Snack sticks - 2 kinds (been a while)

[dward51]

Ok, it's been a while since I made sticks. I was looking at my smoking notes and apparently I have not made any stick since last fall before my surgery. And the last batch of sliced jerky is gone, so it's time to make some sticks!!!!

Figured I would deviate from my usual recipe which is a AC Legg #116 base with modifications. I've still got some Owens BBQ "Honey BBQ" stick mix and figured that would be one batch. I've also been making what I call "Jerky Rounds" which are based on a modified version of the Smoking Gun liquid jerky marinade. I've never tried that in a snack stick casing, so that will be the other batch (again with modifications).

I was at the local Sam's Club on Friday to pick up some meat in anticipation of a stick making weekend and I found these. 85% lean beef and they came pre-sealed in 1 pound square portions, 6 portions to a pack (for 6 pounds). And they were selling this pre-packaged meat for the same per pound price as their 80% lean bulk package ground beef!!! Picked up 3 of the 6 pound packs. I'll be using one of them to make 3 pounds of the Owens Honey BBQ sticks and 3 pounds of the Smoking Gun sticks today.

The last time I made the Owens BBQ "Honey BBQ" sticks, I ran the mix as on the label. For my taste, the sweetness was a little much. I'm going to bump in a little spice this time to offset that sweetness, but no overpower it or make them too hot for general consumption. I will be adding some ground jalapeno powder. I think I'm also going to add in some ECA tomorrow when I stuff them as I've not tried that with this spice blend before. Here is the recipe for this batch:

Modified Owens BBQ - Honey BBQ snack sticks

• 3 pounds of 85% lean beef
• 285 grams of Honey BBQ snack stick seasoning
• 3.4 grams of cure #1
• 3.5 grams of ground jalapeno powder
  
• 6.8 grams of Butcher & Packer #414 binder
• 1/4 cup (slightly less by eyeball) water
• 1/4 cup orange blossom honey (again by eyeball)
• 10.2 grams of ECA (to be added at stuffing and smoking time)
• 21mm collagen casings to be used for stuffing

Ignore the crushed onion powder, it was for the next batch and it was not until I started to post this that I realized I had included it in this photo - brain fart....

The dry ingredients ready to go.

As with all my smokes, I measure my spices, cure and extras with a precision gram scale that can handle 1/100th of a gram resolution. I also check the scale calibration before weighing and again after I'm done to ensure what I weighed is accurate. This is what lets me work with small batches and get consistent quality.

Modified Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade snack sticks

• 3 pounds of 85% lean beef
• 7.2 fluid ounces Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade
• 1.2 tsp of crushed black pepper
  
• 1.2 tsp of onion powder
• 1.2 tsp of liquid hickory smoke
• 3.5 grams of ground jalapeno powder
• 3.4 grams of cure #1
• 6.8 grams of Butcher & Packer #414 binder
• 10.2 grams of ECA (to be added at stuffing and smoking time)
• 21mm collagen casings to be used for smoking

Mixed the dry into the liquid marinade. Since it is just a glass measuring cup of brownish liquid, no photo. About the only things I'm doing different is adding ECA and stuffing this into casings instead of rolling out small balls and pressing them flat into uncased rounds. Oh, yeah.... I usually use crushed red pepper instead of the jalapeno so this should be a little milder also.

This is the cast of characters:

I did not take a photo of the mixed meat. It's basically a slightly darker colored ground meat. Placed both batches into the fridge to let the flavors meld and the cure work overnight. I will stuff and smoke these tomorrow.

More to follow tomorrow and of course I will post more photos then as well...

 

[SmokinAl]

Looking forward to seeing the rest of this!
Al

 

[dward51]

And it's stuffing and smoking (actually cooking more than smoking) day!!!!!

Setup for stuffing. Missing are the nitrile gloves, kitchen shears for cutting the lengths as I stuff them. I lay down a wide section of plastic coated freezer paper for a clean work surface whenever I use my stuffer. Makes cleanup a breeze as I just untape and toss it, plus it is a sanitary working surface.

Measured out 2 containers with 10.2 grams of ECA (encapsulated citric acid), one for each 3 pound batch of sticks. I've never tried ECA with the honey BBQ so this will be interesting (but I like the ECA twang).

Sprinkled the ECA over a ice cold meat mixture and then mixed by hand. This is about half the ECA, I flip it a few times and shake in the remainder. Then evenly and gently mix by hand before loading into the stuffer and 21mm collagen casings.

And into the MES-Custom SS smoker they go. Set to run for the following on the Auber PID:

Phase 1 - 60 minutes at 120*
Phase 2 - 60 minutes at 130*
Phase 3 - 90 minutes at 140*
Phase 4 - 90 minutes at 150*
Phase 5 - 600 minutes at 165* (to finish, not really leaving them in for 10 hours, just the PID program)

I will rotate the trays around every so often, mostly out of habit as I'm only running 4 trays for this 6 pound batch and they are fairly loosely racked with plenty of air flow room.

I decided *NOT* to run any smoke pellets this time. Just using the MES-Custom SS as a lower temp cooking chamber and not a true smoker. Logic is the Smoking Gun marinade base has a lot of liquid smoke flavor in it to start with and I added a little more hickory with my spice mix, and I also added some liquid hickory with the honey BBQ mix (which has some smoke flavor to start with). I just don't want to have SMOKE as the overbearing flavor. I have run the smoking gun marinade recipe many time and like the profile without extra "real" smoke added.

Top and bottom rack are the Smoking Gun stick recipe and the middle two racks are the Owens Honey BBQ (with 3 short sticks in the front being a blend of the two just as a trial).

Some notes on stuffing.

The Smoking Gun recipe was a pleasure to stuff. Just stiff enough with the binder and I did not need to add any extra water to loosen it up for mixing the ECA or stuffing. Sometimes I need to loosen the mix with B&P 414 binder, but using a liquid marinade as my base flavoring in the ratios listed was perfect.

The Honey BBQ was much looser a mix than the smoking gun. It was actually a little too loose and had a "honey' sheen to my eye. Yes I added some water and about 1/4 cup of honey but I did not expect it to stay this loose. It was sort of a pain to stuff as being looser than I wanted, it was hard to keep the casing fully stuffed without the pressure wanting to flow the loose mix out the open end of the casing from where the last piece was cut off. It was workable, but I'm wondering how firm the final cooked sticks will be. I'm hoping the binder kicks and firms them up as it cooks.

I did a test fry of the tail ends of both mixes. I took the small portions remaining and mixed them together. That was actaully a great flavor of the two mixed. The mix was mostly honey bbq and again was loose but it firmed up well under heat so I'm thinking the finished product will be fine. Not sure about shrinkage with a loose wet mix, but since this is a first time with both of these mixtures, it will be a learning experience. Oh and the jalapeno powder complements the honey bbq very nicely. Tones down the sweetness but does not remove or overpower it. A good combination, and I'm looking forward to the finished sticks (and work is expecting sticks tomorrow so these will be gone very quickly).

More to come once done....

 

[dward51]

And we are done.

Sticks on the right are the Owens Honey BBQ, and sticks on the left are the Smoking Gun Marinade based ones. Both have ECA and jalapeno powder. I we really surprised that the flavor profiles are not as different as I expected. I think this is due to the ECA in both since the twang is a major component. But the honey BBQ flavor is there. I honestly cannot say which I like better, but I'm certain the addition of the jalapeno powder to the honey BBQ helped temper the sweetness. I would absolutely make either of these again (with less water in the honey BBQ - see comments in earlier posts).

Cut into shorter lengths for storage and consumption (flipped around now, Honey BBQ on the left and Smoking Gun on the right)

Cut end - you can see the
texture difference. The Honey BBQ on the left was the wetter mix and the texture is slightly different. The Smoking Gun on the right was more my "normal" mix density when stuffed and that smooth texture is classic for when phosphate binders are used properly. Both have good mouth feel, but the Smoking Gun texture is better IMO.

As loose of a mix that the Honey BBQ was, I'm also certain that if I had not used the B&P 414, there would be casing separation. That is another plus for phosphate binders. Your stick casings have much less tendency to want to separate from the meat. I don't think I've had any runs where that was an issue since I started using phosphates.

Thanks for looking!!!!!!

 

[crazymoon]

DW51, great post and awesome looking sticks !!!!! like

 

[pc farmer]

Great thread and meat stix. Thanks for all the info you posted.

 

[SonnyE]

I feel like I'm in a press and being extruded into this stick and sausage world.
I'd like to do this sooo baaaddd.
Snap into a Slim Jim! A home made one!
Drool, Drool, Drool! :D

 

[gmc2003]

Those SS look great Dave, also nice tutorial. So much more to smoking that I have to learn.

Point for sure.

Chris

 

[dward51]

Thanks guys!!!!!

It's not that hard to do and it's fun. Plus you get to tweak flavors you would not find in slim jims or jack links. Once you run a batch, you never go back!!!

 

[Bearcarver]

Outstanding!!:)
As Always, Dave!!
Like.

Bear