Visit to the wholesalers... suggest a shopping list please.

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Visit to the wholesalers... suggest a shopping list please.

Postby GUS » Wed May 29, 2013 7:46 pm

Wondering what you'd put on your shopping list for a beginner to cold smoke & venture into "sausage world" rubs etc, having the opportunity to buy catering size (& everything in-between) odds & sods.

(I can wander around the place happily & without direction for 4 hrs as it is).
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Re: Visit to the wholesalers... suggest a shopping list plea

Postby wheels » Wed May 29, 2013 8:03 pm

A few to start the ball rolling:

Salmon, Edam cheese (crappy Edam's good smoked!), Camembert, Garlic, whole nuts, Large flake sea salt.

HTH

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Re: Visit to the wholesalers... suggest a shopping list plea

Postby NCPaul » Wed May 29, 2013 9:54 pm

Salt and large plastic bags.
Fashionably late will be stylishly hungry.
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Re: Visit to the wholesalers... suggest a shopping list plea

Postby vagreys » Wed May 29, 2013 10:44 pm

If you are just starting out in sausage making and smoking...here are things you may already have or will need, before too long.

- A set of small-to-medium non-reactive prep bowls.
- a non-reactive set of nested mixing bowls will be handy in the future, if not now.
- if you stick with it, you will want some large, non-reactive mixing bowls for mixing up several pounds of sausage, or large enough to contain a piece of meat to which you are applying dry cure and seasoning. You could easily need multiple bowls if making multiple kinds of sausage from the same batch of meat.
- meat tubs. Large batches of sausage and for curing meats.
- measuring spoons
- good scales for weighing meat and liquids. I use an electronic set that weighs up to 8 kg +/- 1 g.
- good scales for measuring spices and cures. I use an inexpensive electronic set that weights up to 500 g +/- .01g. Hard to believe but it can make a difference when dealing with very light herbs and spices like dried marjoram or fluffy, rubbed sage, or ingredients where only a very small amount is needed.
- gallon-size and sandwich size zip-lock disposable bags
- plastic wrap
- freezer/butcher paper
- stainless steel or aluminum half-sheet trays. I have 6 and could use more.
- large cutting board(s). I have two that I can sterilize with bleach solution, and just added one dedicated to poultry.
- towels. You will want towels that can get bloody and stained, and be washed frequently, with bleach. Repeated drying of hands and gear. I use bar mops and get them in bundles of 24. Use them until they fall apart.
- herbs and spices. If you are starting out, I'd advise that the only thing you get in quantity is your salt - either kosher salt or coarse flake sea salt. If you stick with it, there are certain herbs and spices that you will use a lot, and some that you will use in moderate quantities. While you can get them much cheaper in bulk, you don't want to buy more than you can easily use within 6 months (pre-ground) to a year (whole). They will need to be stored away from heat and light, in airtight containers, to preserve their potency. I am making 20-30 lbs a week, now, and I'm using lots of salt, black pepper, white pepper, coriander seed, sage, marjoram, and thyme. I am using moderate amounts of sugar, summer savory, oregano, fennel seed, caraway seed, crushed red pepper and cumin. I am using lesser amounts of nutmeg, mace, mustard, cayenne, ginger, and paprika (Hungarian sweet, Hungarian hot, Spanish smoked sweet, Spanish smoked hot).

I'm not saying you need all this on day 1, but if you stick with it, and make sausage and other meats regularly, you will need this stuff or similar things, and most of this stuff should be available from the wholesale store.

HTH

ETA: and disposable, plastic gloves for food service.
- tom

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Re: Visit to the wholesalers... suggest a shopping list plea

Postby ComradeQ » Thu May 30, 2013 1:51 pm

Great list vagreys! I would also add, especially if you are cold smoking meat or sausage, you will want to get a cure. Something like Cure#1 or Prague Powder. The one I use is called Instacure and it is the exact same thing. You just want to make sure it contains 6.25% nitrite as some cures vary on the level of nitrite and for a beginner it is easier to use that since it is what most recipes will contain.

Just be careful with that stuff, use exact amounts and store it somewhere safe as it is potentially dangerous stuff if ingested by someone or if not used according to the directions.

A good beginner item to cold smoke would be bacon, grab some pork belly, follow one of the recipes on this site and cure it, after that cold smoke away. What are you using for a smoke generator? If available stock up on some smoking wood too. I use pellets in my AmazeNSmoker for cold smoking and it is always good to have a bulk supply of different woods (hickory, apple, cherry, maple are what I keep).

Also, a grinder, stuffer, and vacuum sealer are all good ideas for making sausage, lol. I stock up on vacuum bags when at wholesalers as it is way cheaper in bulk.
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Re: Visit to the wholesalers... suggest a shopping list plea

Postby vagreys » Thu May 30, 2013 7:49 pm

I was trying to stick to things one might find in a wholesale store. Over here, at least, cures, grinders and stuffers aren't common in the wholesale stores. The vacuum sealer is a good idea, though. I have an old Foodsaver that I use regularly for vac-packing bulk and link sausages for freezing or keeping meat in the fridge. The individual bags are expensive. I use the rolls and make my own bags. I've found that I use less of the 11" wide roll, and much more of the 8" roll.
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Re: Visit to the wholesalers... suggest a shopping list plea

Postby GUS » Thu May 30, 2013 9:10 pm

Thanks for the concise lists folks.

As we bake a lot then items like pyrex, chopping boards, knives, sharpeners, etc tend not to be a problem, cooling racks, we have non teflon, should I go for teflon!? ..it seems to come off pretty easily regardless in my experience. (note on offer in Argos currently for £7.99)

for food handling (& we have dogs) gloves are plentiful (several hundred pairs at a time)
Vacuum sealer & bags from Weschenfelders ever present.
Tend to have between 10 & 30 kg of sugar types in cupboards for baking & vanilla sugar, but guess i'll have to take stock of actual varieties for potential recipes.

picked up a salmon to play with today, ProQ cold smoker arrived (yay) so that's what we'll be going with initially.
Other tools are a Kenwood KM3010 with dinky kebbe / sausage mincer & maker.
we have a Budweiser beer fridge vacant for stuff & a big frost free at the ready empty & spare, 1 chest freezer & one regular larder size + one upright available.
catering size clingwrap (aka saran), measuring spoons coming out of our ears,
several thousand food grade clipseal bags.

I'm a big fan of paprika, however that seems a bit of a problem to find where we are in smoked, let alone an array of types, will look into that!

Salt, would like to play around with smoking, so I guess bagged or on light mesh trays would suffice? ..a big fan of maldon salt (essex marshes) which i can only find in 250g packs... unless anyone here knows?

As for other basic salts not a problem.

Thanks for the heads up on grammage differentials on scales, will invest in some more precise jewelry type & see how that go's.

Maybe a thick question but what sort of meat tubs (plastic construction variant recycling type 1-6) !? & size typically suffice?

Vinegars, oils, & sauce(s) recommendations would be welcome, ..any excuse to buy 4+ litres of HP sauce really!

Mustard recommendations? ..we are fortunate to have a coolish walk in larder, so can buy a few longer lifespan items in bulk.

All recommendations appreciated, hope to start a salmon / cheese smoke within the next 4-5 days but as only 90g of dust arrived with it (a tad short of the 100g the site states) but seems a bit pernickity to complain to mac's i'm not expecting to get far just yet, we are fans of more rather than less smoke.

Stupidly i've given away "forgot" the ice crusher grinder for this purpose, should I invest in a kenwood attachment or will it simply get wrecked? as i've some beech chips to hand.

Thanks again
Mac's ProQ CSG devotee.
Founder member of "Cheese club" ...it's like "Fight Club" only cheesier

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