Jalapeno Chipotle Sausage Sticks in a brand new MES40

[uncle eddie]

The weekend I got my brand new LEM Big Bite #8 grinder, my MES40 died. The deceased MES40 was the second one I owned. After an extensive search of available smokers, and inconsideration of my smoking needs, I ended up buying my 3rd MES40this past Saturday at Bass Pro Shops - It was just under $400, tax and all. I seasoned it all day Saturday and made these sticks on Sunday afternoon - BECAUSE - Firearm deer season starts November 13 (it's a national holiday...look it up!) and an abundance of sticks and jerky is required.

I used 100% picnic roast. Single grind. TSM Jalapeno Sausage mix plus 1 tablespoon of Mrs. Dash Southwestern Chipotle seasoning for this 5 pound batch. 19mm callogen casing. 10 mm stuffer tube. Here are the pics.

This meat grinder is a beast compared to my old KitchenAid with the PTO

The 10 mm stuffer tube made cranking the LEM stuffer a lot harder...

Test patties...always a treat!

Wow! That is one clean smoker. And yes - it was thoroughly seasoned.
I ended up rearranging the sticks and smoking them on the 2nd and 3rd shelf as the top shelf was about 3F hotter than the others.
The Inbird thermometers indicated the bottom 3 shelves were within 2 degrees of each other.

Done at 151F.

Trimmed

Ready for deer season!

 

[chef jimmyj]

The sticks look good. Congrats on your Third MES... JJ

 

[SmokinAl]

Awesome looking sticks!
Al

 

[indaswamp]

Yes indeed! Great job! I stocked up on sticks as well over the last couple of months. We are ready for deer rifle season here too!

 

[tallbm]

Nice lookin sticks and I'm excited for your deer hunting. I'm hoping to be prepped to drop some hogs and make sausage. No deer for me this year :(

I hope you didn't throw that busted MES out. As long as the heating element isn't the issue I bet we could help you get it back up and running with a PID controller and working better than any MES you could buy brand new :D

Let us know if interested and best of luck hunting next weekend! :D

 

[912smoker]

Congrats on another MES and those look great ! Ya'll are making me add a grinder to my Santa list lol

 

[bauchjw]

Those look excellent, Great work! That’ll be a snack that won’t last long!

 

[uncle eddie]

I hope you didn't throw that busted MES out. As long as the heating element isn't the issue I bet we could help you get it back up and running with a PID controller and working better than any MES you could buy brand new :D

Let us know if interested and best of luck hunting next weekend! :D

I did not pitch the busted smoker...although it did "turn off the lights" in one end of our house with something in the smoker shorting out. I think it is control panel related. I will tinker with it for a bit and if the supply chain issues ease up, maybe the parts will be available for me to fix it again.

I did read with great interest about the PID controller fix, but my wife smokes a lot of meals...especially salmon, and when I showed her the fix, she 86'ed the idea. I will put it in the barn in the meantime.