How To Make Homemade Snack Sticks
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I recently made some snack sticks and the first batch were more dry than the second. I should also note that I just used off the shelf ground beef and ground pork with no additional grinding. The first batch was strictly ground beef (5 pounds). For the second batch I did add ground pork (1 pound) to the ground beef (4 pounds) which I think helped and I also mixed it more for more protein extraction. Both batches I used the .8 oz carrot fiber with 1 cup of water. Would the carrot fiber cause the snack sticks to be more dry or change the texture or is that more related to the fat content, mixing or grinding?
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jrypka A tiling sponge will work just as well I would imagine. Adding humidity will make it cook much quicker. The main reason for “the stall” is that the evaporation energy that is coming off of the skin of the meat matches or at least counters the thermal processing energy from the cook cycle. My biggest thing would be don’t use carrot fiber in cured sausage. I know plenty of people do but try adding sure gel or even super bind which is a mix of carrot fiber and potato starch as those work better for cured sausage/
coiling isn’t the best but totally doable so no reason that was your problem. 165° instead of 160…maybe but I’ve cooked sticks to 170 by mistake (forgot I had them in the PK and left to do something else like a moron) and they were as dry or crumbly as you are describing.
Yup, totally fine to make adjustments to the smoke schedule if the one we post doesn’t work perfectly for you, different areas of the country have different humidity, temp and even elevation can come into it! Let us know how your next batch goes but I would say your best bet would be to add sure gel.
Jonathon I’m going to give it another try this weekend. I’ll leave out the carrot fiber. I don’t have Sure Gel but was thinking of trying the cold phosphate I have. If I use that, do I need to leave out the ECA? Not sure how the acid would work with the alkaline phosphate. Either that, or leave out the binder all together…
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Darrel Great question on the use of Citric Acid and Smoked Meat Stabilizer in the same batch! You do not need to use them together as they are performing basically the same function. The Encapsulated Citric Acid is what provides the tang to the meat where the Smoked Meat Stabilizer does not. Sof if you are wanting the tang then use the Citric Acid and if you do not want the tang then add the smoked meat stabilizer.
You can use beef fat in place of pork fat, it will give you a slightly different flavor but will not change your process.
I hope this helped, let us know if you have any other questions!
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mark naber No, carrot fiber wouldnt make it dry but it can give some consistency issues. For cured sausage i am more of a fan of sure gel than carrot fiber. Cured sausages are semi-dried, carrot fiber is really just trying to hold onto moisture, so it can work against you. However, I see more and more people doing this and they seem happy witht he results so…if it ain’t broke I guess BUT if you are looking for a different consistency then try sure gel, soy portien blend or even super bind.
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dwaddick 3 oz to 25 lb is the absolute minumim to get the cure accelerating properties I believe. If you are looking for an accelerator but less/no tang check out either sodium erythorbate or smoked meat stabilizer.
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dwaddick 3 oz to 25 lb is the absolute minumim to get the cure accelerating properties I believe. If you are looking for an accelerator but less/no tang check out either sodium erythorbate or smoked meat stabilizer.
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I’m going to try and make snack sticks for the first time. I plan on doing a 50/50 pork and beef. The pork butt is roughly a 80/20 meat to fat ratio. For the beef should I remove as much fat as possible or grind it all up and mix with pork. I’ve read that pork fat is better than beef fat but is ok to mix these in the sticks?
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Personally I think piggy fat tastes better, so removing the thicker beef fat should give a better product - preference only…
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I’m going to try and make snack sticks for the first time. I plan on doing a 50/50 pork and beef. The pork butt is roughly a 80/20 meat to fat ratio. For the beef should I remove as much fat as possible or grind it all up and mix with pork. I’ve read that pork fat is better than beef fat but is ok to mix these in the sticks?
@M-Saboe Pork fat is definitely better. I have made snack sticks from straight 80/20 ground beef from the grocery store and used 25lbs of ground butt along with several mixtures of both and have had very good results. The only thing I haven’t had a whole lot of luck with is mixing beef with venison. I never seem to get enough fat content. Nowadays, if I use venison, I always go with 50% ground butt with it for best results.
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I’m going to try and make snack sticks for the first time. I plan on doing a 50/50 pork and beef. The pork butt is roughly a 80/20 meat to fat ratio. For the beef should I remove as much fat as possible or grind it all up and mix with pork. I’ve read that pork fat is better than beef fat but is ok to mix these in the sticks?
@M-Saboe Also, document everything you do. If you don’t get the results that you want, try something different next time.
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@M-Saboe If you do a 50/50 with an 80/20 cut and removed all the beef fat you’d end up with a dry product. THat would get you somewhere around 10% (a little more as youll never trim all the beef fat off) so I would either add more pork fat or leave the beef fat. Pork fat is better, no doubt but beef fat is better than no fat in my opinion.
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After vacuum sealing, what kind of lifespan are we looking at when using citric acid in the mix? If the steps are followed precisely, how many days in the fridge can I expect before possible spoilage? I know it will vary, but are we talking roughly a week, or roughly a month?
Once taken out of the fridge, would it be safe to eat say 12-24 hrs later?
Will I have a hard time getting good results doing this in the oven since I don’t have a smoker?
Thanks in advance!!
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I just finished smoking 10 lbs of snack sticks I stuffed yesterday Just now realized I forgot to add the pink cure salt are they trash ?
George T they could be. What was your cooking schedule?
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brogers I’ll let someone else give their opinion and I will just deliver the company line, without a way to measure water activity and pH they should be vacuum sealed and left defrosted for no more than 5 days. Now, that is the company line for safety, in reality it will be different.
George T Sadly, yes, they probably sat for numerous hours between 40-140 degrees making them the perfect breeding ground for somenasty stuff.
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Can you use this recipe and make it in either the oven or in a dehydrator? How would you alter the recipe? Can this recipe also be made in a smaller batch and how would you do that?
jbh222 Can’t help you with the oven or dehydrator question. However to scale the recipe down divide the ingredient quantities by 25 to get the amount needed for one pound of meat, then multiple by the amount of meat you are using.
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jbh222 That is going to depend on your oven a little. How low will it start? How hot will your dehydrator get? You might be best served starting off in the dehydrator and then moving to the oven, if you’re dehydrator starts as low as 120 (which shouldn’t be a problem) putting them in there 1st and then moving them to the oven for cooking might be your best bet.
What you will have to deal with here is case hardening in the dehydrator. You want the outside of the casing to be dry(ish) to let the smoke adhere, you don’t want to remove all of the moisture from the edge of the sausage though, if that happens you might not be able to pass heat efficiently into the middle of the snack stick.
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Hi. I’m relativvv… ok. I’m new! LOL
So this will be the first time making snack sticks with the Sure Cure and carrot binder. Also, I’m only doing 2 or 5 pounds of meat at a time.
So say I wanted to just 2 lbs…
-Carrot binder - 2 tbsp + 1 tsp
-Sure Cure - 1/2 tsp
-water - 2.5ozMix meat, carrot binder, sure cure, and water together. Then do you stuff it into the casings and let it rest in the refrigerator over night; smoke the next day… does that sound correct?
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Hi. I’m relativvv… ok. I’m new! LOL
So this will be the first time making snack sticks with the Sure Cure and carrot binder. Also, I’m only doing 2 or 5 pounds of meat at a time.
So say I wanted to just 2 lbs…
-Carrot binder - 2 tbsp + 1 tsp
-Sure Cure - 1/2 tsp
-water - 2.5ozMix meat, carrot binder, sure cure, and water together. Then do you stuff it into the casings and let it rest in the refrigerator over night; smoke the next day… does that sound correct?
keoni02 there is a conversion selection in the drop down menu that will help you break down your additives, cure and seasonings on the left side of the page. I would recommend using sure gel instead of carrot fiber if you have it. Snack sticks are a semi dried style sausage and carrot fiber will hold up to 26X it’s weight in water and sure gel will help with adding a bit extra protein during protein extraction. Both will work, but typically carrot fiber is used in fresh sausage to help with juiciness and sure gel in cured sausages. Your numbers appear to be okay, I just haven’t done a batch that small of cured sausage and I go by weight.
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