After All These Years My First Fail...

[JckDanls 07]

Had 5 boston butts in the freeze for 4-5 months... Put them in fridge to thaw for a week... Ground them all up, half through fine plate other half through coarse plate... total ground meat was 58 lbs... I put all 58 lbs through a half inch tube and made snack sticks... Done this hundreds of times using the same method every time...
Made 4 different flavors... Jalapeno, Chipotle Wildfire, Teriyaki, and Honey... All from Owens BBQ ... So I did two rounds in the smokehouse, first round was Honey (12.5lbs), Chipotle (12.5lbs), and Teriyaki (8lbs)... When mixing the honey I used the same amount of water (1 red solo cup full) as I did with the other batches of 12.5lbs... The others were thick and tacky as they should be... The Honey though was really wet and loose...
Using the new LEM 10lb electric stuffer (what a game changer from the 5lb hand crank) I stuffed the first batch after a night in the fridge for curing... HUng in the smokehouse with the PID controller going through it's program of ramping temps up... Checked the IT (internal temp) at the 6 hour mark which was 145-148 degrees... When I grabbed the first stick to check IT I could tell something wasn't right... When I pulled the probe out the liquid fat was just pouring out... FAT OUT ... NO WAYYYYY ... Never have I ever had any fat out in all the years making sticks... WTF ... So I quick called Rick BGKYSmoker for directions going forward... He said to strip all the casings off... Wash with lukewarm water.. Then put in the dehydrator... I've stripped and washed but haven't dehydrated yet... Talk about a lot longer process now.. GGRRRRRR ... Lost all the time I gained with the new stuffer...

SO I still had the second batch (25lbs Jalapeno) to cook yet and was worried it was going to happen again... So I readjusted my PID settings.. I had 175 degrees set for my top temps... I backed that down to 170... Six hour mark came and went to check IT... As soon as I opened the door I could see they did it (fat out) too... WTFFFFFFF...

So I am cofused as to why it happened... Ricks thinking it was maybe the meat... As I was grinding I was thinking the lean to fat ratio was looking mighty fatty...

Also.. Back to the batch of honey... Since it was a loose mix I added a cup of NFDM to try to thicken it a little... Don't know if it was that or what but the Honey sticks came out perfect... No fat out ...

What says the congregation ??

Back to peeling casings off... I found a little letter opener works good to run through it and cut the casing...

 

[Brokenhandle]

That sucks! But want to hear any responses you get.

Ryan

 

[SmokinEdge]

I just had the same thing happen, but here is what I believe is the cause.

The casings I used this time were larger than I usually use (19mm vs 16mm) the electric stuffer runs pretty fast compared to hand crank. While stuffing I noticed I wasn’t getting stuffed as tight as needed, so I gently squeezed my hand around the tube to get them more tight, the meat was flowing back up the outside of tube to my hand and casings looked tighter but still not where I thought they should be.

I continued stuffing to the end and noticed the casings were not really actually tight at all, they were full but not tight. I think this is a function of the speed of the mince coming out of the horn (speed dial set just to about the first mark).

I went to the smoker with same process as I’ve always used. And about the 4 hour mark I noticed they didn’t look “right” but nothing to do but finish IT at that point. The whole batch was “fat out” I cooled them, casings were shoe leather and there was zero bind of meat to casing. I stripped the casing cleaned them up. Texture was to soft. So I went to the dehydrator at 150 and dried them a bit. They are fine but not my best work for sure.

Long story short, I believe the cause was not being stuffed tight enough and that creates no bind to the casing. Juices flow around inside a hot smoked sausage during cooking. This is what can cause the “stall” effect. The meat must bind to the casing in the lower temp phase, if not the juices will flow between the casing and meat. This creates the effect of “fat out”.

 

[SmokinEdge]

The other way “fat out” can happen is from fat smear created during grinding or mixing. This also stops meat bind to casing. I’m 99% that was not my problem in my process.