We had a ground beef sale here and I took advantage of it. 85% lean it was and that's what I used. I like having it around when I'm short on meat with other sausage batches to compliment any pork I use or with venison. I've been making sticks generally without casings since sheep casings for me have become a pain to use. So I went with 21mm collagen casings. I went with Curley's snack stick seasoning called Cody's snack sticks. First time using it and I liked it. It has a little heat to it which I found to be just right. Here is what I used---Reinhard
1 pack of Cody's snack stick recipe [Enough for a 10 pound batch]
2 cups of cold water
2 cups of dry powdered milk
2 big spoons of diced garlic [stuff in jars] [I use spoons you eat soup with]
2 tsp cure#1 [comes with seasoning pack]
1 pack of "flavor enhancer" [comes with seasoning pack] I believe it's MSG
10 pounds of 85% ground beef
Spread that ground beef out some.
Put the dry powdered milk on the ground beef.
Mixed the garlic, enhancer,cure, and seasoning in the water.
In goes the rest of the ingredients.
Everything is all nice and mixed up. In the fridge it goes for an overnight meld of flavors and cure.
I slipped on as much of the collagen casings as I could. Left over an inch or so empty for tie downs and cut off the rest. Only had one blowout which was my fault. Had my eye's on my beer glass instead of the casing.
Made the sticks about as long as my smoker grate
As usual, I had to have a taste patty.
Tied down each end with my butcher knot method which is all by one string.
In the smoker they went. I set the smoker to 140 for a couple of hours. The second hour I started the smoke. I have a lot of oak mixed with maple a buddy gave me. So that's what I used. Think I'll have enough for the whole year. After the two hours at 140 I jacked the temp up to 160 with smoke as well. Probably another 2 hours. After that I had the color I wanted and set the temp to 180 until I hit the internal of 155.
The color was great!!
I hit my internal of 155 and pulled the sticks for a nice cold water bath. I'm happy with the flavor and the texture of the sticks and these will head up north this weekend for our deer camp along with my polish.
1 pack of Cody's snack stick recipe [Enough for a 10 pound batch]
2 cups of cold water
2 cups of dry powdered milk
2 big spoons of diced garlic [stuff in jars] [I use spoons you eat soup with]
2 tsp cure#1 [comes with seasoning pack]
1 pack of "flavor enhancer" [comes with seasoning pack] I believe it's MSG
10 pounds of 85% ground beef
Spread that ground beef out some.
Put the dry powdered milk on the ground beef.
Mixed the garlic, enhancer,cure, and seasoning in the water.
In goes the rest of the ingredients.
Everything is all nice and mixed up. In the fridge it goes for an overnight meld of flavors and cure.
I slipped on as much of the collagen casings as I could. Left over an inch or so empty for tie downs and cut off the rest. Only had one blowout which was my fault. Had my eye's on my beer glass instead of the casing.
Made the sticks about as long as my smoker grate
As usual, I had to have a taste patty.
Tied down each end with my butcher knot method which is all by one string.
In the smoker they went. I set the smoker to 140 for a couple of hours. The second hour I started the smoke. I have a lot of oak mixed with maple a buddy gave me. So that's what I used. Think I'll have enough for the whole year. After the two hours at 140 I jacked the temp up to 160 with smoke as well. Probably another 2 hours. After that I had the color I wanted and set the temp to 180 until I hit the internal of 155.
The color was great!!
I hit my internal of 155 and pulled the sticks for a nice cold water bath. I'm happy with the flavor and the texture of the sticks and these will head up north this weekend for our deer camp along with my polish.