Meat sticks. How long after cooking...........

[hondabbq]

Hi all,

Been smoking meats for years. I make everything myself, bacon, back bacon, pancetta, sausages, ground meat sticks and of course meat sticks.

I find it isn't worth my time unless I do a 10 lb run of anything in the stuffer. So I end up with about 50-60 full length sticks each run. I love them out of the cooker, they got some snap, they are so good. I make about a dozen different flavors abut I seem to have the same issue with all flavors. They are cured so there is no issues there.
Once they have bloomed overnight I trim the ends and cryovac them and freeze. Of course I keep a few out for the week to eat. when I pull them out of the freezer the casing and meat isn't the same. The casings are soft and rubbery. I can bend the meat stick to a 90 degree and it wont break but if I do that fresh it snaps easily and the casing is papery like.

My question is this, and is actually is a multi question query-

- What do you store or how do you store your sticks when making a big batch?
- How long can they suitably sit out at room temp for? Ive seen them hang in butcher shops for days.

 

[Bigtank]

I'm interested to see the responses from the experts. What casing are you using?

 

[hondabbq]

19 mm collagen.

 

[Bigtank]

Not much help so far how do you cool them? Somewhere I read they should go in an ice bath. I've never made them but been doing a lot of research and looking to get a stuffer in the near future.

 

[crazymoon]

HBBQ,I don't believe your sticks are shelf stable as you aren't dry curing them.I air dry in the fridge for a day and then vac seal and leave in the fridge ,never freezing them. I have kabonosy/summer sausage that is over a year old still vac sealed in the fridge and quite tasty when opened.Lack of air from sealing and no moisture present when sealing helps keep my goodies stay fine in the fridge.

 

[DanMcG]

After pulling them from the freezer try placing them in a paper lunch bag and store in the fridge for a couple days. The longer you leave them the snappier (dryer) they'll get.