Hey all, tried my hand at pepper sticks last night... I have a wife in med school, so my weekends are spent as a cheerleader, but this weekend i thought I'd try my hand at these sticks and they didn't quite turn out...
I was runnin a stuffer off of a kitchen aid mixer (rookie, I know) and had 19mm callogen casings and a mix from cabelas.
Took instructions off of the bag of seasoning for the smoker: no smoke for 1 hr at 100 degrees, kick up to 170 and roll smoke for 5 hours or until 156 IT .... Well lo and behold, my et72 meat probe let me know the meat was done about 4.5 hrs into smoke.... By the time I got to my remote it said the IT was 236 F (alarm set at 156) so I immediately thought I had a fire on my hands.... Nope... Probe shorted and thinks room temp is 180F..
Anyway, gave it another 1.5 hrs and pulled em... Tasted AWESOME! Buuuut the casings were pulled away a little and very very tough to bite through...
I did a 80/20 ratio of beef to pork and stuffed em pretty tight.
Did I buy sub par casings? Should I do hog casings for snack sticks? Any pointers?
I was a little disappointed as it took up most of my afternoon... But they still taste good, just hafta peel off the casings...
As always, thanks for the advice in advance!!
Sounds like you prevailed over all the obstacles ;) Those casings will soften up after 3 or 4 days in the refer. If they dont, peel them :) I peel mine a lot times just cause I dont like eatin cellulose (trees) :o Hog casing are to large for snack sticks and you might try sheep casings but they break easy I have read. I usually raise my temps in 20 ° F increments every 1.5 hours or so until I reach 170 box temp then take theproductout when the IT reaches 152° F.
Oh shoot... Was I spose to cool them, for more than 10 hrs?
I vacced and froze em around noon today... Thanks for the fast reply Key!
4 1/2 hrs. Is about right. But its done when its done. I did a batch to day and that's about right. I used real casings this time. Had a few breaks but came out good. Youxcan freeze any time after their cooled.
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As viper said , you can freeze them any time and I have noticed even after freezing the casings are more like store baught and not so darned chewy ;)
oh thats good news!! ill hafta give em a whirl when i dont plan on talkin to anyone for a while (my wife bout passed out with i talked to her... compliments of the garlic) and report back..
thanks again everyone