Snack stick temps stall.

[BugHunter]

Over the last several months I started making snack sticks. So far mostly beef, but one time pork. I use a recipe from Age Of Andersen's Youtube channel, Beef Bulgogi Sticks which is what I made today.

At first, I borrowed a smoker from a friend, a Masterbuilt Electric 30" digital. I made 3 batches using that, with one great result, one so so, and one I'll call a failure. I then purchased my own smoker, same model but this is 10 years newer and doesn't work as nice, I'll admit that. That said, I've had good results with the temps, (reasonably), it's the smoke that was tough so I bought the cold smoke attachment and used it the first time today.

Ok, smoke issue solved, but something that has happened several times now is the sticks (hanging on wooden rods I made) will hit a ceiling and won't get warmer. The failure batch was in 11 hours and some dried out to inedible, yet never reached 155F - 157F... Today, started 10am, still in a 5:20pm, a few of the 17mm sticks are up to 154F now, but the 19mm ones are still at 143F.

Am I missing something here? The smoker is set to 170 and I did have it at 180 earlier for a while till I saw some folks on this forum (where I"m obviously new) that 170 is the max. I don't have the overshoot and undershoot troubles I've seen others talk about. But the sticks seem to never get up to temp. When I had 17mm casings, those worked. My 19mm ones, not so much.

I did not add water (other than about 1.5oz to dissolve the cure) to a 6.4 pound batch. 6.4# beef and I think 8.3# total ingredients. They are quite slow to dry, which is fine with me, I'll dry them at room temp. I use a Thermoworks probe setup that I've calibrated in icewater and boiling water and it's dead on with every probe (should be for what they cost). I've used the Air probe on the Square Dot to verify the smoker display reads within acceptable error. Display says 170F now for easily 2+ hours and still no where close to the finish temp. One batch using the same recipe was done in 5 hours 10 minutes. Since, I've had a devil of a time. The 11 hour batch I ended up raising the temp and cooked the grease out... not so good. Not doing that again.

Any ideas?

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

To get consistent results, especially with an MES 30 is to get a good secondary and reliable temp system and probes. MES 30’s are very highly known for their inaccuracy on the temp settings. Some vary 20+ degrees. Do not trust what your MES is saying… get an additional, calibrated temp system and you’ll likely find more consistent results.

My suspicion is your MES temp wise is not the temp your seeing… this is why your getting inconsistent results.

Sorry! Edit to add, I didn’t read the full post as was distracted by kids. Maybe try a wired probe to where the transmitter is on top or side of the smoker for more reliability in temp readings.

 

[BugHunter]

Thanks for the reply Rafter,

I've used a Thermoworks Air Probe on the interior of the unit as well. It's consistent enough that I don't put the air probe in any more. Using wired probes till my 4 probe wireless one comes next week. The Thermoworks stuff is guaranteed accurate and comes with calibration certs. So I"m confident of that. My only trouble with temps going too high is when I set it not knowing the highest recommended temp.

I've been on a buying mission lately to make this work. Quite a bit of new equipment in the past month and some more on the way. Most things are worked out I think, other than I don't understand why some sticks cook quickly and others take for...ev...or... I get enough sweat on the interior of the glass door that I've opened it to squeegee it off numerous times. I think the lack of airflow in the electric may not lend itself to snack sticks since drying them out is part of the idea. I've tried vent open, closed, door ajar, I don't know what's going on, or even if what I'm seeing is normal.

 

[BugHunter]

7:45pm and they're finally at 154, but I again turned it back up to 180... Life is too short for this waiting... I should probably just pull them now... Just not sure.

 

[BugHunter]

Oh, and I did see someone posted on here in another thread that they did away with the factory controller and made their own. I build such things for a living, so that might happen. Maybe an Arduino and a K type thermocouple and then use a separate PID controller which is what they did (the PID controller part). I have several sitting around, but It's not really a fun project to me. If I do anything I'd prefer to just set up a fan arrangement to cycle air and get more moisture out, since that make the most sense to me. I just have a bad feeling about it having enough heating capacity to deal with the air exchanging that much.

 

[motolife313-2]

You need to shuffle them around in there every couple hours so they cook even

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

So, here is when I will admit my lack of knowledge. I say that humbly and in respect of your health and your fams and friends health that may consume what you are making!

I can help with the basics… but now bow out.

However, I can point you to some friends of mine that know their $hit on this stuff!

@indaswamp
@SmokinEdge

 

[BugHunter]

You need to shuffle them around in there every couple hours so they cook even

I did that today but only one time. Had 3 bars of sticks hanging and played the shell game with them front to back.

Thanks again Rafter. Perhaps someone with more experience will know more. I took these out at 154. Not too worried about the health issues. They won't be around long enough for a germ to procreate. :D I saw on one part of one stick there could be some blisters (too hot). The more I think about this, the more I think it's better to leave them down at 130 with the vents open for many hours to dry them out some. I don't have a fan cabinet. I had probes both at the front of the smoker and the rear, and for a while did high and low parts of the sticks (which were dead on the same temp) so I switched the probes to the front and back ones which did vary some.

 

[chopsaw]

They’re done at 154

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

They’re done at 154

@BugHunter … always one you miss mentioning… @chopsaw is a very good resource as well.

 

[indaswamp]

Yep, they are done way before 155-157*F. The reason the sausages won't rise any higher temperature internally is because the internal temp. of the sausages lag chamber temp. by about 25*F. I only go up to 165*F chamber temperature, and I will pull sausages after 136*F internal has been achieved and held for 1.5 hours. They are pasteurized at that point and safe to eat.

 

[indaswamp]

How many pounds of meat sticks were hanging in that MES 30? When I owned a GEN 1 ages ago, the max I could hang in the smokehouse was 12.5# of sausages.