Hot Water Bath Poll

[Waterville Jesse]

Ok, curious about everyone else's opinion.
When making Pepper Stix, or Snack Stix, do you finish your Stix to temp in the smoker? Or do you finish to temp in hot water bath?
I have done both, and like the finished product both ways, but am curious what everyone else likes...

 

[jimmyinsd]

excellent timing. i have been wondering the same thing. I made some country style a week ago and the casings ended up very tough. I was wondering if thats because of over drying in the smoker ( about 10 hours if I am remembering correctly) or if it was because of the casings for some reason. I am making a batch of sticks this week and have been having questions. also if you dont have the ends sealed on the casing and you go with the water bath, does the water soak up the ends of the sticks and make them soggy or does 3-4 hours in the smoker seal those exposed ends up pretty good?

 

[foamheart]

Its the only sausage I finish in the smoker, Beef and pork I want some render or it just ain't a Slim Jim. When I do all pork Hammie Stix I use a modifier to keep it plump and juicy. But I don't think I have ever seen anyone who finishes stix in a water bath.

You've gotta have that snap in the stick casing. Are you using sheep? Its all I have used. I always swear I am going to try collegen but I always have sheep on hand.

 

[Waterville Jesse]

excellent timing. i have been wondering the same thing. I made some country style a week ago and the casings ended up very tough. I was wondering if thats because of over drying in the smoker ( about 10 hours if I am remembering correctly) or if it was because of the casings for some reason. I am making a batch of sticks this week and have been having questions. also if you dont have the ends sealed on the casing and you go with the water bath, does the water soak up the ends of the sticks and make them soggy or does 3-4 hours in the smoker seal those exposed ends up pretty good?

I usually finish in water, and they don't come out soggy.

 

[oberst]

I always finish in the oven, set on convection bake. Ours gives very even heat but I still put a temp probe in a sausage on each rack to monitor that each gets done exactly.

 

[R Blum]

Its the only sausage I finish in the smoker, Beef and pork I want some render or it just ain't a Slim Jim. When I do all pork Hammie Stix I use a modifier to keep it plump and juicy. But I don't think I have ever seen anyone who finishes stix in a water bath.

You've gotta have that snap in the stick casing. Are you using sheep? Its all I have used. I always swear I am going to try collegen but I always have sheep on hand.

I always used the collagen casing, but the last batch I used sheep casings. I'll never go back to collagen. Sheep casing had just the right snap for my liking.

 

[jimmyinsd]

I usually finish in water, and they don't come out soggy.

are you using collagen or natural casings for your sticks? I prefer natural casings on what I've done so far with fresh sausages, but am trying some 19MM collagen from LEM for this batch.

 

[Waterville Jesse]

I use 21 mm collagen casings from B&P an I like the way they come out. They plump up nice if I finish in water. I have peeled the casing off in the past if I finished them in the smoker.

 

[jimmyinsd]

I use 21 mm collagen casings from B&P an I like the way they come out. They plump up nice if I finish in water. I have peeled the casing off in the past if I finished them in the smoker.

now do you hang yours or cut them ahead of time and lay them on racks to smoke?

 

[Waterville Jesse]

 

[Waterville Jesse]

I hang over dowels, but am working on a new plan for hanging on bacon racks.

 

[geo315]

Ok, curious about everyone else's opinion.
When making Pepper Stix, or Snack Stix, do you finish your Stix to temp in the smoker? Or do you finish to temp in hot water bath?
I have done both, and like the finished product both ways, but am curious what everyone else likes...

I have been doing that since I found out about sous vide. I do my smoker sausage that way. Two hours in smoke and finish in the sous vide. Perfect results. Geo.

 

[indaswamp]

I never put sausages in warm water bath. I finish them on the smoker. I live in the south and the humidity is high, rarely have a problem with hard casing. I don't make snack stick so can't comment one way or the other on those.

 

[Waterville Jesse]

When I do finish my pepper stick in the smoker, I do add a hotel pan full of water. Although I am not sure how much humidity it adds in my insulated reverse flow smoker.

 

[jimmyinsd]

When I do finish my pepper stick in the smoker, I do add a hotel pan full of water. Although I am not sure how much humidity it adds in my insulated reverse flow smoker.

That might be something to consider, when I did those country style it was about 0 outside so really low humidity, maybe I will add some water to the MES when I pull the AMNPS out after 3 hours or so.

 

[cdn offroader]

I usually do a few hours of smoke, then finish in the hot water. They finish way faster in water than they do in the smoker.

 

[crazymoon]

WJ, I hang mine on stainless steel angle iron(Home Depot) cut to fit my smoker. I hang until the desired IT is met and use sheep casings.