Starting my Snack Stick/sausage adventure, may need some guidance.

[DougE]

It all comes down to us SMF enablers wanting to relieve you of your cash lol. Seriously, though a 1.5 hp grinder will handle strips of meat, where I have to cube everything up in 1 in. cubes.

 

[crazymoon]

KH, I use a 1.5 HP grinder BUT I also started 40 years ago with a hand crank jobbie. You can start small( i.e. less money invested) and upgrade as you go. IMHO you should leave your sticks in a paper bag in the fridge to dry more. Maybe they needed to be smoked /cooked longer?? Not sure what texture you are looking for in your final product.

 

[JckDanls 07]

For the occasional sausage maker the big 1.5 hp is no where near needed... I do 50lbs of sticks at a time and use my 1/2 hp commercial grade Cabelas grinder... It spits it out within minutes... I just cut 1 x 1 x long strips to feed it...

 

[kilohertz]

My new LEM 5 just arrived and now I want to make another batch of snack sticks, maybe pepperoni flavor this time, I have 3 different Hi Mountain kits to choose from.

I have a few Q's now that I have made one batch. I also bought just clear cologen casings, 21 and 30mm but they state for breakfast and fresh sausage, can they be smoked and used for snack sticks or do I need to use the mahogany colored ones that came with the kit?

I'm planning on doing a test fry before stuffing, use less water than I did first time around, and amp up the pepper and flavor a bit. I'll probably make a 2-3 lb batch, or maybe a few batches with varied spices. I'd like to try adding a bit of ground pork as well, not just beef, I have a few sausage books with recipes.

As always, open to help and suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[kilohertz]

The second batch of snack sticks is done and out of the smoker and are way better than batch #1. I smoked them until 154* then held them there for an extra hour, total 6 hours. I left them in the smoker overnight to cool and now have the little fan pulling air thru the stack opening and I'll leave it on all day to dry out further in the summer sun.

The leftover patty that came out of the stuffer I made into case-less sticks and they are great. The meat composition is much better, I only mixed for 2.5 minutes rather than 5 minutes. Even though this was the pepperoni mix and I added my homemade Ancho and Chiplotle powder, I still need to add a lot more spice to it, it's good but not as hot as I like it. I haven't tried the stuffed sticks yet, going to let them dry for a few more days.

I picked up the Kitchener #12 meat grinder yesterday, it's the 400W .5 HP model, should do me just fine for years. The lady I bought it from had only used it a couple of times before her husband passed, she also gave me a nearly full roll of butcher paper, I thought it was a good deal at $45 for everything.

I had a few comments on my way home, I told people it was my roadkill kit.

More later.

Cheers

 

[kilohertz]

Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty of snack sticks, I was able to compare my second batch with my friends commercial pepperoni stick, which he’s been making for years and have always loved. Immediately upon opening the bag of his sausage, I could smell smoke, mine, hardly had any smell of smoke actually none. His was a little bit softer chew, almost like it had more pork in it, I’ll still have to quiz him on the ratios if he’ll tell me ha ha. His casings are also much easier to chew versus my collagen casings that came with the kit.

I have been reluctant to use the natural draft in the Mes30, as it seems to be slow moving through it, although that was while I was cold smoking. I think now that I’m using the heating element, a natural draft might give the smoke more time to linger around the meat. I have been using a fan on the exhaust port to pull the smoke from the mailbox up through the smoker and out the top, which might not be giving it enough smoke time in a five hour smoke.

As always, your input and comments are welcome as I am only .1 inches off the bottom of the learning curve and still have many feet to go.

Cheers

 

[DougE]

If you're pulling the smoke through the chamber so fast that it has no time to interact with the meat, then yeah, slow it down. Even though TBS is a sought after thing, a little dirty smoke along the way isn't necessarily a bad thing, flavor wise.

 

[MICHLITCHSPOKANESPICE]

I'm just about done my MES30 mods and was thinking I haven't tried making sausage yet, seems like the perfect smoker for this.

I have some of the required materials already, let me know what you think of what I have and what may be used or may need to be improved/changed.

KitchenAid stand mixer with new meat grinder and sausage stuffer kit, 2 or 3 different tubes
MES30 modded for the Mailbox and now with 6 racks, able to use rods for hanging as well
PID controller for accurate temp control
AMNPS tray and smoke tube
Cure #1 and Morton TQ
Every possible spice (I love to cook)

I was going to start with High Mountain snack stick kit but they are $40 locally, nuts! I really just need casings, but in our small town, can't seem to find them. I want to start with snack sticks.

Guessing 80/20 ground beef, maybe with a little ground pork, then season as desired. Recipes are easy to find, it's more the method and equipment I may need some help with.

Thanks all.

Cheers

If you need help with the casings let me know. I can help walk you through the process. Snack sticks can be particularly tricky! Cheers and good luck!