Dry Cured Meat Snack Sticks

[Miket482000]

I would like to make a shelf stable Meat Snack Stick! I am assuming that I would use cure #2 instead of the Cure#1 that came with the seasoning mix! Then look to have at least a 30% weight loss after smoking and drying to get to stability without refrigeration! Am I on the correct track?

[Jonathon]

Miket482000 Shelf stable snack sticks at home can be really difficult without some specialized equipment. If you get a water activity meter (we don’t sell) and a pH Meter which runs about $450 you can then get both of those values and then input it into https://meathaccp.wisc.edu/ST_calc.html to to get the likelihood that it will be shelf stable. Without those tools though there is no way Austin or I would be able to tell you a for sure way to achieve it. I will say this, using encapsulated citric acid or something else to drop the pH is going to be a necessity.

[Cabelas90]

This is not something i would recommend from a food safety stand point. Without a Water activity meter and Ph it really is a shot in the dark if it is safe to eat. You would also need ECA or a Starter culture to lower the PH.

[Miket482000]

Interesting! How do people make shelf stable sausage without these expensive devices, using only an inexpensive PH meter and weight loss, or beef Jerky that does not use a culture or acid just water loss and in my case a cure as well? It is done all of the time with sausage and whole muscle dry curing. I have a dry cured ham from Spain that is sitting on the counter and has been for the better part of a year as per the instructions for consuming it. It was dry cured using only salt and slow dehydration, no Curing salt at all or addition of a culture. There seams to be something missing in the snack stick shelf stable curing process, as other meat products are able to be made shelf stable easily and safely.

[glen]

Austin , Jon or any other professional cannot not give any advice except by strict FDA guidelines.
I feel the same way
Look up dry cured salami recipes on line, a dry cured snack stick is really a small salami, many do it without expensive gear

[Dave in AZ]

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