Meat Processing

@Jonathon Thank you, will try this weekend and let you know!

@ewspears I’d really like to try this, I’d use our the jalapeno snack stick seasoning as that has the most actual chunks of jalapenos. The Summer Sausage has it all ground and I don’t the jerky’s particle size would be as good. Definitely adding some cheese when I get to it and Ill probably use beef chuck. I’ll let you know how it turns out when I do it!

@outlaw179 I haven’t done Jalapeno Summer Sausage to make Fresh Brats but there is no reason at all that it wouldn’t work, and work well! @Joe-Hell (Yes) - There are a few seasonings that do this to me every time we open a bag. One of the worst is Habanero Lime Jerky or Snack Stick Seasoning, it is great tasting but man, if you get that stirred up in the air you are in some trouble until it settles!

@demmerich I actually thought of something like this, using a humdifier and running a hose but unless you can get it to travel in an upward direction the entire way I don’t think it would work. I couldnt set that up (at least without getting totally ridiculous) without drilling a hole in the PK-100, which I was not willing (or allowed) to do.

@rharms428 Yeah, after reading that again I don’t know how I misread that! We don’t do much with fermentation at this point so I wouldn’t be a ton of help. We are planning on doing more of this so we can be a resource for this type of sausage but we haven’t had time yet.

@Joe-Hell i like the last part…cuz I am a Bachelor and I can. I am in the process of making a cantina room in my basement off a window well so I can add a AC to adjust to whatever Temps I want or need it for.

@Jonathon wow, I followed the thread. I never saw something like that before. Sounds like a combo of everything you guys mentioned…or a tiny mouse.

@matt93 I used Natural casing when I always did my Landjaegers. That’s why it was much easier to flatten! I have not done Landjeagers with collagen casings before, i think you would think you have to flatten over night after loosely stuffing them so they hold there shape after heating? That is just a guess though.

@blackbetty61 you da man! That looks really good! Congrats on your great batch! As a side note with that cheese in there the sodium erthorbate will help keep the color really nice around the cheese as well. Sometimes the meat around the cheese will discolor but erthorbate fixes that! Keep up the great satisfing work!

@Austin Thanks @Austin. I was leaning towards no binders (I have never used them in the past, but then again, I didn’t have a few packages laying around either - lol). I just wanted to double-check. Thanks again!!

@ewspears We don’t process these in-house but we will see if this is something that we are able to do!

I did snack sticks this Christmas and ran out of the new casings/from Waltons and use some I had left over from last year/ Lem brand. After stuffing with the old snack stick casings, it left a slight corrugated texture like an esophagus, these were stored in my refrigerator for the past year. After smoking they were substantially wrinkly and the newer/fresh casing I stuffed, looked perfect. Next time, I won’t waste my time doing this, using old collagen casings.

@doob46 It has been done with Summer Sausage and there are numerous articles on it, here is a good post from @gadahl Summer Sausage Nightmare that talks about doing it with Summer Sausage. If you are asking about snack sticks specifically because of the collagen casings I would think you need to put it in a bag to protect the casings, but I have no actual proof behind that, other than collagen casings dont stand up to being boiled. It seems like a lot of people put the sausage right into the water and I have never been able to do that, something was blocking me mentally. I think I figured it out, I use a Sous Vide cooker and the oils and any bits of meat would be sucked into the Sous Vide unit and cause issues!

@mykrawc Was the meat wrapped when it was hanging? Where was it hanging, in the barn or a walk in cooler? What was the temperature it was held at? The brightness of the meat is dependent on the amount of myoglobin in the meat. Here is a great article from the USDA on the color of meat https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/meat-preparation/the-color-of-meat-and-poultry/the-color-of-meat-and-poultry/ct_index

Sorry, i put in clean 5gal bucket and change out the water a few times. I do this in the tub. I like the snow idea! Wish central Ohio had more of that…

No problem! Always good to get a problem worked out!

@ed_orum As far as I am aware there is no way to make a lower salt dry cured sausage, it plays too important a role in the initial stages. That being said I am going to talk to someone next week and I will see if they have any ideas on how, or if this would be possible! Just spitballing here but dipping it in an antimicrobial might help and make sure your meat is clean and your processing area is pristine.

I did try bacon but not with snack sticks. I added a pound of bacon in a 80/20 venison to pork jalapeno summer sausage mix. I put the bacon in the freezer for awhile so it would grind easier. This was just a small test batch. It didn’t have much of a bacon flavor to it and actually took away from the jalapeno flavor. Have not used bacon since. Also think the extra cost of the bacon isn’t worth it.

@steve-risse Yeah, there is no study or evidence that warm water makes the cure dissipate faster, though there are still people who do believe it does. What I would be more concerned about is the time that is has been in the liquid as once it gets wet it will begin to convert to nitric oxide. If you have the option I would go ahead and mix up a new batch to be on the safe side.

@maxmeats Yeah leaving it out SHOULD remove the tackiness but it also will lose some of the tenderness in the jerky. Delicate balance on whether or not it is worth drying out a little more to lose some of that stickiness.