Beef Sticks

jaeger · January 16, 2005, 06:40:45 AM

Here are some pictures of my Saturday night project.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/xcelsmoke/Grinding.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/xcelsmoke/Seasoning.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/xcelsmoke/Stuffing.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/xcelsmoke/Sticks.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/xcelsmoke/SouthDakotaSmokin.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/xcelsmoke/BeefSticks.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/xcelsmoke/FinishedProduct.jpg

[:D][:)][:D]

Doug

Cold Smoke · January 16, 2005, 10:20:52 PM

Looks great! How about a few details...spices used, cure, casings, and most of all final taste result.

Thanks!

Cold Smoke

nsxbill · January 16, 2005, 11:19:25 PM

Well, I am getting inspired. Just got my clear tube Dakotah water stuffer with a jerkey kit...have the 1.5 hp. grinder downstairs with a stainless mixer so I don't have to freeze my hands off in the meat..Doing some reading until I decide to start doing some sausage myself. One of SmokehouseBob's hanging kits looks in order for you! Have you checked them out? Hope they taste as good as they look!

Bill

jaeger · January 17, 2005, 01:59:55 AM

Cold Smoke, (That's what I did last night "cold smoke", it was -10 F.
in Sioux Falls SD last night.

The seasoning I used was from FW Witt. I haven't found it online or at retail level. One of my jobs at work is running a smoked meat dept. of a grocery store. We buy it from a wholesaler. I have had very good luck with a seasoning from Eastman food. The original is very good! It comes with a cure packet. I use a digital scale and convert ounces to grams for an accurate measurement. Before I had a digital scale I found some cure packet made by Luhr Jensen (the company that makes the little chief. What I liked about this cure is that 2 ounces will cure 25 pounds of meat. The cure that comes in the bags of seasoning that I am using is 4 ounces for 100 pounds of meat. The 2 ounce bag is easier to measure when you don't have a digital scale and are making small batches of sausage like I make with the Bradley.
I picked up 7.5 lbs. of boneless chuck roast on sale for $1.88/lb. I ground it through the coarse plate first and the fine plate second. I calculated how much seasoning and cure that I needed. I like to have a big container when mixing so I can distribute the seasoning thoroughly. First I spread the seasoning over the meat and kind of rake it in with my fingers. Next I always add a small amount of water to the cure and let it dissolve and then add this to the batch. At this point I still kind of rake everything together looking for good distribution of the cure and at this point add water as needed. By now it is getting tackie/stickie as the salt draws the protein out of the meat. I mash it through my fingers, roll it into itself and mash it somemore until I feel it is very well mixed and tackie. (That's about 5 minutes in your speed mixer Bill[:D])
I planned on stuffing with my grinder as it worked very good on the large diameter Summer Sausage casings. I was ready with a Plan B if the grinder would not handle the small diameter required of the beef stick casings. Well it was Plan B that ruled the night.
The casings I used are available online, they are a 21mm mahoganey callogen casing. They fit perfect on the horn on my grinder but the small diameter of the horn prevented the meat from feeding the distance that it needed to go. I had to break out the stuffer which is equipped with a shorter and a little bit wider plastic horn. The casing wouldn't slide over like they are intended. By cutting off indivual lengths of casings, I was able to slide them over the horn of the stuffer the same as you would a hog casing. I made each casing about 20 inches long so that they would hang about 10 inches on each side of the dowel rod that I was using for a stick. The stuffer was well up to the task. It worked perfect!!!
They were in the smoker for 3.5 hours. I had to open the door towards the end because my probe was not working as advertised. I had a back up dial thermometer that I used to guarantee 165 degree internal temp.
It was so cold out that I just had to prop open the door for about 10 minutes and the were Cold to the touch.
The end results........AWESOME!!! I got my smoke fix for a few days plus I get to share the results with friends.

Cold Smokin in South Dakota!!![:D][8D][:D]
Doug

jaeger · January 17, 2005, 02:17:54 AM

Bill,
You really need to try beef sticks. They are about the easiest sausage to make and you have everything you need for equipment. Some kits available have the casings included. Let us know when you plan to go for it![:)][:D][:)]

Doug

jaeger · January 17, 2005, 02:31:06 AM

Does anyone know the exact conversion of ounces to grams. I used grams on my digital scale and converted 30 grams to one ounce. Does that sound about right?

Doug

Oldman · January 17, 2005, 03:37:29 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> conversion of ounces to grams<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
This site is pretty good for that:
http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/ounces-to-grams.htm They also have several other conversions. If you have a web site they also offer all of these conversion programs (scrips) for free.
Olds
EDIT: What wood did you use? Also I would like to use a couple of your pictures along with some of your information on the recipe collecting I'm doing for the members here.

http://rminor.com

jaeger · January 17, 2005, 04:30:58 AM

Olds,
I used hickory on the beef sticks.
Thanks for the link on conversions.
You can use anything that I post. I will also try to find some recipes that I have had success with in the past. I am not much help on recipes for rubs etc as I just find one in Smoke and Spice when I need more. I think your site is a great idea and I look forward to visiting often. From what I have seen so far it will be nice!

Doug

SMOKEHOUSE ROB · January 17, 2005, 05:22:13 AM

.02 oz = 1/8 teaspoon
.05 oz = 1/4 teaspoon
.1 oz = 1/2 teaspoon
.15 oz = 3/4 teaspoon
.23 oz = 1.25 teaspoon
.32 oz= 1.75 teaspoon
1 oz = 2 tablespoons
1.50 oz = 3 tablespoons
2.00 oz = 4 tablespoons
3.00 oz = 6 tablespoons
3.00 oz = 6 tablespoons
4.00 oz = 8 tablespoons

this conversion helps also like maple cure once you use
MallardWacker chart
EDIT> If you use Butcher-Packer Cures, here is what it brakes down to:
This is the amount I use for dry rub, you can see why folks question me about the amount. I have had no problems with this amount, the meat comes out nice and pink with that irradencent type shine to it.

Broken down, it comes to this: (please forgive me if this is elementary, I do this for all of us from Arkensaw)Also, the scale I use measures only in 1/10 of pound.

1lb .32oz or .02lb
2lb .66oz or .04125lb
3lb 1.0oz or .0625lb
5lb 1.6oz or .1lb
10lb 3.2oz or .2lb

you break it down to this. like .32 oz= 1.75 teaspoon per pound of pork loin.

MAKE SURE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE GIVEAWAY!! GO HERE.http://www.bradleysmoker.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=991

JJC · January 17, 2005, 07:01:06 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by jaeger
 Does anyone know the exact conversion of ounces to grams. I used grams on my digital scale and converted 30 grams to one ounce. Does that sound about right?

Doug
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hi Doug,

That's about right! The precise conversion rate is 1 oz. = 28.47 grams

John
Newton MA

Cold Smoke · January 17, 2005, 04:24:45 PM

Thanks for the details Jaeger! I've been wanting to make these for a long time.

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> I had to break out the stuffer which is equipped with a shorter and a little bit wider plastic horn. The casing wouldn't slide over like they are intended. By cutting off indivual lengths of casings, I was able to slide them over the horn of the stuffer the same as you would a hog casing. I made each casing about 20 inches long so that they would hang about 10 inches on each side of the dowel rod that I was using for a stick. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Do you slide these on dry? Is it labor intensive? I've never used these collagen ones before.

Cold Smoke

jaeger · January 18, 2005, 02:45:41 AM

Thanks Smokehouse Rob and John for the information on conversions. My digital scale weighs ounces and grams. The only thing is, for ounces it weighs like 1/8 or 1/4 or 1/2. I decided to use grams for more accuracy. Your conversion is very helpful as some recipes call for ie: 1 tablespoon per lb of meat etc...
The scale I use at work will weigh ounces ie:
1 ounce = .06
2 ounces = .13
3 ounces = .19
4 ounces = .25
etc until 1 pound = 1.00
The way it works is 16 ounces per pound. 16 X .06 = .96
For every 2nd ounce of each quarter pound you add .01 (.96 + .04 = 1.00) This may be helpful for anyone with a digital scale that weighs the same as a scale in a store will weigh.

Now, if you are still with me, here is an example of how this would be put to use.
You have a 5 pound 10 ounce seasoning per 100 pounds of meat.
You have 4 ounces of cure per 100 pounds of meat.
You want to season and cure 12 pounds of meat.
12 pounds of 100 pounds is 12 percent.
The seasoning will be 5.63 X 12 percent = .68
The cure will be .25 X 12 percent = .03

Measuring .03 on a scale that reads 1/8 ounce is not accurate enough for me. When I transfer to grams it is much more accurate.

I hope this info is of use to somebody out there![:)]

Doug

jaeger · January 18, 2005, 02:52:26 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
conversion of ounces to grams
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This site is pretty good for that:
http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/ounces-to-grams.htm They also have several other conversions. If you have a web site they also offer all of these conversion programs (scrips) for free.
Olds
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Olds,
I just checked out the site that you posted regarding convesion of ounces to grams. Dude, that is just to cool!!! I will definitely put it to use.

Thanks again!
Doug

Oldman · January 18, 2005, 02:59:17 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I hope this info is of use to somebody out there!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

<hr noshade size="1">Oh Momma!! All of this makes my head hurt!

<hr noshade size="1">

EDIT
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Olds,
I just checked out the site that you posted regarding convesion of ounces to grams. Dude, that is just to cool!!! I will definitely put it to use.

Thanks again!
Doug<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I think I will add all of those converstion scrips to the site. It would be great to have them handy.

<hr noshade size="1">jaeger this is what I did with your pictures and information. The only thing lacking is I need to know at what temp you smoked them.

http://www.susanminor.org/cgi-bin/iB3/ikonboard.cgi?s=37fedd8ba66b7a695d587e2aaa84949b&act=ST&f=24&t=104&st=#entry156<hr noshade size="1">

http://rminor.com

jaeger · January 18, 2005, 04:02:20 AM

Cold Smoke,
These casings are very easy to use. You do not want to get them wet though. You also do not want to have an excess amount on hand. They are not really cheap and if they sit around to long they will get kind of brittle and you will break them constanly as you stuff. When they are fresh they work fine, no problem. I posted a picture at the bottom of this page that shows what is left of the callogen casing that I used and the two horns that I was trying to work with. The casing is intended to fit on the horn as it is shown on the long metal horn. My problem was that this horn is for my Grinder. I could not get enough pressure to push the meat through the horn. The plastic horn is for my Stuffer. It is the smallest one that I have and the casing would not slide on like it suppose to. Since my only option was to use the stuffer, I was able to just cut the casings individually to the length that I needed. In this case I cut them at 20 inches so I would have 10 inches on each side of my dowel that I was going to use to hang them with. I just started out by cutting about 10 lengths and then ended up cutting about 9 more as I could tell as I was stuffing about how many more I would need. The beef sticks were really easy to stuff and I didn't tie the ends or anything as the meat was tackie enough that I knew that it would not ooze out as it hung and smoked. You can see on the picture what the callogen casing looks like after I pulled it off the strand. It is just a short piece that I put on the plastic horn for a visual.
As far as this being labor intensive ....no.
It took me longer than I expected with the problems switching from trying to stuff with the grinder and setting up the stuffer(which actually I had not used before and had to really clean it well even before starting). The stuffer pushed the meat through very easily...no problem.
I also spent a bit of time figuring out how to go about getting an accurate measurement on the cure.(and seasoning)
Once I got the sticks smoking I noticed my probe was giving out faulty readings so I had to deal with that as well. My daughter is 7 years old and I do not take any chances with E Coli and she is my biggest enthusiast.
You really should make some of these. As far as size and quanity, the strand that I used was 21mm. (It possibly may have been 19mm) I would just make sure that when you order one or two that you talk to someone that knows what you are asking for. They are about the diameter of you pinkie finger and the ones that I use are called mahoganey which is kind of cheating as they will look smoked even if you don't smoke them at all. The picture show what is left of the one strand that I used and I stuffed 7.5 pounds. I could have stuffed 9 pounds for sure, probably 10.

Below is the picture. If it doesn't open for you let me know and I will post it on photo bucket or something.

Go For It!!!!!!!![:D][:p][:)]