sausage and bacon ~

The temperature was right ... finally in the 20's ... right where Dear Hubby likes it to be so he can fire up his big smoke house.  If it's too cold outside it's too hard to regulate the temperature in it. The smoke house is an old Pepsi cooler with the glass doors removed and replaced with stainless steel.  The heat is an old gas oven parts connected to a propane tank.  The smoke is wood chips ... apple and mesquite (we bought home from a Texas trip).  The meat is pork, beef and venison.  The seasoning is a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  The results is sticks of homemade summer sausage ~ delish :)  We just did a little batch this time around:

Earlier on we also smoked up some cornish hens and some fresh from the farm chickens.

Also ... another one of the reasons I've been away from blogging for a bit ... I was also busy helping Dear Hubby make bratwurst.  We did about 100 pounds worth ... original flavored, pizza flavored and a new recipe for Swiss flavored.  Not all for ourselves of course ... we also made some up for family and friends.

Next on the agenda ... bacon!  I just ran to the butcher shop yesterday and picked up 180 pounds of pork bellies.  They'll be in the brine tomorrow and in the smoke house in a few days.

Here's some pics of prior years of the bacon making process ~ sorry to bore you.  I know some of you have seen this before.

The pork bellies are put into a brine (secret recipe) for a few days ...

 Then it gets patted dry and put onto hangers ... and gets hung in the smoker.

Dear Hubby turns on the heat and gets his wood chips smoking ...

 Watch the temperature ... watch it smoke ... notice the probe in the slab of meat on the left ... I don't know what the internal temp of the meat has to be; but Dear Hubby does and he watches it like a hawk.

Presto!! We have Bacon!!

Slice it up ... and get it packaged and into the freezer.

It really is a labor of love.

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel