Pizza jerky and snack stick unit

[twilliams]

So last year i had an issue when i made the pizza snack stick with what i said it seemed to create a gas and made the casing expand tight and left the meat hollow on the inside also making it hard. Sounds like case hardening i know. My process was the same as every other successful batch i have done. So i decided to give it a whirl again this year, and with the same results although not as bad as they were last time not completely hollow this time but definitely a bunch of air not giving me my bound sausage meat look. Again, when it went to the ice bath they floated. Here is a kicker, this time around i took the last pound of meat that i can not get out of the stuffer and use my jerky gun to stuff a prestuck summer sausage casing. That casing blew from top to bottom down the entire side, and the other flavor i had in there at the same time which was mandarin teriyaki was all good like usual. I know there was another person on here that had the same thing happen to them but never found an answer on what caused it. I looked at the ingredients and i seen it has sodium bicarbonate in it. I thought for sure that was it. Then i looked at my other on hand seasonings and the only other one that has that in it is the ranch, and the ranch turned out perfectly so im at a loss again. Maybe the ranch dont have as much to create what the pizza did, im not sure. Im gonna contact excalibur and hopefully figure it out, that is now 37.5lbs of meat that unfortunately nonconsumable and over $100.

[twilliams]

Jonathon so i did talk to tech support and yes they are having issues with the flavor. He explained it to me in detail but i wont go into it here just incase i miss understood him. He told me how to try fixing the issue. I can talk to you more in private message if you wish. He stated that he will be sending out a notice to all vendors so Waltons should be seeing something shortly.

[Jonathon]

twilliams No, I think we need to know that, I’m not interested in protecting Excalibur if they made a mistake, we all need to know. I will get information on it as well and if we misstate anything we will get it figured out. What did they say could be causing the issue?

[Jonathon]

twilliams I think when this happened like a year ago or so that was when you first really started using meatgistics a lot. I still think the Supreme Pizza is a better seasoning and now that I have used it for snack sticks and used 18-20% more seasoning per lb and added 1 lb of pepperoni per 10 lb of sausage, I know it is better.

[twilliams]

Jonathon Austin he said alot of stuff in a short period of time i couldnt jot it all down, but to make it short he is not 100% sure, however he is thinking that they got very acidic tomato powder in, more than normal. So you have Alkaline and a high acidity from the tomato powder which is creating the chemical reaction and giving off the gas that i was talking about. They need to put the sodium bicarbonate in it to bring the Ph levels down. HIS RECOMMENDATION IS TO ADD 2oz OF SODIUM PHOSPHATE ON MY NEXT 25 LB BATCH AND LET HIM KNOW IF THAT TOOK CARE OF THE PROBLEM. Well sorry to say but i will not be risking another loss of meat. He did say however it is safe to consume, just not very pretty. As i started to explain my findings he asked if i was the one that sent in the pictures. I said no, so other folks are having the same issue and they are aware of it. I just question why it happened last year and it is still happening now if they know about it. I guess the other persons snack sticks overpressurized and split. I do have pics of my own and tried to upload them here but i cant do it on my phone with the updated site. He also mentioned if there was bacteria on the meat that could cause a gas too, i have ruled that out in my process as my other hundreds of pounds of sticks and summer sausage has not done it, just the pizza. I asked him if the same thing is happening with the fresh brat seasoning because when i mixed the seasoning with water it got really foamy on top like it had a reaction and causing gas. He stated yes it is the same thing. Just not noticable after stuffing because it is not going into a cooking mode as it is frozen fresh for later use.

[twilliams]

Jonathon yes you are correct on when i found Walton’s and meatgistics. Like April 2019 i believe. I did use the supreme itailian pizza bratwurst seasoning for my fresh brats, so that is what foamed up when i mixed it with water to disperse it in the meat better. So 2 different seasonings and purposes with same reactive properties. I still have a half package of it that i am gonna make fresh bratwurst out of it this weekend and try your pepperoni trick. I am actually looking at the package as i type this and yes it lists tomato powder as an ingredient.

[Jonathon]

twilliams okay, I will get back to everyone with what I find out from them. Last thing, was this the rest of the bag from the first time you used it or was this a new bag?

[twilliams]

Jonathon new bag, last time i made the whole 25lb batch and threw the bag away so i didnt have the batch/lot # you asked for. The other gentlemen that commented last year did have his batch # and posted it. This year i only made a 12.5lb batch due to being nervous about it happening again. So i have half the seasoning from this new bag this year with the batch # if needed.

[twilliams]

Jonathon

Here is a screenshot of the order