Walton's Blog

When making any type of meat product, whether it is a cured or fresh sausage, jerky or bratwurst it is very important to ensure that you are avoiding the danger zone, which are temperatures between 41 and 140 F. During any step of the process including grinding, mixing, or stuffing, keeping the temperature of meat as close to 30 F is vital. It will keep your meat safe for consumption and give you a better finished product with a longer shelf-life. …

The first piece of equipment needed to begin making sausage is a meat grinder. There are several different sizes of grinders, from a Walton's #8 Kitchen Grinder for simple home processing, to the Walton's #32 Meat Grinder for the more experienced processor who wants to make bigger batches. Making sausage requires a whole muscle cut of meat, such as an untrimmed pork butt. The lean-to-fat ratio of 70/30 of pork butt is ideal for sausage making. First, debone and cut the pork butt into …

Bratwurst is a fresh sausage made of pork, beef, wild game, or any meat that is stuffed into a variety of different sized casings. Bratwursts range in sizes from 28mm to 35mm. Casings of 30mm or 32mm are the most common. Natural hog casings and collagen casings are the most popular. These same casings can be used for Italian sauages and many other fresh sausages as well. Wh …

The Meatgistics Podcast recently had the chance to sit down with the CEO of a new planned 8,000 head a day processing plant in South Dakota. What makes this even more interesting is that Western Legacy Development Corporation is not associated with "the big 4" in anyway. The big 4 companies in meat processing are Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef, and they currently own about 85% of the market. The plant is being funded by Kingsburry and Associates and would make it the single lar …

Where your meat comes from will determine what the most important piece of equipment is for you. Because they are working with larger whole muscle cuts, hunters will need to purchase a meat grinder. For people who buy meat at the store that already comes ground, then a stuffer would be a better fit for you. Having both a stuffer and grinder, instead of using the stuffer option on the grinder, are ideal for making cured sausage because of the need for protein extraction. The meat will ha …