GB Jerky Stick Shrinkage

[kickedback]

I did 5 lbs of jerky sticks tonight to test my recent element and fan mods. Mods worked ok, but had some major shrinkage in the sticks. Last ttime I did 5lbs, I filled  5 or 6 racks with sticks prior to smoking. This time I only filled 3 racks with 5lbs. They weren't any thicker to begin with than last time. They even shrunk up alot more. I ended up with 3lbs of sticks last time. Not sure about the weight this time. I'm a little peeved to even weigh them right now. Has anyone else had difference in shrinkage when buying meat from different stores? I used 90/10 both times.

I used  Greg's Spicy Sticks recipe w/o the casings. The flavor is great. The quantity, not so much. The guys at work hit me up to make some for the X-Mas party, so I did. Looks like I'll barely have enough to get them through the day and nothing left for home.

[NePaSmoKer]

Sticks are going to have a shrinkage rate of 20% no matter how the lean to fat ratio is. Just the nature of the beast.

What was you temp of the smoker?

[KyNola]

I did 5 lbs of jerky sticks tonight to test my recent element and fan mods. Mods worked ok, but had some major shrinkage in the sticks. Last ttime I did 5lbs, I filled  5 or 6 racks with sticks prior to smoking. This time I only filled 3 racks with 5lbs. Has anyone else had difference in shrinkage when buying meat from different stores? I used 90/10 both times.

I am missing something here.  Both times you used 5 lbs of meat to make sticks and the first time the 5 lbs of meat filled 5 or 6 racks and this time another 5 lbs only filled 3 racks prior to smoking?  Before they were subjected to any heat whatsoever?  You were able to extrude 5 or 6 racks of meat from 5 lbs the first time and this time you were only able to extrude 3 racks of sticks from another 5 lbs?  I'm not trying to be hurtful but unless I have misread your post one of two things happened, either your meat supplier supplied you with an inaccurate weight of meat or there was simply operator error.  From looking at the pics in your post, ain't no way that is 5 lbs of ground meat.

[Bearcub6]

Not sure what happened KB - but I tend to agree with KyNola.  I weigh my GB before mixing any spices and cure.  I use 4 lbs and that fills 4 racks in the OBS using a regular round tube nozzle in the jerky gun.  The size of your jerky sticks look about the same as mine but I'm only able to get 12 or 13 on my racks (before smoking) and I counted 16 - 17 on the racks in your pics - but maybe you just have them packed better than I do.  All that said...it looks like about 4 lbs of meat to me.

[kickedback]

That's what I am saying. I didn't weigh the meat before hand. One package said 3lbs and 2 other 1lb tubes. I didn't think it was right when I got half way through making the sticks. I guess I'll have to weigh it out before hand. Guess you can't trust the labels or I'll have to stop drinking beer while smoking. I bet you can guess which one is going to happen first. Thanks for the input. I'll start weighing it.

[viper125]

I weighed mine twice with 1/4 thick venison. I get 1.3 lbs a rack and that's as a slab before I cut. For safety all meat should be weighed that you put cure into.

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