Venison snack stix and country style sausage (new to smoking)

[bcarroll]

Hello everyone,

     I am somewhat new to smoking and recently acquired the stainless bradley smoker.  I tried my hand at a few batches of snack stix, but cant seem to get all the casings the nice pretty red color... what causes the casings to turn red?  Is it the Heat or the smoke? 

I let mine dry for about 2 hours at 130 degrees (no smoke) then bump it up to around 146 for 2 hours and start to smoke then 160 for two hours still smoking, then turn it up to around 175 until internal temp is around 152.... Do I just need to be moving the dowels around say every 1hour to get the nice even red color? 

Also, I am going to start a batch of country style tonight... What temp should I smoke these at and for how long?  I dont want to cook them through, as I always boil mine for 30 minutes when I go to eat it.  An ideas? 


I am also looking for a brine and directions for smoking a turkey..... and also a good ribs recipe..

Thanks everyone,

[Tenpoint5]

Bcarroll,

IMHO the majority of the red coloring that your looking for comes from the cures in the meat. Not so much from the smoke. As most casings are clear. The smoke will give you the brown tint. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to give a better explanation.

[NePaSmoKer]

Hi bcarroll and welcome to the forum.

The cure #1 is what makes the meat red, you can have a large amount of smoke going to them also which will darken the color. Your on the right track. I would start with heat at 130* for an hour with vent half open no smoke. Then bump up to 150* for 2 hours with 6 wood pucks. After the 2 hours at the 150 bump the heat to 170* for 2 more hours with smoke. Be careful at this point not to fat out the stix   :o It may take some time to get the IT of the stix to 152/154*

You dont need to rotate the hanger/rods. If you use a rack you might have to shuffle the stix around some.

When the stix reach the right IT shut the power off and leave stix to hang in smoker with vent full open and door open slightly

Hope this helps some for ya

nepas

[drano]

I always boil mine for 30 minutes when I go to eat it

:o

OK, welcome to Bradley world. 
You'll get much better tasting ribs by not boiling them--that puts the flavor in the water, not leaving it in your ribs. 
I did country style ribs in the past.  I'd suggest doing it the same as I do spare ribs.  220 deg until the meat hits 180 deg, then FTC for 2-3 hours, and they should melt in your mouth. 
Keep refining your prococess so that you get great meat from the Bradley, not from boiling ribs tender. 
Everyone here will help you out, so run a smoke, keep a log to know what you did, then ask here for advice.  You'll have fall-apart ribs in no time. 
Here's an example of my log--its a Word document that keeps track of every smoke I've ever done--and what I should do next for a better smoke (I don't smoke anywhere near often enough--too many hobbies).

23 Apr 08
3.5# spare rib
5 maple, 3 hickory
Time:   Meat:   Smoker:
1000     in smoker   190
1200      220
1500     180   195
1600      FTC
Great!
Next ribs—220 to 180 internal, then 195ish to maintain 180 until FTC

good luck
drano