All in a day's works, or two....
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Parksider What type/ size bags are you using? Very nice looking.
Meateater1 I’m going to guess Walton’s 6x10 zipper chamber vac bags …that’s what I use at the shop anyway.
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Meateater1 I’m going to guess Walton’s 6x10 zipper chamber vac bags …that’s what I use at the shop anyway.
Meateater1 Using 6x10 non zipper bags, zippers are great but pricey so we skipped them this year. I use 8x10 for breakfast and 10x10 for sausage. I bought some 10x15 that were on clearance that we’ll pack 5# of meat into so we can just open the bag of ground meat and into the mixer to shorten the processing time since we run some big batches.
MT Elk Hunter 50/50 venison/pork, single grind on the smallest plate that came with the Weston butcher #22 grinder, mix in weston 44 mixer attached to the grinder, home recipe for spices-i do mix water and spice into a slurry then drizzle into mixer, waltons 19mm smoked collagen casings stuffed off a hydraulic stuffer, I smoke to get color-perfect cherry, I keep smoker around 150F for 4ish hours- again I focus on color. Then into turkey fryer water bath to cook to 158F, then cold water shower. We cut sticks 2" to 2.5" short of the bags, put labels on FIRST pack sticks, then into minipack 31 chamber vac and into freezer. Clearly that was the abridged version… took about 10 hours to do 60# of sticks, and 25# each of breakfast, blue ribbon brats, habenaro brats, and mild italian, plus another hour to package after sausage was frozen on sheet trays.
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Thank you for the reply. Your color is excellent and your method is very similar to my own. Considering a 50/50 venison/pork mix, what cut of pork are you using? I use a 70/30 ratio of venison/ 100% pork back fat which relives me of guessing the percentage of fat in something like a pork shoulder or butt, so I have a more consistent final venison to pork ratio. I know many recipes are sacred, but would you be able to share your stick recipe?
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MT Elk Hunter boneless pork butts from Restaurant Depot. I’ll see if I can find the recipe.
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Meateater1 Using 6x10 non zipper bags, zippers are great but pricey so we skipped them this year. I use 8x10 for breakfast and 10x10 for sausage. I bought some 10x15 that were on clearance that we’ll pack 5# of meat into so we can just open the bag of ground meat and into the mixer to shorten the processing time since we run some big batches.
MT Elk Hunter 50/50 venison/pork, single grind on the smallest plate that came with the Weston butcher #22 grinder, mix in weston 44 mixer attached to the grinder, home recipe for spices-i do mix water and spice into a slurry then drizzle into mixer, waltons 19mm smoked collagen casings stuffed off a hydraulic stuffer, I smoke to get color-perfect cherry, I keep smoker around 150F for 4ish hours- again I focus on color. Then into turkey fryer water bath to cook to 158F, then cold water shower. We cut sticks 2" to 2.5" short of the bags, put labels on FIRST pack sticks, then into minipack 31 chamber vac and into freezer. Clearly that was the abridged version… took about 10 hours to do 60# of sticks, and 25# each of breakfast, blue ribbon brats, habenaro brats, and mild italian, plus another hour to package after sausage was frozen on sheet trays.
Parksider Thank You for responding. Your work looks very professional. Please continue to share your craft. Enjoyed this very much!!
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Parksider Thank You for responding. Your work looks very professional. Please continue to share your craft. Enjoyed this very much!!
Meateater1 Just FYI, I do get all bags from Walton’s. I tend to buy them on free shipping days! Also, I just didn’t know what size to get initially so I ordered some from ebay, they will sell them in lots of 25. Once you get the size you want, then buy the case from Walton’s. I’ve yet to see anywhere else that will compete with their pricing and can’t beat free shipping.
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MT Elk Hunter boneless pork butts from Restaurant Depot. I’ll see if I can find the recipe.
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Almost ready to try snack sticks need professional opinions my smoker is pretty well temp regulated, should I try to finish my sticks off in smoker or should I do water bath as I have never done that before but it looks pretty simple, just put them in large pan water get temp to 160 AND WAIT TILL STICKS 156??
DAVE
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Almost ready to try snack sticks need professional opinions my smoker is pretty well temp regulated, should I try to finish my sticks off in smoker or should I do water bath as I have never done that before but it looks pretty simple, just put them in large pan water get temp to 160 AND WAIT TILL STICKS 156??
DAVE
akdave i think you want water at 170° and IT 160°. I vote to try half and half. Finish half in smoker and half in water bath then show us comparison results
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akdave Company line is 160° for safety but that is because it is the point of instant lethality for everything we are concerned with. The USDA has something called appendix a here https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/bf3f01a1-a0b7-4902-a2df-a87c73d1b633/Salmonella-Compliance-Guideline-SVSP-RTE-Appendix-A.pdf?MOD=AJPERES and it lists the time and temp for lethality if you look at 156° only needs a few seconds to be lethal. Now, I’d say this is more okay in water than in a smoker because the water is a more constant temp and you can be more sure that all your sticks have reached that same temp.
Personally I set mine to 170° and they usually get there within the hour.
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Meateater1 Just FYI, I do get all bags from Walton’s. I tend to buy them on free shipping days! Also, I just didn’t know what size to get initially so I ordered some from ebay, they will sell them in lots of 25. Once you get the size you want, then buy the case from Walton’s. I’ve yet to see anywhere else that will compete with their pricing and can’t beat free shipping.
Joe Hell,Parksider I have a question about the weight of the final mixture of meat for snack stick run. Is the total weight based upon the sum of (for example 23 lbs of meat and 2 pounds of pork fat) to equal 25lbs? I am planning on using Top round beef and pork fat and I would guess you would add 2-3lbs of the high temp cheese to this? BTW way I just received the 6X10 zipper bags I ordered from Walton’s, I am trying to get everything together to make my first run of sticks.Thanks for your time!
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Meateater1 If I understand your question correctly you are asking if you include the seasonings, additves and waters weight to your meat block or if you just count the meat? The answer is…different people do it differently (surprise surprise!) We do the 25 lb based on the meat alone, so if we are using something like Habanero BBQ that weight 3 lbs then the weight of everything before it goes into the smoker will be closer to 30 as the seasoning weight about 3 (guessing here) and we will most likely use 2-3 lb of water.
Sorry if that wasn’t the question!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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Meateater1 I do what Jonathon says, we base everything off the pounds of meat/fat block on the package of the spice, then add all the other stuff.
If you want more intense flavors then make the total of spice/water/cheese + meat= recommended weight on spice pack (generally 25#). I’ve done it both ways, only one I do less meat weight (20#) is breakfast sausage, I like more kick in it. -
Meateater1 If I understand your question correctly you are asking if you include the seasonings, additves and waters weight to your meat block or if you just count the meat? The answer is…different people do it differently (surprise surprise!) We do the 25 lb based on the meat alone, so if we are using something like Habanero BBQ that weight 3 lbs then the weight of everything before it goes into the smoker will be closer to 30 as the seasoning weight about 3 (guessing here) and we will most likely use 2-3 lb of water.
Sorry if that wasn’t the question!
Parksider, Jonathon Just so I understand, so 25 lbs of beef gets how much pork fat. I have ordered and received all the other ingredients to prepare a 25 lb run I think? Thanks for your time. Sorry Type A here!! There certainly is a plethora of information here, I think that is what is confusing me, (not a bad thing) but since I have never done this all the information seems to be running together.
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If you want 20% fat (in that range is what you are looking for) then it would be 5 lb of fat for 25 lb of meat. Now, most meat you start with is going to be in the 20% range anyway unless you are suing deer or another low fat ungulate. What is your initial meat block?
Fat is included in what is added up to 25, so if you did 25 plus 2 lb of pork fat that is now 27 lb and you would have to use more than a full bag of seasoning.
No apologies necessary, getting things right is always worth and extra question or two!
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If you want 20% fat (in that range is what you are looking for) then it would be 5 lb of fat for 25 lb of meat. Now, most meat you start with is going to be in the 20% range anyway unless you are suing deer or another low fat ungulate. What is your initial meat block?
Fat is included in what is added up to 25, so if you did 25 plus 2 lb of pork fat that is now 27 lb and you would have to use more than a full bag of seasoning.
No apologies necessary, getting things right is always worth and extra question or two!
Jonathon Top Round Beef is what I’m using for meat block.
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Meateater1 If I understand your question correctly you are asking if you include the seasonings, additves and waters weight to your meat block or if you just count the meat? The answer is…different people do it differently (surprise surprise!) We do the 25 lb based on the meat alone, so if we are using something like Habanero BBQ that weight 3 lbs then the weight of everything before it goes into the smoker will be closer to 30 as the seasoning weight about 3 (guessing here) and we will most likely use 2-3 lb of water.
Sorry if that wasn’t the question!
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Meateater1 Top round is probably somewhere in the 5% fat range so yeah, you want to add at least 15% (if you don’t trim and 20% if you do) of pork fat. So for a 25 lb block that would be 20 lb of top round and 5 b of pork fat. Enjoy!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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Meateater1 Top round is probably somewhere in the 5% fat range so yeah, you want to add at least 15% (if you don’t trim and 20% if you do) of pork fat. So for a 25 lb block that would be 20 lb of top round and 5 b of pork fat. Enjoy!
Jonathon I must confess that I started the taco snack stick and have not made any yet
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craigrice Lol well no worries, I’m glad we got it, it is in my top 5 snack sticks for sure!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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