All Beef Sticks

[NePaSmoKer]

Doing 5lbs of 85/15 all beef sticks today. 2 hours of hickory starting temp of 145*









Gots 2 lbs to do also.



nepas

[Quarlow]

God I need to buy a stuffer. Looks good Chris.

[RickWL63]

NePaS,

What do you use for a hanging rod, and how tight do you pack your casings?  I was using 3/8" or 1/2" dowel rod, but when looping the beef/venison sticks I had issues with the casings breaking because they were possibly packed too tight.

Any remedies on how to fix that or how tight to pack the casings?  I was stuffing the clear collagen casings with my meat grinding attachment, holding slightly to make sure the pack was good.  Do you think I over did it?  (That is why my last batch I posted was cut and laid in the trays.)

Rick

[NePaSmoKer]

Got them done. Almost a record time for me  ;D

Going to do a test. This small batch cold water rinse.




This part cooling at room temp. Lets see which ones shrivel more?




nepas

[NePaSmoKer]

NePaS,

What do you use for a hanging rod, and how tight do you pack your casings?  I was using 3/8" or 1/2" dowel rod, but when looping the beef/venison sticks I had issues with the casings breaking because they were possibly packed too tight.

Any remedies on how to fix that or how tight to pack the casings?  I was stuffing the clear collagen casings with my meat grinding attachment, holding slightly to make sure the pack was good.  Do you think I over did it?  (That is why my last batch I posted was cut and laid in the trays.)

Rick

I use a Stainless Steel bell shape sausage stick. I think it was like $14.99 from Butcher-Packer and 48" long.

It does sound like your casings were stuffed to tight. I stuff just until the coil wrinkles come out of the casing. Nothing wrong with racking the sticks.

nepas

[pensrock]

Looks great Rick. I made some stainless sausage hangers at work but for sticks I like to rack them.

[ronbeaux]

I need to try some of those. They look great!

[NePaSmoKer]

Good old uncle Abe and his stick recipe  ;D

[OU812]

Looks good NePas, as always.  ;D

So which one shriveled the most?

[NePaSmoKer]

Looks good NePas, as always.  ;D

So which one shriveled the most?

:D  :D

I forgot to take a pic but the room temp sticks shriveled more. No biggie they all taste the same huh  :D

[iceman]

Looks great Rick. Can't wait to get out of this 20 below crud at work and get home to make some more myself. The stuff really goes fast around our house. We sure do enjoy your pictures and posts.
Pat and Ann

[OU812]

Looks good NePas, as always.  ;D

So which one shriveled the most?

:D  :D

I forgot to take a pic but the room temp sticks shriveled more. No biggie they all taste the same huh  :D

Kinda figured it would but I had to ask.

I did almost the same test but hung some outside in freezing temps on my drying rack and some in the ice bath.

The ice bath turned out a better looking product.

[anderson5420]

So, did you grind the beef yourself, or was this from 85/15 ground beef from the store?  What were your spices?  And you smoked just 2 hours? Did you get internal temp?  Look great, I need to do a run of beef sticks!

[love the smoke]

I cant help but notice the nice new looking smoker, is this a virgin Bradley you are breaking in ?

LTS

[NePaSmoKer]

So, did you grind the beef yourself, or was this from 85/15 ground beef from the store?  What were your spices?  And you smoked just 2 hours? Did you get internal temp?  Look great, I need to do a run of beef sticks!

1. I didnt have time to grind my own. At times up here store bought GB is cheaper than whole meat. This was 85/15 ground chuck store bought.
2. Spices...........well thats kinda a secret receipt topic  :D  ;D
3. 2 hours of smoke is plenty in the Bradley. Now if i was doing these in my smokehouse i would use 2 pans which is about 4 hours. REASON, My smokehouse has a larger volume to fill with smoke.
4. IT, Yes I always get the items i smoke to the IT or close to it.