Smoking snack sticks

[cold smoker]

I am going to smoke some beef snack sticks tomorrow. I have been reading different things about it. They are 100% beef and 90% lean meat. Question 1) why do people heat for an hour or so before they smoke.    question 2) what do posters mean that the fat will melt out or to the bottom if you get it to hot? I would like to make them a little dryer. question 3) if I stuff the stick more lose will they shrink up more and become smaller (which is what I want) Any help would be awesome.

 

[woodcutter]

They heat for an hour because casings have residual wettness after stuffing. Smoke doesn't stick to moisture. You can hang sticks in front of fan until they are dry and it does the same thing.

Your 2nd question pertaining to a "fat out". If you stick IT temp get above 180, the fat will render and run along the inside of the casing and pour out the bottom. The fat does not all run out and normally pools under the casing and turns to lard when it cools. For drier sticks less fat in you recipe is the answer.

The sticks will shrink some if they are stuffed loose. A good way to shrink them on purpose is to get you stick temp to around 155 them just shut of your smoker , crack the door open a little and let them cool slowly. They shrivel up pretty good using this method.

Hope this helps!

 

[dward51]

Unless you have tried 90% beef sticks before and like them that way, I would suggest bumping the fat content up.  90% tends to make dry sticks and the mouth feel is not as nice either.  I have found the sweet spot for sticks seems to be in the 73-75% range, with 80% being abouth the max for me.   You can get the fat content up several ways.  Add beef fat, pork fat, a mixture of fatty pork, bacon, etc....  And yes, if you run sticks at too high a temp, they will "fat out" and that is not good for flavor or mouth texture.  You would be better to run them longer at a lower temp and pull them at 152-155* internal temp.

 

[driedstick]

Well you have some great answers above!! How are they coming along?? WE LOVE PICS!!!!

A full smoker is a happy smoker

DS
 

 

[cold smoker]

It is going well so far. Stuffed 15# of spicy snack sticks and 15# of Teriyaki and put in the smoker. They are in 19mm casings and we stuffed them pretty loose so they should get smaller as they dry. I use a small grill in the bottom of the smoke house to burn the apple wood, and left the top off for the first 1 1/2 hours. The temp gauge on the door said around 130 degrees and the sticks got a little bit warm and seamed to dry out some  which was perfect. After 1 1/2 hours I put the cover on loosely and then it really smokes (and cools down to about 75. Now after 2 hours of hard smoke took the cover back off and will leave it like that for 2 hours then I will take out the wood and put in a turkey fryer (without the pot) and then I will heat internal temp to around 160.  I will post some pictures when done.

 

[cold smoker]

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• cold smoker
• Aug 3, 2015

 

[cold smoker]

image.jpg

• cold smoker
• Aug 3, 2015

 

[daveomak]

For the next batch.... I stuff mine tight and full..... let them cool slowly inside the smoker.... I smoke them for 4-6 hours at 120 and finish cooking 10-16 hrs at 150 ish degrees F..... All of that is after drying, at 100 ish for a couple hours...

...21mm collagen..

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• daveomak
• Aug 3, 2015

.. ..

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• daveomak
• Aug 3, 2015

 

[cold smoker]

Did you say you heat for 10 to 16 hours?

 

[daveomak]

Did you say you heat for 10 to 16 hours?

Yes at 150 ish smoker temp... I do not want the fat to render... I want it to stay in the meat.... The stick get to 135-140 deg F IT.....

below is a pasteurization table....


Temperature Time Temperature Time
°F (°C) (Minutes) °F (°C) (Seconds)
130 (54.4) 112 min 146 (63.3) 169 sec
131 (55.0) 89 min 147 (63.9) 134 sec
132 (55.6) 71 min 148 (64.4) 107 sec
133 (56.1) 56 min 149 (65.0) 85 sec
134 (56.7) 45 min 150 (65.6) 67 sec
135 (57.2) 36 min 151 (66.1) 54 sec
136 (57.8) 28 min 152 (66.7) 43 sec
137 (58.4) 23 min 153 (67.2) 34 sec
138 (58.9) 18 min 154 (67.8) 27 sec
139 (59.5) 15 min 155 (68.3) 22 sec
140 (60.0) 12 min 156 (68.9) 17 sec
141 (60.6) 9 min 157 (69.4) 14 sec
142 (61.1) 8 min 158 (70.0) 0 sec
143 (61.7) 6 min
144 (62.2) 5 min
145 (62.8) 4 min
Table C.1: Pasteurization times for beef, corned beef, lamb, pork and cured pork (FDA, 2009, 3-401.11.B.2).


It's about the same if you dehydrate them at 150-160 for 24 hours...

 

[cold smoker]

I heated them at about 145 (internal temp)for around 3 hours then about 155 to 160 for about 1 1/2 hours (internal temp) now I will leave them in the smoker till tomorrow just to cool down and dry up. They really shrunk up nice (which is what I want)  When I had it at it's hottest temp they still were not dripping any fat(which is good) that might be because the meat is 90 percent lean so tomorrow will tell the tale. I am going for a nice dry beef stick.   

 

[cold smoker]

They turned out awesome. They only thing I would like to change would be the casings. They are pretty tough to chew. I need to find better ones.

 

[daveomak]

They turned out awesome. They only thing I would like to change would be the casings. They are pretty tough to chew. I need to find better ones.

What casing and from whom did you get them.....

 

[DanMcG]

. They are pretty tough to chew.

FYI. Before you buy more casings, an under stuffed casing will be harder to bite through. and sometimes it's caused by the lack of humidity in the smoker.

 

[cold smoker]

Thanks for the info. I see they make 16mm casings I might try some of those next time.