40# snack sticks and 10# Summer Sausage(Pics)

[scpatterson]

Well I took the deer that Jerry gae me and groud up most of it for snack sticks. I used 2 kits from Hi Mountain that does 20 pounds each. I used a misture of 70& venison, 20% beef and 10% pork and stuffed into 20mm casings. I let them set over night and just put half on to smoke.
Leason Learned:::::I made long ropes and as I was putting them over the dowels in the smoker they were breaking on the dowel. I think next time I will make 5 foot ropes and leave some casing on teh ends and tie togeher and put the tied casings on teh dowls. I may have over stuffed as well.

They are in the smoker none the less I just could not get them all in there at once....No worries

These are the smoking instructions Im using
http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Snack Sticks.pdf


I also made 10 pounds of summer sausage from a kit from LEM. I used the same mixture as the snack sticks but I added some pepper cheese and some Jalapenos hat I dehydrated. Stuffed into clear fiberous casings and let sit over night. They to are now in the smoker. More to come!!!!!

 

[bright scouter]

Lookin good!

By the way, you gotta love it when the kids earn their keep!

 

[pineywoods]

Looks good can't wait to see and hear the results!!!

 

[ciolli]

Can't wait to see the finished product! Looks like you got some good helpers too

 

[que-ball]

Looking good, scpatterson!

Got any qview of the snacksticks hanging? We might be able to tell why they were breaking on you. Overstuffing is a likely culprit, but they also tend to get stiff as they sit in the casings. I usually fridge the bulk sausage, and stuff the casings right before they will go into the smoker, or form my coils to the proper length as soon as I stuff them by pinching the meat away where the casing will loop over the smokestick. The cure does act like a binder and make it harder to stuff the next day, but that binding action also makes it hard to change the shape of your sausage coils the next day without breaking.

What kind of casings did you use? If you used collagen, there is one type for fresh sausage, and a thicker-walled one to withstand the heat and weight while hanging in the smokehouse.

 

[scpatterson]

I did not pinch the casing where it wraps over the dowels. I bet thats the issue but what I did was to cut the ropes down on my second batch. I tied the ends together and used some twine on a few of them to test it. Im suprised at how fast the color changed on these once putting the smoke to them. These are after 1 hour of smoke. I also threw in a pic of my smoke box and of my fix on the second batch...

 

[solaryellow]

Looks good Chris.

 

[mballi3011]

Man oh Man there chris those look great and I too will be awaiting the result of the taste test too. You will learn little tricks by making the sausage and talkin to more folks here too.

for your job well done chris.

 

[9manfan]

I'd like to see a pic of your whole smokehouse, looks very enteresting, what are you using for the heat source and how do you have your chip tray arranged in there, looking very good,,,,,,,

 

[gene111]

After looking at that gonna have to build one of them to!!!! Man the wifes gonna kill me. LOL

 

[travcoman45]

Nice job on the sausage SC! Them youngins look like there havin a right fine time to! Always good ta get em involved!

 

[markf]

That's a lot of goodness and the family involvement will make it all taste even better.

 

[scpatterson]

Heres the post from when I built it a few weeks ago..
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...plywood+smoker

 

[morkdach]

Jolly good show !!!!!!!
more please

 

[scpatterson]

Here we are at 145 internal. I just started cranking the temps up from 165 up to around 180ish. I stalled my temps a little so all the meat would catch up a bit. Got everything within 5 degrees internal...SHould pull it shortly gonna run to 160-165...I still ahve 20 more pounds to do but gonna do that tomorrow..Did notice some shrinkage, I wasnt going to run these through cold water since they were winkled alrady but now I may have to...

 

[bassman]

Those broken ones might not be good to eat. I can PM you my address and I'll test them for you as I don't want anyone getting sick or anything.

BTW, nice looking sausage and sticks!

 

[scpatterson]

Well the first batch of snack sticks is all done and the summer sausage. Ive got it out to dry a bit and then Im gonna bag it up. Taste was really good, just the right amount of smoke. I took them off at about 160 and threw in an ice bath to cool off. casing done real good, the meat did not shrink away from the casings. I think the diamater is a little too big for what I consider snack sticks (22mm) maybe try something smaller next time.....

Now the summer sausage..This was awesome. I used some jalepenos that i dehydrated and some pepper cheese. It was outstanding.....

Now I got another batch of snack sticks to smoke tomorrow...Thanks for looking

 

[walle]

WOW - Outstanding SC!

for all that hard work!
Tracey

 

[pineywoods]

That looks great Chris I'll bet them boys eat a bunch of it in a hurry

 

[beer-b-q]

Man that looks good Chris...