Loose Cassings?

[doz759]

I have read alot about loose casing's on here and have a question. I made stix and they looked awesome but when i took theme out of the smoker and let theme bloom the became loose in the casings and the casings are tough. From what I understand I need to raise the humidity in my last cook cycle. Maybe add a water pan in the smoker? I left the vent mostly open on the whole cook. The meat seems a little to moist in the stix already. Any thought's greatly appreciated!!

[Sailor]

What type of casings did you use.  Did you stuff and then put them in the fridge?  Did you water bath them?  If you can tell us step by step of what you did I am sure someone can help you out.  Just need more info.

I know that when I use collagen casings for snack stick and if I stuffed and put in the fridge overnight I would have loose casings.  I mix and stuff and then smoke and never had loose casings.  Dry for 1 hr at 130 then bump to 140 for 2 hrs and roll the smoke.  Bump to 150 for 2 hrs then 160 for 2 hrs then to 170 until IT of 149-152.  Do not give an ice bath.  After blooming for a few hours put them in the fridge overnight and then the next day cut and vac seal.  Never had a tough or loose casing doing it this way.  I use 19 to 21 collagen casings on all my snack sticks.

Jim

[doz759]

Hi Sailor.  I used 21mm collagen casing's stuffed and put in smoker imediatly, 135 for 1 1/2 Hrs,155 and smoke for 2 1/2 hrs then 170 till IT was 152, it took about another 2 hrs to get it to 152. I did not give a water bath. Stix are not grease on the outside. Some of them look ok and some you can pull the casing off. Seemed like the air comming out of the top vent felt like it had alot of moisture the whole time. Reading over your times again maybe i need to slow down and raise the temp more slowly and take a little longer to heat.

[redcrew71]

couple things..if you had a good amount of fat it it...you may have rendered the fat out then now that space is void.  You dont want to render the fat out.

2nd...if they are the man made ones...stuff them...dont under stuff.

3rd...should have not being an issue but as per #2...stuff them good so you dont have air.

[Tenpoint5]

Your heating of the sticks was your problem.

By jumping the heat by large amounts. You cooked the meat too fast thus it shrunk inside the casing, without bonding to the casing. The ramping of the temps allows the casings and the meat to come to temp at the same time. When they get to the 130-135 degree mark the proteins in the meat and the casings bond and the casings stick to the meat. Then they begin to shrink together at the same time.

[Sailor]

Did you notice fat in the v tray and fat in the water bowl?  Not only is what 10.5 said about the bonding of protein correct but I would suspect that you had fat out because you got to 170 degrees way to fast.  Low and slow and they is done when they is done  ;D

[doz759]

I think I need to start out a little cooler than 135 that may be to hot and it didn't want to bond. And like everyone said slow down the heat cycle. Sailor I bet I only had a Table spoon of liquid in my pans under the meat and that was with a 25 pound batch I was really surprised by the loose casing's with no more liquid in the pans.