pizza sticks

[pensrock]

Made my first 5 pound batch of pizza sticks today. Used AC LEGGS pizza stick seasoning and added shredded mozz. I do not have a fancy cheese dicer like my friend does so I used shredded. Not sure how well it will work out but we'll see. I did not take pics of the mixing and stuffing, we all seen them a hundred times before.  ;D I thought about adding some pepper flakes but since I have not tried this mix before thought I would try it as is the fist time.
I did take a pic of the sticks going into the smoker and will take a few more as they finish up, got to take some pics to show I really made them.  ::) ;D
I'm keeping the temps on the low side to start out to try to not melt the mozz. I'm starting at 130 then will slowly ramp it up to 150-160 and see how they are doing. I can set my pid to ramp at whatever speed I choose and stop where I want so thats going to be easy. I'll let it smoke at 130 for a couple hours then ramp at 10 degrees per hour to 160. Got some opened maple pucks so thats what I'm using.
More later.

[SiFumar]

Will be interested in seeing how the shredded mozz works out.

[pensrock]

When I took them out of the smoker I could still see some of the cheese, I got them in the dehydrator to take them along a little further, they are done but I like them more like a slim jim, slightly drier than a fresh meat stick. I'm hoping the cheese is till in tact when finished. I do think the diced cheese Rick does would be better but there was no way I was going to sit there and cut up a pound of mozz into 1/4" dices by hand.  :o

[pensrock]

Done and heres a few pics. I took more but did not know the camera was set for macro and some were real blurry.
Here they are going into the preheated 130 degree smoker, for two hours of maple smoke.


Here they are after the 2 hour smoke and ramping to 155 degrees at 10 degrees per hour. Then a couple more hours in the dehydrator set to 150 degrees.


Here I tried to get a close up of the cut end of the sticks to show the shredded cheese is still there. But the pic is a bit blurry so you will have to take my word for it.


I do think a small diced cheese would be better but this did work. They taste real good as well.  :)
I'll do these again but maybe add some crushed red pepper.

[OU812]

They look mighty tasty,,,,,,,,,,,,nice job

[Tenpoint5]

They look really good Pens. I staill have to get some of that and try it myself.

[watchdog56]

I did pizza sticks using ac leggs. I tried 5 lbs with pork and 5 lbs with beef. Split the seasoning package because it says it is enough to do 10 lbs. Everyone that tasted it agreed not much flavor with either the beef or the pork although the beef was better texture. I also did 5 lbs of bbq flavor but used the whole bag of seasoning with 5 lbs of beef. Much better flavor,maybe a little on the salty side so next time I will be doing it with 7lbs of meat. I will try the pizza again with 7 lbs of beef. The guy at RBH seasoning in Florida talked me into trying the bbq flavor and they were really good.

[pensrock]

I used 1/2 pack, 4 oz. for 4.5 pounds of beef. They are seasoned well enough but I do not taste the pizza part. The salt and pepper are fine and overall they taste good but not like pizza. Next time I make them I plan to add some red pepper flakes to spice them up some. They guys who tried them at work liked them as well but did not get the pizza flavor. I'll have to order some of the BBQ next time and try them.

[muebe]

Those look fantastic!

[SiFumar]

They look great!  Looks like the cheese held up some.

[pensrock]

A lot of the cheese did hold up but you could not really taste it, I think a diced cheese would work better. But the slow heat up did the trick to keep it from all melting away.

[SiFumar]

Mozz really doesn't have a lot of flavor to start with.  Maybe try smoked mozz? or even pepper jack?