Snack Stick Curing

[djreaction]

Hi All,

I am making my first round of Snack Sticks. I bought a kit from Cabelas with callogen casings and mix.
My question is, do I grind and mix the ingredients and then cure overnight followed by stuffing or do I grind, mix, stuff, cure and then smoke?

 

[coffee_junkie]

The directions included in the kit should outline the process pretty good. But the cure will take care of itself, When I make sausage, it goes like this. Grind thru course grinder, add spices and cure, mix by hand, grind thru med plate, let sit in freezer for about a half hour ( sometimes if I run out of time I put in the fridge over night) then I stuff, again if I am out if time I refrigerate overnight, then smoke/cook in smoker. When done cool as fast as possible, an ice bath is reccomendded. Wrap then freeze.

 

[scpatterson]

I got snack stick on smoking right now and the instructions with my kit said to grind and then mix the cure and seasoning and to stuff imediately because the cure acts as a binder and will make stuffing difficult. Let sit in the fridge over night once stuffe for curing..

Im following this as my smoking process
http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Snack Sticks.pdf

 

[9manfan]

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This is how i made mine a couple weeks ago, ground and mixed the venison and pork, added the seasonings and cure and immediately stuffed into the casing, let them sit in refrig overnite and smoked the next day, good luck to ya,,,,,

 

[markf]

That's how I've always done it as well.

 

[nwbhoss]

Yep..... this is how I did mine as well

 

[point blank]

The guys here are right- grind, mix, stuff, and then let cure over night in the casings. Waiting longer will increase the chances of stripping the gears on your stuffer and blowing he casings out, especially the fragile snack stick casings. The cure will make the meat bind, become firm, and will be extremely tough to stuff.

 

[djreaction]

Awesome, thanks so much for the help everyone. I read the directions a while ago on my kit but I am still waiting for my grinder and sealer (they are on backorder from Cabelas) so I haven't rechecked them. It makes sense that the cure will stiffen everything and I am using my grinder to stuff so that already had me anxious about stuffing.

Again, thanks!

 

[mballi3011]

What chris said to do. I would grind then mix by hand and then stuff like chris said it will stiffen up too much and make stuffing alittle harder.

 

[tlzimmerman]

I always use to stuff right away when I was stuffing with a hand grinder and or my jerkey cannon (which took FOREVER either way). I now have a metal geared sausage stuffer and I let it cure overnight in tubs so I can turn it one last time after the cure before stuffing and make sure everything turned that beautiful pink color and its well mixed. I wondered if I would have problems the first time I tried it, but the sausage stuffer makes quick work of it and its the way I have done it ever since.

I think it works either way as long as you have the equipment to handle stuffing a stiffer product, but stuffing before it cures makes it easier overall probably.