ELDONS PEPPER STICKS

[poacherjoe]

Well I got the meat all mixed up and stuffed in 21mm casings . Now they need to sit in the fridge overnight and into the smoker in the morning. I am planning on doing them with the "Step Method" and starting at 120 and going up 10 degree's every hour till I get to 170 degree's and let them cook to an IT of 153. About how long should it take time wise for 12 pounds of sticks to get to 153 degree's by doing it this way?

 

[indaswamp]

Depends on how big your smokehouse is. 12# in a gen 1 MES will take forever....12-15 hours. In my large 36cu.ft. smokehouse, they should be done in 4 hours or less....

 

[poacherjoe]

Okay I have 10 hours of smoking and the IT was at 151 3 hours ago but now it's at 148 ? I layered the rolls of snack sticks on the racks inside my Smokintex 1460. This temp going backwards has me thinking ! Why would it take so long to cook such a small stick ?

 

[indaswamp]

Okay I have 10 hours of smoking and the IT was at 151 3 hours ago but now it's at 148 ? I layered the rolls of snack sticks on the racks inside my Smokintex 1460. This temp going backwards has me thinking ! Why would it take so long to cook such a small stick ?

Evaporative cooling effect...as moisture diffuses from inside the sausage to the surface, it needs to absorb heat to go from liquid to vapor. the molecules pull heat from the surface of the sticks....the same way sweat cools your body.

close the top vent back 80-90%...this will increase the humidity inside the smoke chamber. Higher humidity will dramatically slow evaporation allowing the sticks to continue heating up.

But 3 hours @151*F INT, the sticks are cooked. Unless you are trying to drive off more moisture out of the sticks, I'd pull them. Now if drying them further is your goal, leave the top vent all the way open and keep smoking/drying and don't worry about the INT anymore as the links are now pasteurized. The longer smoke will only provide a larger log reduction in bad bacteria...

 

[poacherjoe]

Thanks Indaswamp . I ran a small batch like this several months ago and it took 20 plus hours to get to 153.... And they were dried out bad. My smoker doesn't have an adjustable top vent so I took a piece of foil and made one. The temp went up like you said. I feel rescued now. Very confusing when the temp has been a constant 170 degrees for 7 hours and the IT goes down from 151 to 148 ?

 

[Hazer67]

I make 100's of pounds of sticks a year and I see no reason to do the step method. I put mine in my smoker at 165-170 for 3-5 hours until I.T. is at 152-155 and they turn out perfect every time.

 

[crazymoon]

PJ, I go about 1.5 hours at 120 with top and bottom vents wide open to start,no chips. After that I set my smoker for 165 ,close vents to 1/3 open and add chips. The temps will climb up to 165* in an hour or so. I use the 10 degree/hourly bump on large sausage but small slim jims don't case harden IMHO at a faster temp increase. 2-3 hours of smoke and then close the vents almost completely ,5 pound batches for me take about 8.5 hours. .