Today's batch of Polish Kielbasa and Snack Sticks!

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justinkp

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 5, 2013
53
14
Western Pennsylvania
Decided to give it another try. 

Grinded up 3 pounds of pork loin and added the "Cabela's Polish Kielbasa" seasoning and cure kit.  (Yeah I cheated with the seasoning for this time.)    The kit came with hog casings.   Mixed in the cure, seasoning to the 1/8" ground pork and stuffed into the hog casings.   Smoked with cherry and hickory wood and the kielbasa tastes great!  Has a nice "kick" to it as well!


Now I have the snack sticks in the smoker as I type this.   Once again I cheated a bit with the seasoning and bought a "Cabela's Snack Stick" seasoning and cure kit.  It came with callogen casings (19mm).   Mixed in the cure, and seasoning to 3 pounds ground beef, and 2 pounds ground pork loin.  Mixed it all up real good and stuffed into the callogen casings.   Now smoking with cherry and hickory wood.   I'll have an after pic after they are finished!

Here's a before pic of the snack sticks:

 
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Looking good Justin.... Was wondering what happened to ya......... your last batch of sticks shouldnt of lasted  that long........
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Joe
 
Snack sticks are finished!  They're looking real good!  Can't wait to taste them in a few hours.  


As a side note Joe, those last batch of beef sticks didn't last long at all.  2 days?   Haha.   

These ones are looking and smelling much better so I see them lasting even less time. 
 
Question when making Sausage. 

Do I need to cure the meat before it's ground in the grinder? 

If I do need to cure it, what do you guys use?
 
Hi Mike!

I put the cure in water and mixed it in the meat after I put it through the grinder.  I mixed the cure/water with the meat when I added the seasoning.   You'll need to cure the meat if you are not getting the meat to 160 degrees to kill the bacteria and prevent getting sick.  From what I've learned on here so far, I believe a good temperature for snack sticks is around 140 degrees.  That's what I cooked mine to an internal temp of today. 
 
 
Also which is a difference from last time, I used my new meat grinder/sausage stuffer to stuff the casings.  It was so much easier than using a "jerky shooter" to fill the casings.    Bought a Pro Grinder from Cabela's on sale for $119.   Has 1000 watts peak power and works pretty well so far.   No complaints!
 
Your sticks look great. I wish we would have made a larger batch yesterday because they are't going to last. Guess I'll make more next weekend.

Any issues with the 19mm casings blowing out? We used 22mm and I'd like to make thinner sticks.
 
Hey Bryce!

Thanks for the compliments!   I know the biggest regret is always not making enough at once!  I already wish I'd of made a bigger batch!  

Haven't had any issues at all with the 19mm casings.  The package states I don't need to do it, but I soak them in water before stuffing them as it just seems to make them more flexible and easier to place on the stuffer tube.
 
 
Looks great, down to one pack of snack sticks going to elk camp with me this next weekend, hopefully we will be bringing more meat back
 
these all look great... but I do have a question.... you say you used pork LOIN ... did you add any pork fat to the loin since it's so lean ?
 
Keith,

I did not add any fat to the pork loin.   Just took it out of the package and grinded.   It was just the basic $1.99/lb local warehouse club 10 pound pork loin. 

As far as the ground beef, I used 90/10.  
 
 
Wow. They look great. two things I haven't tried and that are on my list of things to do. Thanks for posting.

Disco
 
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