Sticks & New Fan Mod

[JZ]

This is my second batch of sticks and the first smoke with the fan mod. I mixed up 8 lbs of meat about 60% lean ground beef and 40% pork butt (ground at home). For half the meat I mixed in some smoked cheddar cheese that has been in the fridge for 4 months (the cheese was not very popular because the smoke taste was too strong (1hr 20 min of hickory). But since I was doing the sticks with hickory I thought this would be a good place to use some of the cheese. I used the HM Hickory sticks kit for this.

Here's a before pic. You can see that some of the meat was sticking out of the ends of the casings. I read on another thread that it wasn't necessary to tie the ends - just cut them to length. So I did and that was lot more convenient than tying up both ends of the lengths. They looked fine when I put them into the fridge for the overnight rest but in the morning the casings seemed to have shrunk back ( or the meat was trying to escape ). :) I was a little concerned at first but after the smoke it was obvious that this was nothing to worry about.



Here's a pic of the sticks in the smoker showing the location of the PID probe.



Pulling a rack after the smoke and it was a long one - 11 hrs.



And of course the $$$$



I should have used more of the cheese these things were super good, especially if there was some of that cheese in the piece I ate. The only drawback was that they were a little too salty for my taste but the wife likes it. This is the last of the HM kit and the next batch I do will be a recipe from this site.

[watchdog56]

nice job.

[mikecorn.1]

Very nice pics! Nice sticks.


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[Tater]

JZ,

How did the fan mod work for you?  Did you have to rotate the racks?  I got my PID Friday and I have all the parts to do the 2nd heating element.  My fan mod should arrive on Monday so I can put it all together.  I'm really curious to know how your fan mod worked on your first smoke as I have been reading the recent fan mod threads with some concern.

Thanks, Tim

[slowpoke]

GOOD Looking,sticks.Great Idea for using up the old cheese.

[Keymaster]

Sticks look awesome!!! nice job

[JZ]

Thanks for the compliments guys,

Tater here is the run down of how the fan worked for me http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=27549.0

[viper125]

Very nice JZ! I like adding cheese to mine. Those look like they turned out super. Thanks for sharing!

[Sam3]

Nice job JZ. I started using cheese in my sticks recently and will continue to do so. I like the added flavor and texture it gives.
Once again, excellent sticks!