Kit

Getting set up to make sausage wasn’t very easy.  I had to buy lots of stuff I didn’t have, including:

• Sausage stuffer (LEM which cost about $150)
• A fridge ($200 off craig’s)
• Ranco Digital Temp Controller ($100 – this keeps my fridge at 60F)
• Ingredients (dextrose, fermento, DQ curing salt, corn syrup solids)
• A pig ($167.41 for the whole pig, and $175.oo to get it cut up the way the book says)
• Hog casings
• Bradley Smoker recommended by Rhulman’s book ($260 plus $80 for the cold smoke adapter, plus $25 for the cover and another $35 for a bunch of hickory chips.

I’m probably forgetting a couple of things.  I got a data logger with temp/humidity sensor  (now integrated in our weather station) that sends temp/humidity data to my computer a couple of times a day.  It was free because my company just happens to make this system (now called ZL6) – it’s usually sold to people doing environmental research, but it’s really nice to know that everything is working properly even when I’m traveling.  I already have a Kitchen Aid grinder as well as bowls, salt, spices, etc.

I had the butcher freeze the whole thing because everything I’m making was supposed to be frozen to kill Trichinella.  Once he was done and I had all the pig parts socked away in my freezer, I was ready to start.

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