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On February 20th this year, we got dumped on. Again. I had just gotten some home cured, home smoked bacon in from my buddy Bob at work. He goes all out and brings in cooler with pre-portioned 1lb ziplock baggies of bacon. It's a beautiful thing. Bob inspired/inspires me to stuff and smoke meat. Anyway, his bacon is also beautiful and seems to enjoy getting dredged in brown sugar and wrapped around cream cheese stuffed jalapenos. During the calm before the storm I tossed a handful of them along with a fatty on the smoker for a little evening snack for the family.

The arduino powered UDS kept the temps steady while the weather picked up and left a pool of melted snow on the lid. The snow was coming down down fast enough that it sounded like rain as it near vaporized. I don't know what it is about inclement weather and smoking meat, but I really enjoy it. Probably has something do with getting out off the couch and doing something somewhat productive in the middle of it all. I get the same feeling getting up predawn to get some meat on while the temps hover around zero.

Recipes

Easy Street Rub

• 1 1/2 cups of light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of paprika
• 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt
• 3/4 tablespoon of pepper

I put this rub on just about everything I put in the UDS. Mix everything together with a fork. I store it in a pickle jar with a bunch holes poked in the lid (ala Alton).

Atomic Buffalo Turds

• 6 Whole jalapenos, halved and cored
• 6 rashers of bacon cut in half
• About half of a package of cream cheese (the square kind)
• Couple tablespoons of rub
• Small bowl of light brown sugar

Mix the rub and cream cheese in bowl. Scoop it in to a zip lock and cut one of the bottom corners off. Use it like a piping bag and squirt a blob in to each of the halved and cored jalapenos. Some folks add a lil' smokie cocktail wiener too. Then wrap each one with a piece of bacon. Finally dredge each wrapped, stuffed jalapeno in the brown sugar. Smoke at 225F to 250F for about an hour or so until the bacon is as crispy as you like it.

Basic Fatty

• 1 log of Bob Evans spicy breakfast sausage
• 3 or 4 or 5 tablespoons of rub

Unwrap the log (try to keep it in log form). Coat the outside of it in the rub. Smoke at 225F to 250F for about an hour or until internal temp is 165F. We like to toast up some English muffins, slather on a shmear of cream cheese and add a couple slices of the fatty.

High output meat grinder since 1984

Last summer my buddy gave me a meat grinder. This past January we finally got around to making some sausage. My step-dad, brother-in-law and I made pretty quick work of about 40lbs of pork shoulder. Lots of laughs and only one injury.

The meat grinder ground meat very well. While stuffing the sausages we were plagued with suction and heat issues. The fat started to break down a little bit as the process was pretty slow. After we they got a little rhythm going (with them on the stuffer and me on the camera) the meat was a-flowin.

After everything was cleaned up (found some pork chunklets stuck on the wall) we cooked up a foot or so. It was fantastic. We purposely went a little heavy handed on the fresh ground black pepper and were rewarded with a Polish sausage bursting with garlic (fresh minced and powdered) followed by a peppery bite.

Lessons Learned

Make a hydro-stuffer. I asked the big brain for a more efficient way to stuff sausage and eventually stumbled upon the hydo style stuffers. It's a piston that uses the water pressure in your house (about 50psi) to push the sausage through the horn. Brilliant! There's a commercial version for $150, but I think we can make one for about $50. There's some great examples of giant, vertical water stuffers crankin' out the meat on youtube. All powered by same amount of water pressure.

Trim pork in to three classes of fattyness. Polish sausage recipes call for different ratios of 3 different fat levels in your pork. We trimmed everything to one level. The sausage was still excellent.

Sneak up on the seasoning additions. We also made some Italian sausage. I think I messed up the recipe because it was over-the-top seasonings and no one wanted to eat it.

The holiday beer this year: Edwort's Robust Porter, Ordinary Bitter, Brown ale (parti-gyle from the porter), and a hefe that is still in the primary de-sulphuring and waiting for a spot in the keezer.

Here's the first couple of days of fermentation. The bitter and the hefe are out of view (and in buckets, so not very camera friendly).

The porter during the vorlauf. Dishwasher drain pumps chugging along quietly.

Burning off the paint of what will eventually become an Ugly Drum Smoker. It was raining that day.

Update 3/20/11: Added build photo gallery

Powered By

• HABS - which has been modified to be controlled remotely via web interface
• JeeNode (RF enabled Arduino)
• Recycled 1/2 barrel keg
• 10 gallon Igloo cooler
• (2) Dishwasher Drain Pumps - WD26X10037 via Klenks
• (2) DS18B20 temp probes - Digikey
• High temp checkfloat - McMaster Carr 46515k41
• '65 Ford Falcon windshield wiper motor (not pictured)
• (3) cans of olive drab spray paint
• Lots of visits to Home Depot, Lowes, and Radio Shack

Links and Files

• Halfluck Automated Brewing System
• Pump bracket pattern (pdf)
• JeeLabs - RF arduino boards
• Arduino
• Heating element installation
• Wiring GFCI Receptacles - scroll down to the "Wiring GFCI Receptacles" section to protect multiple outlets under one gfci.

*Disclaimer: This project involves having electricity and water in close proximity. It is dangerous and potentially life threatening. If you're unsure of your skills, contact an electrician.