First try at sticks

[mrad]

Thanks to all those who replied to my thread yesterday on questions for first time stick maker.

started around 4:30 yesterday. borrowed a coworkers mixer and stuffer.

mixing up a 10 lb batch with high temp cheddar. Used a store bought snack stick kit. When I was going to buy natural sheep casing. While I was looking, a guy stopped by with about 30 lbs of pork butt and 3-4 pounds of high temp cheese. He said he was getting ready to make sticks also. He suggested the callogen casings in the kit. He said he never has had good luck with the casing bought in stores.

First 10 lbs is completed. Had a couple of blowouts in the process. So glad I listened to the advice and didn't try the jerky gun. Good chance I would have lost patience and thrown the meat out.

Did another 10 lbs with some added Cayene and pepper jack. They are in the bottom tray. I had about a pound or two left over when I ran out of casing. Put that in the jerky gun and and made some caseless sticks. Didn't get pics of that as it was getting late.
They finished around 12:30 am this morning.

Will start smoking the sticks in the fridge when I get home around 8:30 tonight.

 

[driedstick]

Looking good so far,, I'm sure this will just be the start for you seems like once you start,, the bug catches ya LOL

A full smoker is a happy smoker

 

[tallbm]

Looks good!

I'm sure you learned a lot. I found for 10 pounds or less of meat that using the mixer is more pain then it is worth. I went to hand mixing in my meat totes for 10 pounds.
Meat Tote below (if Googling use the term "meat tote" as meat tub, meat tray, meat bucket, etc. will get you nowhere lol)

As I got really serious doing about 40-100 pounds of sausage and burger grind I found that the 5 pound stuffer was just too time consuming as it really is only good for about 4 pounds of meat. I upgraded to a 10L stuffer which can do 20 pounds per load.

For mixing 20 pounds or more here is my setup:



MUCH easier to clean and way FASTER to mix 20-30 pounds of sausage in one go :)

I hope my experiences can give you some food for thought and welcome to the world of making some sausage :)

 

[mrad]

is that a sheetrock mud mixer attachment? Whats the minimum amount that attachment would work with? Looks much easier to clean than the 15lb meat mixer I used.

Looks good!

I'm sure you learned a lot. I found for 10 pounds or less of meat that using the mixer is more pain then it is worth. I went to hand mixing in my meat totes for 10 pounds.
Meat Tote below (if Googling use the term "meat tote" as meat tub, meat tray, meat bucket, etc. will get you nowhere lol)

As I got really serious doing about 40-100 pounds of sausage and burger grind I found that the 5 pound stuffer was just too time consuming as it really is only good for about 4 pounds of meat. I upgraded to a 10L stuffer which can do 20 pounds per load.

For mixing 20 pounds or more here is my setup:



MUCH easier to clean and way FASTER to mix 20-30 pounds of sausage in one go :)

I hope my experiences can give you some food for thought and welcome to the world of making some sausage :)

 

[tallbm]

is that a sheetrock mud mixer attachment? Whats the minimum amount that attachment would work with? Looks much easier to clean than the 15lb meat mixer I used.

Yep that is a 46 inch (longest I could find) aluminum and steel (food safe metals) 1/2" shank Sheetrock Mud Mixer! I could only find it here:
https://www.krafttool.com/products/by-category/flooring/mud-mixers/by-sku/DC714L

Cleaning with my setup is a freaking breeze! Espeically with a water hose in the yard and an SOS cleaning pad :)

I would say 10 pounds is the minimal amount with THAT mud mixer. I would imagine a standard hand held kitchen/backing mixer could do well in mixing 5 pounds or less.
You could also probably find a much smaller mud mixer for smaller batches of meat to mix but it wouldn't really make sense since you would have to deal with finding a combo of food grade buckets/tubs that would allow you to position the mixer and drill so the drill is not down in the bucket with the meat and you aren't making a mess, etc. etc. etc.

The drill needs to be a 1/2" shank capable 9amp or better. Today I use a 7amp and there is more strain on the motor than I like but I got the drill real cheap so it was worth the try. I will likely be upgrading to a 9 or 10 amp drill in the future or when the 7amp drill craps out.

My setup is quite efficient because I do 20-100 pounds of sausage and/or burger grind stuff each year in about a 4 day period and almost all of it by myself. I have to make it efficient or else it won't get done fast enough or well enough and I would be very upset if I ruined all of my yearly game meat because I was unprepared or my setup was incapable of handling the work.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'm an open book :)

 

[daveomak]

????? How far did you have to walk to get a beer ?????

 

[SmokinAl]

Great start!
Al

 

[mrad]

????? How far did you have to walk to get a beer ?????

View attachment 343714

Not to far. Realized this was gong to take a lot longer than originally anticipated so I moved the project to the basement

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Looks good.

TIP: Cover those stuffed casings with a very slightly damp cloth.

 

[mrad]

About 9:30 and setting on grates

Wow, Flash makes it look like lots of smoke!

Up wind doesn't give near the smoke appearance

Pepper Jack on the grid iron. Temp set at 160

And Cheddar stick in the Masterbuilt. Temp set at 120 to start

 

[mrad]

2.5 hours in on the grid iron. IT running between 108 and 126

2.5 hours in on Masterbuilt. Temp is now set at 150. hove not check IT but have rotated trays

 

[mrad]

They have been a little over cooked. I did fall asleep for a bit and had some that were over 160 and some at 148 when I pulled them. It was getting too late for me to wait any longer . What caused the wrinkling? Over cooked or not filled enough?

 

[tallbm]

View attachment 343817They have been a little over cooked. I did fall asleep for a bit and had some that were over 160 and some at 148 when I pulled them. It was getting too late for me to wait any longer . What caused the wrinkling? Over cooked or not filled enough?

They look good.
Wrinkling is caused by cooling down.

This is the reason for the Water Bath step in sausage making.

The step goes:

• When you pull sausage off the smoker throw it in an ice water bath to quickly bring the temperature down to stop the meat from cooking and keep the cases from wrinkling

Fact check me on this, but I believe the water bath makes sure that both the casings and the meat all cool down together as uniformly as possible. I can see that if the casings and outside cool and hold shape and then the interior meat cools over a longer time and loses plumpness and shrinks, the casing is then left to wilt and wrinkle during the contraction of the meat.
Again fact check me on those technical details :)

If they are too wrinkly for you I'll give you my address and you can send them to me :P

 

[forvols]

Nice looking sticks. I don't mind some wrinkle on snack sticks. I would be gobbling those up no issue. I think with snack stick you need a casing that is not tough though it may be wrinkled. Example for the opposite is a summer sausage, you don't eat the casing. So indifferent to how well a SS casing looks on finished product, you slice and get rid of the casing. Snack stick you want that snap and chew. And I am no expert here just made a few batches of SS and snack sticks and couple other sausages. My first batch of snack sticks 21mm collagen casings and store bought kit..I did in my dehydrator...they turned out great, 12 bags of 7 six inch snacks sticks that are wrinkled but have great flavor, snap, moisture and chew.