Elk Snack Sticks

[devo]

Getting ready to make some elk snack sticks tomorrow.
Got the meat all seasoned for stuffing and in the fridge over night to blend the flavors together.
Would have done it today but dang I gots to work tonight  ::)
Going with the Kirby cannon with the RedHat solenoid valve's I added for a test run. Should be interesting.

The line up. Missing in the picture is 1 level tspns instacure #1 , but it was added in case your wondering. This is for a 5 lbs. batch



All mixed and into the fridge over night


3lbs. elk
2lbs. pork
2 tablespoons Scotch Bonnet pepper sauce (great stuff  :)  )
31/4 ozs. of pepper stick seasoning
1 level tspns. instacure # 1
1/2 cup cold water/ mix all ingredients together
Stuff into 19-21 sheep casings.

[Sam3]

This looks interesting!  :D

[SouthernSmoked]

Got me watching......

[ghost9mm]

Next to beef and pork not necessarily in that order, we prefer elk and bison, them snack sticks should be awesome...

[NePaSmoKer]

MMMMMMM

EEEELLLLLKKK

[devo]

Good morning all, after working a 12 hour night shift I tried to get some sleep but was up at 9AM this morning.....so nothing better to do I started on the snack sticks.
Loaded up the Kirby cannon & got the sheep casings on the smallest stuffer tube Kirby gave me. Set up a camera to capture the process and started stuffing. The stuffing process went very well and the new valves for auto shut off work like a charm. Had a leak at one connection but it was miner and this was just a temp design to see if it worked and it did. With the manual drain valve cracked open so not to loose all water in the stuffer and letting off the foot control the stuffing process stopped instantly. Now back to the setting up of the camera..........down loaded the video to my computer and it came up corrupted  >:( :o WTF  Oh well maybe next time. So moving on this was a small 5 lbs. batch and I am stuffing away and checking how the valves work when all of a sudden everything stopped. Hmmm I said that's not right but I was wrong as I am used to doing 10 lbs. and 5 lbs. of sticks in the cannon only took 5 min. or so to do. The next thing Kirby has to work on is a indicator of where the piston is in the stuffing tube, it sure would be nice to know how much is left in there. I guess with experience you can guess pretty close but it still would round this great stuffer off  ;)
So here is the only picture I have of the process so far, it's a mess but it was just to check to see if it worked and if I want to take it further. So yes it worked great and I am going to take it further.

Things I am looking into doing down the road.
1st build a dedicated counter with storage in the basement. This will have a SS top with a BIG sink for clean up. All the piping will then be hard piped to the stuffer. The SS top & sink will be all one piece with lip's on the side to channel any mess into the sink.

2nd I need to fine tune my well water pump to a more regular flow, right now the high and low pressure is to far off and makes stuffing tricky when it the pressure builds up. Simple fix just need to get my ass down in the basement to adjust it  ::)

I'm lucky enough to have two elk farms with in three mile's of my house so I just buy what I need off them. I gave up hunting years ago and know that buying from an elk farm is a lot cheaper than going out and shooting the dam thing. I got three racks of sticks in the smoker (12 noon) now and will update when they are done.

[pikeman_95]

Don
You are just about as much of a mad inventor as I am. I do have one answer on the indicator. When the sausage stops coming out you are done. You need to fill the 30 pound stuffer full then when you have 2 miles of sticks you are also done.. Keep us tuned on the finished project. As for the water pressure control you can also get a pressure regulator and put it on your supply line.

Kirby

[Flyboyandre]

Lol, my wife thought i had odered parts for a pipe bomb when she got home from work one day. Then she accused me for assembling the bomb on the dining room table.
Told her it was just a sausage cannon but she got even more concerned when i blew the piston across the kitchen the first time i loaded water. I quickly learned the open/close position on the drain cock valve :)

[devo]

Here is what they looked like coming out of the smoker.
It was a very long smoke as I lost one of my duel elements again, that makes 4 that have burnt out on me  >:(
So 1 element and below freezing temps was hard to hold temp in the smoker and took a long time but they got done
The heat from the Scotch Bonnet pepper sauce is just right, not so hot that your mouth is burning but enough that the top of you head starts to feel the heat  :)
The only thing I would change is the pork to elk ratio as it still was a bit dry. Maybe a 50\50 ratio would be better

[Sam3]

They look really good Devo.

[Sailor]

Nice looking sticks.  Love the deep red color.

[pmmpete]

Judging from the size of your cannon, your boo-boo with your new stuffer controls probably turned your kitchen into a small lake.  I can feel your pain.  I've dumped all the water out of my Kirby Cannon twice.  There's a learning curve involved in figuring out how to operate the stuffer, and I'm proof that the stuffer isn't idiot-proof.  But I know what I did wrong each time, and I won't do it again.  I hope.

I've figured out an easy way to contain leaks from a hydraulic stuffer, and will do a post about it when I get a chance.

[devo]

Judging from the size of your cannon, your boo-boo with your new stuffer controls probably turned your kitchen into a small lake.  I can feel your pain.  I've dumped all the water out of my Kirby Cannon twice.  There's a learning curve involved in figuring out how to operate the stuffer, and I'm proof that the stuffer isn't idiot-proof.  But I know what I did wrong each time, and I won't do it again.  I hope.

I've figured out an easy way to contain leaks from a hydraulic stuffer, and will do a post about it when I get a chance.

I have used the kirby cannon many times, the small leak I had was from the hose fitting not being tight enough and that just leaked into the sink, just forgot to tighten it  ;) All my pipping is steal and valves are metal as I don't trust my gluing of joints.

[NePaSmoKer]

Nice elk sticks.

Yeah i have no problems with the KC, Its my plumbing that i dont do right that gives me my wife the blown a$$ gasket   :o

[devo]

Nice elk sticks.

Yeah i have no problems with the KC, Its my plumbing that i dont do right that gives me my wife the blown a$$ gasket   :o

Thanks Rick
I used the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER  for three hours of smoke and I think thats what gave it such a deep red colour.