Homemade Bologna Recipe on the BX50 Box Smoker

Hi, I'm Marlin Gingerich, Lavern's brother. I live in southeastern Iowa with my wife and one-year-old daughter. We live in the heart of farming country, and as I'm working on this bologna recipe, our property is surrounded on three sides by ten-foot-high corn. I have enjoyed cooking on Meadow Creek equipment for 13 years.

A few years ago a friend of mine asked if I would help them smoke some homemade bologna. I had never done it before, but I was eager to try something new. We learned a few things the hard way, but that first batch was a success. I am excited to share my homemade bologna recipe and help you step out and learn this fun art.

Choose a Recipe

If you’re new to making homemade bologna, it can look overwhelming. There are many types of bologna to choose from, and you need to make sure you have the right type and amount of cure.

Here are some homemade bologna sources we recommend:

Home Butchering Supplies

I order my supplies from Home Butchering Supplies in Antigo, Wisconsin. This old-school company doesn’t have a website, but you can order a catalog from them by phone or email and check out their bologna seasonings and casings. Their seasonings come with a cure packet and instructions for mixing the proper ratio of seasoning, cure, and meat.

Meadow Creek Barbecue Supply

This store does not carry any Lebanon-style bologna seasonings, but they have some delicious ones for ring bologna and summer sausage and a wide variety of casings and other meat processing supplies and equipment with online ordering.

Other Options

Prepare the Meat

You don’t have to be a butcher to make your own bolognas and sausages. You can use fresh ground meat from the grocery store or even meat you have in your freezer, like we did for this story. If you’re using frozen meat, thaw it ahead of time in the refrigerator.

Measure out the appropriate amounts of meat.

It’s best to mix the meat and stuff the casings the day before you plan to cook it, because it can take a few hours, plus hanging time.

Dissolve the seasoning and cure in the correct amount of warm water.

Add the meat and mix it by hand or with a meat mixer until it becomes sticky. If you’re using a motorized mixer, be careful not to overmix it.

Optional: Mix in small chunks of high-temp cheese. Again, I like variety, so we did some with cheese and some without. I like to mix up what I think it will take to fill two casings, stuff the first one, and then add cheese to the rest.

Stuff the Casings

Certain kinds of bologna are usually made in specific sizes of casings, but I don’t have a stuffer, so I use large casings for all types of bologna so we can stuff them by hand. While I enjoy using fun gadgets, I am an advocate of working with what you have. These larger diameter slices can easily be cut into quarters to enjoy with cheese and crackers.

Stuffing by hand can be difficult, but having a second person helping is a major plus. Pack the meat into the casing one small handful at a time, pressing out any air pockets as you go along.

I’m using #8x20 fibrous casings (these are 20 inches long and end up with a diameter of 4.75 inches). These require presoaking in warm water. Follow the instructions that come with your casings.

We use hog rings to close the end of the casing, but cooking twine also works fine.

Refrigerate It

Refrigerate the bologna in the casings overnight to let the cure and seasoning work their magic.

Set up Your Smoker

I use my Meadow Creek BX50 cabinet smoker to cook the bologna, because it works well for hanging. First, I remove all the cooking grates, then I lay wooden strips above the top grate brackets for hanging the bologna. I use stainless hooks from Home Butchering Supplies to hang the bologna on the cross-pieces, but any steel wire hook should work.

Do not put water in the water pan, as you want to run it “dry”.

Load the Smoker

I prefer loading the smoker before lighting it, so I can arrange it without smoke in my face. Arrange the casings so they don’t touch each other or the smoker.

In my experience, you can easily fit nine large rolls of bologna in the BX50 Smoker, but expect the cook time to be longer.

Cook the Bologna

Fire your BBQ smoker at 155 degrees F for the first few hours. For this cook, I used my BBQ Guru temperature controller. 

This is how I like to fire my BX50 box smoker with a BBQ Guru temperature controller:

Two and a half hours after the smoker was up to temperature, I turned the controller up to 185 degrees. It took about thirty minutes to reach 185 degrees, and that's where I kept it for the rest of the cook.

Not using a temperature controller?

The bologna is done once the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. I check the meat with my instant-read Thermapen. The first four rolls were done at five hours, and the last two were done at six hours.

Soak the Bologna

Remove the bologna from the smoker and immediately submerge it in cold water to reduce the internal temperature quickly. I use a five-gallon food-grade bucket and soak the rolls for twenty to thirty minutes.

Cool the Bologna

Let the meat cool at room temperature and remove the casings. Refrigerate it for eight hours or overnight.

Slice

Slice the meat for sandwiches. This batch made close to four hundred slices, so you’ll want an electric slicer for this!

Look at that delicious homemade bologna!

Vacuum Seal and Freeze

Unless you are doing a small batch, vacuum seal and freeze most of your homemade bologna to keep it fresh. If you don’t have a sealer, you can use zip-lock bags and double bag it to keep it fresher.

Closing Tips

I hope you'll give my homemade bologna recipe a try! Don't let all the possibilities out there confuse you. Follow my instructions and you'll find it's not very hard to smoke a batch of amazing meat for sandwiches and snacking.