Our Very First Snack Sticks

seemore · February 27, 2011, 02:25:15 PM

Well, we barricaded ourselves in the house on Saturday and devoted ourselves to this project.
We did not do too bad for a first time:

That was the easy part, we learned. We then began to tie them off. After several blow-outs, we determined that we had filled the casings too full. :-[
We decided that the next time we make them not to fill them as full, and in the event we do, we will not tie them off.
So, off to the smoker they went. We dried them at 130 degrees for one hour, then cranked the heat up to 145 and fired up the smoke. We used hickory.
After three hours at 145, we raised the temp to 180 degrees until the internal temperature was 160. I do have a question about this. There were a couple that read 153, and a couple that read 164 - 165. Do you just take a happy medium, which we did, and pulled them, or do you keep them in the smoker until the last one hits 160? We were confused.
So then we hung them - out of reach of the DIVA - so they could bloom for two hours.

Finally we separated them, and put them in an open bag to rest overnight.

We could not wait to try them, so we did. All in all, not too bad. I would like to kick them up a little the next time.
seemore

NePaSmoKer · February 27, 2011, 02:36:00 PM

Outstanding Mr & Mrs Seemore

MY-T-FINE ;D

classicrockgriller · February 27, 2011, 05:37:16 PM

Just Fantastic!

You guys need to pat each other on the back!

And I am sure there were never any angry words

spoken between ya'll. ;D

Very Nicely done.

SouthernSmoked · February 27, 2011, 06:48:16 PM

Seemore is now...

Hooked!

Tenpoint5 · February 28, 2011, 06:34:35 AM

Nothing wrong with them. Now you have a base line to go off of when you make the next batch and can start kicking it up a notch!! A tablespoon of crushed red peppers would go nicely. Yeah I didn't tell you about that. Maybe on the next phone call.

MidKnightRider · February 28, 2011, 06:48:46 AM

Those look real good.
I'd eat them!
One day I'll have to try sticks. Have to get / build a stuffer first.

dbondy · February 28, 2011, 07:07:24 AM

Nice job, they look great. ;)

OU812 · February 28, 2011, 07:32:26 AM

Them sticks look GRRRRREAT!!

You dont have to tie them in links before smoke/cooking, you could just hang the hole thing and cut to links later.

Or if you use racks shoot out just like you did here then cut to length and smoke/cook, the meat wont fall out.

Just throwin this out there.

pensrock · February 28, 2011, 09:11:44 AM

QuoteA tablespoon of crushed red peppers would go nicely.

Or ground chipotles or cayenne or .......... ;D ;D ;D

pfowl01 · February 28, 2011, 05:30:13 PM

QuoteThere were a couple that read 153, and a couple that read 164 - 165. Do you just take a happy medium, which we did, and pulled them, or do you keep them in the smoker until the last one hits 160?

I usually just take mine 152-153deg...cold water bath till they hit 110deg, then bloom for an hour or so.

smokeNcanuck · March 01, 2011, 09:45:29 AM

NICE JOB! Looks mighty fine for a first kick at it.
I'll bet you can't eat just one ;)
I always just cut and rack mine, tried the whole tie them off thing before and found it was really not worth it
for me. Will be looking forward to your next batch.

seemore · March 01, 2011, 06:42:09 PM

Thanks for the kind responses, all!
CRG, you're right. No bad words between us, none at all, although I think June's arm is still in the grinder somewhere, and I have some extra casings stored where the sun does not shine..... :-[
Thanks, Chris, for the info on the red pepper - ya could have told me before I made the sticks!!! ;D
Pens your snack sticks are next on my agenda!
Pfowl, do you treat snack sticks like summer sausages? Can I pull them at 152, then put them in an ice bath to lower them to 110 before the bloom? I have never heard of anyone doing a water bath on sticks - is this common?
One more thing: how do I get casings out of my a**? Do I apply water? :o
seemore

OU812 · March 01, 2011, 08:04:24 PM

Push really hard. ;D

I'll go back to my corner now.

seemore · March 01, 2011, 08:37:31 PM

thanks curt
seemore

pfowl01 · March 02, 2011, 03:05:35 AM

QuotePfowl, do you treat snack sticks like summer sausages? Can I pull them at 152, then put them in an ice bath to lower them to 110 before the bloom? I have never heard of anyone doing a water bath on sticks - is this common?

Yes you can pull them at 152deg. No you don't have to water bath them, but I follow that procedure on everything.

Our Very First Snack Sticks

NePaSmoKer