AC Legg seasonings for sausage. For the smoked sausage and hotlinks, I used AC legg smoked sausage seasoning, adding 1 ounce of instacure #1 in each batch and an entire jar of cayenne pepper to the hotlinks. For the hotdogs, I used AC Legg frankfurter/bologna seasoning also adding instacure. For the bratwurst, I used AC Legg bratwurst seasoning but did not add instacure. After the second grind, and before the final mix, each 25 pound batch received one ounce of sausage phosphate to improve binding and about 64 ounces of water to improve stuffing. All spices and binders were purchased at butchersupply.net. All four meat lugs went into the fridge for a good chill before stuffing.
All four meat lugs went into the fridge for a good chill before stuffing.
Because the stubborn turkey was still smoking away, we decided to stuff all the sausage that evening. We began with the fresh brats and hotlinks, which went into 32-34mm hog casings and linked appropriately.
I purchased all my casings at Syracuse casing company which is the ONLY casing company in north America to still make their own hog casings. All others are imported from overseas. Next was the smoked sausage which we cut in lengths to hang in the smoker and tied each on off individually.
Finally was the hotdogs which were stuffed into 28mm cellulose (inedible) casings. Try as I might, I’ve never been able to keep cellulose casings linked, as they always come unwound in the smoker, so each link must be tediously tied off with butcher twine.
Mistakes do happen with these casings. It is important to get all the air out of the stuffer, or you’ll wind up with a hotdog or two that looks like this. You can not prick the casings to let the air out like you can natural or collagen casings. Oh well, funny looking hotdogs become cook’s treats
As soon as the bratwurst and hotlinks were stuffed, I put them in the freezer to stiffen so I could get them packaged and out of the way as soon as possible. For the record, the 5 pound LEM stuffer is a great little machine, but refilling it 21 times during this entire process was very annoying. Also, the sheer force it takes to stuff sausage (snack sticks) thru a small tube is tiring. Needless to say, I’m in the market for a replacement in the 30-pound range that is electric or hydraulic. They cost a fortune, but because my wife is the ‘cranker-in-chief’ I think I’ve got that blessing for the purchase.
I quickly vacuum sealed the 25 pound batches of Bratwurst and hotlinks. By the way, the Vacmaster VP 215 is still earning it’s keep. With well over 3000 bags ran thru this machine, it is one of the best kitchen purchases we’ve ever made. Because the chamber pouches cost mere pennies compared to the food saver bags, at 1700 bags, I recouped the cost of the 800-dollar machine and now it’s making me money, not to mention the added convenience, better seals and over all ease of operation.
Finally, Turkey time. I individually temp-checked each piece and pulled some just shy of 160, hoping for a little carry-over. All the turkey went in the fridge to chill overnight.
Speaking of ‘overnight’ I decided it would be wonderful time to smoke the ‘smoked sausage’. I set the smoker at 160 using pecan pellets and said goodnight to a long, long day.
DAY FOUR began with the wonderful aroma of smoked sausage. Boosted the temp a bit until reaching 153 and pulled the sausage, hanging it outside on our deck to bloom. After it cooled completely, I packaged it.
Alas, it was time to slice the turkey. This was a good job for my Berkel 827a 12’’ slicer.
The breast sliced beautifully. I think next time, I’ll try to truss-tie two breast together and smoke them that way to maximize the slicing capabilities. I began with 71 pounds of brined boneless skinless turkey but neglected to get a finished weight after smoking. After slicing I was left with 35 pounds of packaged deli meat.
And amazingly, those tom Turkey breast made slices bigger than a Dixie plate.
The home stretch was in sight as I loaded the 25 pound batch of hotdogs into the FEC 100. I set it on 160 and let it smoke, boosting the smoke just a little bit with some green hickory on the log burner. In about 5 hours they had reached 140, so I boosted the temp to 190 until internal of 153.
I pulled the hotdogs immediately and put them down in my deep sink for a cold-water bath. After they had cooled, I shucked the cellulose casings and placed the finished dogs in the fridge to cool down before packaging.
This was a great project and I’m sure we’ll be doing it again. It’s amazing how all the smoked meat taste. The smoked turkey breast is one of the finest deli meats I’ve ever tasted. The texture is very good, which I attribute to the brine.
Because they were 100 percent turkey (2/3 dark meat and 1/3 white meat) The snack stick I was sure would not turn out. But, they are really not quite bad. They are not much different than ones made with lean beef. The problem with my snack sticks is that I have to add so much water to the mix to get them thru the stuffer, that they shrivel quite a bit while smoking. One of these days I’ll get a high-powered stuffer and can remedy this issue.
The Hotdogs are wonderful, although a little on the lean side for my taste. They (as is all the sausage in this batch) right at 50 percent turkey.
I have not tried the bratwurst or hotlinks yet, but will update this post when I do, and of course the smoked sausage came out a bit lean, but very flavorful.
All in all, I’d like to repeat this experiment with a better stuffer and maybe trussing the breast or perhaps meat-gluing some of them together to experiment with them.