Homemade lunchmeats!

[Bettacreek]

Does anyone here make their own lunchmeats? I've been thinking about this for a few days now. My absolute favorite is turkey ham though, but I'm not sure how to make this. Anyone want to share their process if they do make their own lunchmeats? Do you grind and press? This is the method that I'm interested in, I'm personally not interested in just slicing up the "raw" form meat and tossing that on a "sammich".

 

[sufficientforme]

Weird, I too have been searching for lunchmeat recipes on the net for a week or so coming up empty handed, I see people recommend books on the subject but are very vague with directions as to how to actually do it online.
I remember about 4 years ago I came across a recipe that I remember thinking tasted remarkably like deli meat. Can I find it NO, so frustrating. Anyway I remember taking the hot cut of meat and compressing/rolling it really tight in foil and putting in the fridge until cold, then sliced thin. It was firm and solid, not like cutting a hunk of meat off for a sandwich like from a roast. My memory is blank on the actual process other than that. For pressed and ground lunch meat options most recommend picking up a good book on Charcuterie (I think that is how it is spelled )
So if you get a good answer, please share

 

[miss_thenorth]

http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_beef_salami

A qucik search brought me to this.

 

[freemotion]

Is your reason to save money or to have healthy lunch meats? I wouldn't use liquid smoke or questionable ingredients myself, but there are some instructions somewhere on this forum for building a simple smoker and a more complicated one.

Don't forget about meatloaf! Yum!

 

[big brown horse]

Also didn't farmerlor have a great corned beef recipe?

 

[Bettacreek]

I'd love to make it mainly to save money and give me something fun to do. Plus, no added chemicals, and I can flavor it to my family's taste.
From what I've been seeing, lunchmeat is basically just finely ground meat with added water and spices, smoked or unsmoked, pressed or rolled and cooked. I'm checking to see if you can cook it then press/roll it, or if you must press/roll before cooking. If it matters, then I'll have to see about buying a second hog to steal the ham from for lunchmeats.
I wonder just how long homemade lunchmeats could be stored for, if vacuum sealed and frozen...
I plan to make a homemade press for my lunchmeats, so now I have to scour around and see what I can come up with. I could make circular cuts of meat, but I'd rather get a perfectly sized square or rectangle to fit bread.

I'm going to have to look for a good pepperoni recipe. Then I can make ground pepperoni for certain recipes, small stick pepperoni (dime diameter), large sandwich size and regular pizza size.
I also found a good lebanon bologna recipe, which is of course a mandatory meat.
http://www.grouprecipes.com/95424/lebanon-bologna---home-made.html

 

[steve_of_sandspoultry]

I worked in a meat packing plant years ago. Bettacreek you are correct it's just ground meat and spices, the same way you would make sausage but it just uses bigger casings. They were cooked with a "wet heat" (steam) I guess so it wouldn't dry out? We used to go back to the cooking area when the meat came out and cut the end off the chubs and put some swiss cheese on it and eat it. Probably took a couple years off my life but it was good eating.


Here is a link to the casings. natural and collagen

http://www.sausagemaker.com/casingsandaccessories.aspx


Steve in NC