Oh dear....help needed.

[scooterjam]

Hello friends.   I just spent the last couple days making a wonderful snack stick recipe.  We have a tiny little hand cranked grinder.  I've just started getting into this whole sausage/smoking hobby.  Believe me, I did NOT realize how much of a pain it was going to be to fill the five pounds of meat into 19mm collagen casings....yikes..  That took us almost three hours today.  Anyway, the sticks are in the fridge lightly covered with a towel as per the recipe.  Now the problem is this.  I have a Electric Smoke Hollow smoker, pretty old on actually.  I didn't (please don't be the first to throw stones...haha) read the second page of the recipe for tomorrow's smoking event.  It says leave them in the smoker for two hours without smoke at 100 - 120 degrees.  My smoker doesn't go that low.  Then a another 2 hours at 135-140, once again, my smoker doesn't go that low.  When I just turn it on, it goes to 150.  I don't want all these beautiful snack sticks to go to waste.  Any suggestions for the moron who didn't read the whole recipe first?

 

[aeroforce100]

Maybe opening the door would help keep the temps  in the ranges you want?

 

[wolfman1955]

I would'nt sweat it to much, the first two hours @ 100-120 is just to dry out the casings. You can lay them on paper towels on the kitchen counter then cover them with paper towels for an hour or so! Or you can also just lay them out and turn a fan on them. They should feel dry to he touch. The thing about drying the casings is they will take on smoke flavor easier when dry. Then just turn your smoker on to the lowest setting and smoke them for three or four hours. Your recipe probably says after a couple of hours @ 130-140 bump the temp. up to say 175 or so to finnish them off to an IT of 155. Hope this helps. By the way the best investment I have made for doing sausages and sticks is my vertical stuffer. It makes the whole process much easier and faster. I can stuff 10# of sticks in about 30 min.

 

[themule69]

As far as keeping the door open on any smoker the thermostat is going to try to keep the temp where you set it so most of the time you are just drying out what you are smoking.

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• themule69
• Apr 24, 2013

Happy smoken.

David