Water/humidity while smoking meat/snack sticks
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Hello,
After reading a few recipes and tutorials for making smoked snack sticks, I’ve got a quick question about humidity. Would I ideally hold my stuffed snack sticks at 125F for an hour or so with no water (or smoke) in my smoker? Then, add water as I increase the temp and add smoke? Or, water/humidity from the get-go?I think I read somewhere that initially holding at a low, dry temp was important (or is that for pork belly/bacon??)
Thanks!
dayjm1
I think this is up for debate. I’m in Colorado and do a fair amount of snack sticks. We have very little humidity here. I have done this both without water bowl and with added water. I think the drying cycle (125) degrees really tightens up the casings nice, then take it up to 140 for an hour, then 155 for two hours, then 175 til you reach safe internal temp. Honestly I am not sure that I noticed much of a difference when I added the water at the 140 stage. I think it has to do a lot wi5 your location and preferences. Maybe get a 25 pound batch and just do half of it one way and half the other and you make the choice. Let us know.l -
Jonathon Did you ever find that info for time temperature and humidity schedule for snack sticks?
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Chef
Time Temp Wet Bulb
30 120 0
30 145 100
30 175 155
999 185 155 until internal temp is 160°Hope it helps, thought I posted this somewhere else and tagged you but honestly…who knows right now, I DREAMT of this place last night…I never do that!
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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Chef
Time Temp Wet Bulb
30 120 0
30 145 100
30 175 155
999 185 155 until internal temp is 160°Hope it helps, thought I posted this somewhere else and tagged you but honestly…who knows right now, I DREAMT of this place last night…I never do that!
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dayjm1
I think this is up for debate. I’m in Colorado and do a fair amount of snack sticks. We have very little humidity here. I have done this both without water bowl and with added water. I think the drying cycle (125) degrees really tightens up the casings nice, then take it up to 140 for an hour, then 155 for two hours, then 175 til you reach safe internal temp. Honestly I am not sure that I noticed much of a difference when I added the water at the 140 stage. I think it has to do a lot wi5 your location and preferences. Maybe get a 25 pound batch and just do half of it one way and half the other and you make the choice. Let us know.llkrfletcher so I wound up preparing a 10lb batch (30% chuck, 70% pork butt) and used the Waltons temp profile for the most part. 125 for one hour with no water in the smoker, then stepped up thru 140, 155, 175 with water and apple wood smoke. It was late and cold and raining, so I stepped up to 185 and then 190 near the end to hit my internal temperature of 160.
Used the Willies snack stick seasoning blend and made 19mm snack sticks plus a couple summer sausages. The summer sausages looked great right out of the smoker, but the fibrous casings wrinkled once they hit the cold water bath. All in all the batch looks and tastes great, and my wife and kids concur.
It took quite a bit longer than I was expecting, and stuffing 19mm casings with my grinder was a pain in the…neck.
Thanks for your help!
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lkrfletcher so I wound up preparing a 10lb batch (30% chuck, 70% pork butt) and used the Waltons temp profile for the most part. 125 for one hour with no water in the smoker, then stepped up thru 140, 155, 175 with water and apple wood smoke. It was late and cold and raining, so I stepped up to 185 and then 190 near the end to hit my internal temperature of 160.
Used the Willies snack stick seasoning blend and made 19mm snack sticks plus a couple summer sausages. The summer sausages looked great right out of the smoker, but the fibrous casings wrinkled once they hit the cold water bath. All in all the batch looks and tastes great, and my wife and kids concur.
It took quite a bit longer than I was expecting, and stuffing 19mm casings with my grinder was a pain in the…neck.
Thanks for your help!
dayjm1
You got it down. Looks great to me. I no longer use 19mm casings. They just don’t go on my Walton stuffer that great, so I switched to 21mm. I wish they had a tube size that you can slide the entire compressed casing right into the tube. I’ve never been able to get that to work yet. I have to decompress the casings, and start them over the tube, then decompress them onto the tube. -
lkrfletcher so I wound up preparing a 10lb batch (30% chuck, 70% pork butt) and used the Waltons temp profile for the most part. 125 for one hour with no water in the smoker, then stepped up thru 140, 155, 175 with water and apple wood smoke. It was late and cold and raining, so I stepped up to 185 and then 190 near the end to hit my internal temperature of 160.
Used the Willies snack stick seasoning blend and made 19mm snack sticks plus a couple summer sausages. The summer sausages looked great right out of the smoker, but the fibrous casings wrinkled once they hit the cold water bath. All in all the batch looks and tastes great, and my wife and kids concur.
It took quite a bit longer than I was expecting, and stuffing 19mm casings with my grinder was a pain in the…neck.
Thanks for your help!
dayjm1 Looks great. What size grind plates did you use?
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Chef larger grind plate with my grinder is just over 1/4”—closer to 5/16. Small plate is 3/16. The grind on the meat looked really good. The auger on the grinder just couldn’t feed the sticky meat down into the stuffing horn. A sausage stuffer is the next item on my “want/need” list.
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dayjm1
You got it down. Looks great to me. I no longer use 19mm casings. They just don’t go on my Walton stuffer that great, so I switched to 21mm. I wish they had a tube size that you can slide the entire compressed casing right into the tube. I’ve never been able to get that to work yet. I have to decompress the casings, and start them over the tube, then decompress them onto the tube.lkrfletcher yep that’s exactly what I had to do, slide maybe 24-25 inches of collagen casing on the smallest stuffing tube I had.
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Chef larger grind plate with my grinder is just over 1/4”—closer to 5/16. Small plate is 3/16. The grind on the meat looked really good. The auger on the grinder just couldn’t feed the sticky meat down into the stuffing horn. A sausage stuffer is the next item on my “want/need” list.
dayjm1 Thanks, your grind looks particularly good.
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dayjm1 Those look great man, nicely done! Sometimes for whatever reason it just takes longer than others!
lkrfletcher Do the 19mm casings just not slide easily onto the tube? I had that happen once and I tossed the tube, let me know if that is your issue and I’ll send you a new one that I know works with 19mm casings
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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dayjm1 Those look great man, nicely done! Sometimes for whatever reason it just takes longer than others!
lkrfletcher Do the 19mm casings just not slide easily onto the tube? I had that happen once and I tossed the tube, let me know if that is your issue and I’ll send you a new one that I know works with 19mm casings
Jonathon
Yeah the waltons tube ( the ones that came with the stuffer) I have I cannot get the 19mm casings on. Battled it a long time and finally gave up and went to 21mm casings. -
dayjm1 Those look great man, nicely done! Sometimes for whatever reason it just takes longer than others!
lkrfletcher Do the 19mm casings just not slide easily onto the tube? I had that happen once and I tossed the tube, let me know if that is your issue and I’ll send you a new one that I know works with 19mm casings
Jonathon I bought your 7lb stuffer that I love dearly but have the same problem 19mm casings won’t slip on the tube without unraveling them first.
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