Directions
- 1Start with the wet ingredients: add white vinegar to some ice water.
- 2Mix in pink curing salt and then set it aside.
- 3Add all dry ingredients to a separate bowl: dry milk powder, granulated sugar, kosher salt, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, nutmeg, allspice, and paprika.
- 4Lastly, for moisture and texture, add rainmaker phosphates.
- 5Mix the dry ingredients together really well and then set them aside.
- 6Cube up 2 lbs of pork butt and add 1 lb of 73/27 ground beef to a bowl.
- 7With the pork cubes partially frozen, run them through a coarse grinder plate.
- 8Add just the dry mix to the ground pork and mix it well.
- 9Run the pork and dry mix through a fine grinder plate to ensure a nice smooth texture and well-incorporated seasonings.
- 10Combine the ground pork and ground beef.
- 11Mix in the wet mixture until all the water is absorbed into the meat and the meat becomes tacky and sticky.
- 12Transfer the mixture to a food processor and emulsify it in small batches, grinding for about a minute each time until it's a nice smooth paste. Keep everything cold.
- 13Transfer everything to a stuffing cylinder (kept in the freezer up until this point).
- 14Stuff the emulsification into a fibrous sausage casing, filling it firm but not rock hard.
- 15Tie off the casing and hang it in the fridge overnight to chill and help air bubbles work their way out.
- 16The next day, probe the bologna with an internal thermometer.
- 17Smoke it for about 5 hours on 180°F, or do this in the oven, rotating it about a quarter turn every half hour for the first 2 hours to ensure it stays nice and round.
- 18Remove it from the oven or smoker when it hits an internal temperature of 152-154°F.
- 19Immediately place it in an ice water bath for 15-30 minutes, then dry it off.
- 20Refrigerate overnight to fully set.
- 21It needs to be fully chilled before you cut it, like jello.
Ingredients
- 2 lb pork shoulder, cubed very cold
- 1 lb 73/27 ground beef, very cold
- 1.5 Tbsp Morton’s kosher salt
- 1.5 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp white pepper
- 0.75 tsp garlic powder
- 0.75 tsp onion powder
- 0.25 tsp nutmeg
- 0.25 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 0.5 cup nonfat dry milk
- 1 tsp Rainmaker phosphate
- 0.875 cup ice water
- 2 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
- 3.4 g Cure #1
Equipment
coarse grinder platefine grinder platefood processorstuffing cylinderfibrous sausage casinginternal thermometersmokeroven
Tips
- This bologna keeps 2 weeks in the fridge or 4 months in the freezer.
- It’s amazing fried thick in a skillet, sliced cold for sandwiches, or turned into bologna burnt ends.
- This is a great base recipe if you want to build extra flavor into it with more garlic, spice, heat, smoke, or other seasonings.
- To ensure the texture is nice and smooth and all seasonings are well incorporated, run the meat through a fine grinder plate after the coarse grind.
- Keep all ingredients very cold throughout the process.
- When emulsifying in a food processor, work in small batches, grinding for about a minute each time until it's a nice smooth paste.
- To help air bubbles work their way out, hang the stuffed casing in the fridge overnight.
- To make sure it stays nice and round during smoking/baking, rotate it about a quarter turn every half hour for the first 2 hours.
- It needs to be fully chilled before you cut it, like jello.
- For an all-beef option, use 3 pounds of beef around 80/20, or 2 pounds of 80/20 plus 1 pound of 73/27 for a softer deli-style texture.
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