Tried snack sticks last night

[frepar]

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!!

[Keymaster]

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.

[frepar]

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!

[viper125]

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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[Keymaster]

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 ;)

[frepar]

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