Taco flavored Snack sticks - my way heavy view

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

driedstick

Smoking Guru
Original poster
OTBS Member
★ Lifetime Premier ★
Nov 3, 2011
6,019
661
N. Central Idaho
Well decided to do some snack sticks this weekend before Elk season starts next weekend. 

I decided to do 7 1/2 lbs of Lean ground beef and 5 lbs of ground poke. Stuffing them into 22MM Mahogany casings. 

All my equipment re washed and sanitized and ready to go to work. 


I was going to do some of the Willie's snack sticks but they must have forgotten to put in the item the helps it to prevent caking.


I even put it in a coffee grinder to try to break it up, no go just spun around the grinder. 


So instead of using Willie' I saved the cure from it and put it in with the Taco flavored brats to make my snack sticks



Cure from the Willies package 


I like mustard seeds 


1 cup of NFDM to 5 lbs of meat, I used two cups for this recipe 




Added the mustard seeds, no measurement here just eye balled it . 



Mixed cure to dissolve in one cup cold water, usually do two but tried this with one and worked fine. 


Hand mix till tacky 



When I get a softball size of meat to stick to my hand and I can turn my hand upside down

and it does not fall off, I know I mixed it good and the cure is working. 



Added the Hi Temp cheese, and the NFDM and mixed one more time 



Stuffer is loaded and ready go. 



The one casing on the far left (dark brown) was a old casing I used up and had real trouble with it

it was dry and brittle and I had a couple of blow outs. Got the new casings out and never had a blow out one. 

Make sure you keep casings in a cool dry place and sealed in a good container or bag. 


After stuffing I put them in the fridge overnight and will go in smoker next day. 


Next morning, put sticks out and let them hang at room temp for about 1hr. At this time 

start your smoker and bring it up to temp. 


Smoker temp is at 120 dampers full open. 

Put snack sticks into smoker for 1hr NO Smoke

After 1hr raise temp to 130 and add smoke from here on our. 

every hr raise smoker temp 10* till you get smoker to 170* 

do not go over 170* to keep from having "fat Out" 

Smoke till the IT of the sticks are 152*. 

Pull from smoker when temp is reached and set on racks to let them bloom at room temp 

for about 1 hr or so. 



Hickory in the AMPS smoker 


Blooming.




After blooming I put them in brown paper bags and put them back in fridge for 24-48hrs 

before vac pacing them and putting them in the freezer. 


You will need to wait for the vac pac pics, these guys are still taking a nap in the fridge. 

I hope you enjoyed the post. Let me know if I missed anything. 

A full smoker is a happy smoker 

DS 
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: slownlow
Nice thread DS, I really enjoyed it & them are gonna be tasty ! Thumbs Up I really gotta get my sausage making supplies.... I'am missing out ! Have a good time at elk camp !

:beercheer:
 
Nice thread DS, I really enjoyed it & them are gonna be tasty !
icon14.gif
I really gotta get my sausage making supplies.... I'am missing out ! Have a good time at elk camp !

beercheer.gif
Thanks WHB ya you would enjoy it I sure like it and yes good times at elk camp 
 
 
Very nice looking sticks.  I will be watching for your view of the taste. 
Darwin, thanks and the taste was great, I snitched one out last night after they bloomed for a while and gave some to the kids, they all said it was great, one kid said it tasted like pizza?? Not hot at all with the Habanero cheese. 
 
Great looking sticks.... and I still like the muffle clamps.... great idea....
Thanks Dave. Yep I love my idea on those, no more rolling around at all and gets a little more air under the tube to keep it going. 
 
Can you enlighten me on the use of the paper bag? What is it used for, does it change anything or help out in some way.
Thanx.
It helps with excess moisture you may have and keeps them from drying out before vac packing, just kinda like a resting period. Just one thing I learned from others on here. 
 
Last edited:
Well after about 36hrs after stuffing and resting period I dove in, and these are probably the BEST Sticks I have made, Very moist, and great flavor. I would like to thank everyone here on SMF for all the help and input, special thanks out to Reinhard and boykjo for ALOT of supervision Thanks everyone!!! Elk season will be great now, and I we get one down on the ground also. Everyone at work loved them and said they never had a Taco snack stick before and really liked them :yahoo:



[VIDEO] [/VIDEO]

Will try to vac pac tonight after work.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Rafter H BBQ
That was a long post.   I have to rely on Sausage production to you fellows , No more toys for
wife.gif
. Oh, well , I'm OK with what I got.
biggrin.gif


Good looking Kielbasa , and I know it will be good.

Thanks for the look ,and . . .
 
Very nice work on those sticks!!! I think it's great to have all the pictures like you had here.  Really helpful.  Great from start to finish.  Reinhard
 
threads like this makes me want to say the hell with the price of meat and fill my smokehouse up with sticks... I too like the clamp idea on the tube ... well done DS Thumbs Up

Do you find the ratio of the seasoning to the meat ok ? so far for all the pre made seasonings I've used, I find that it could use more seasoning to meat...
 
Last edited:
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky