Do you vacuum pack your snack sticks?
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The operative here is what happens to the food after vacpac. If i vacpac sausage and don’t immediately freeze the vac will start to wick the juice out of the sausage. When i defrost a vacpac i always break the seal for the same reason. Never saw a vacpac snack stick or sausage in the market place. protective bagged or shrink wrapped… yes. Just my thoughts. . . . Just what i do. This by no means challenges the benefits or reason for vacpaking.
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The operative here is what happens to the food after vacpac. If i vacpac sausage and don’t immediately freeze the vac will start to wick the juice out of the sausage. When i defrost a vacpac i always break the seal for the same reason. Never saw a vacpac snack stick or sausage in the market place. protective bagged or shrink wrapped… yes. Just my thoughts. . . . Just what i do. This by no means challenges the benefits or reason for vacpaking.
JoeB said in Do you vacuum pack your snack sticks?:
The operative here is what happens to the food after vacpac. If i vacpac sausage and don’t immediately freeze the vac will start to wick the juice out of the sausage. When i defrost a vacpac i always break the seal for the same reason. Never saw a vacpac snack stick or sausage in the market place. protective bagged or shrink wrapped… yes. Just my thoughts. . . . Just what i do. This by no means challenges the benefits or reason for vacpaking.
Never had an issue with wicking moisture out of the sticks even after an extended drying period. Nor have I had an issue with the seal breaking during a defrost??
Haven’t had a store bought stick in years… Can’t answer to that.
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JoeB said in Do you vacuum pack your snack sticks?:
The operative here is what happens to the food after vacpac. If i vacpac sausage and don’t immediately freeze the vac will start to wick the juice out of the sausage. When i defrost a vacpac i always break the seal for the same reason. Never saw a vacpac snack stick or sausage in the market place. protective bagged or shrink wrapped… yes. Just my thoughts. . . . Just what i do. This by no means challenges the benefits or reason for vacpaking.
Never had an issue with wicking moisture out of the sticks even after an extended drying period. Nor have I had an issue with the seal breaking during a defrost??
Haven’t had a store bought stick in years… Can’t answer to that.
PapaSop I break the seal when defrosting. This is to purge the vac on the meat and stop the juices’ from being sucked out. Vac a steak and refrigerate for a few days. The blood will be pulled out of the meat.
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PapaSop I break the seal when defrosting. This is to purge the vac on the meat and stop the juices’ from being sucked out. Vac a steak and refrigerate for a few days. The blood will be pulled out of the meat.
JoeB
Quite honestly, I’ve never had that happen. Strange.Blood?? Perhaps myoglobin…
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PapaSop For us unsophisticated types it’s Blood… I did say it was what i do and see… To each his own
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PapaSop For us unsophisticated types it’s Blood… I did say it was what i do and see… To each his own
JoeB
No worries.
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PapaSop said in Do you vacuum pack your snack sticks?:
JoeB
No worries. Be happy 
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PapaSop said in Do you vacuum pack your snack sticks?:
JoeB
No worries. Be happy JoeB
Reminds me of an old song… 
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And a fish! Haha
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All the time. cut into 6" sticks. 6 to a package.
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All the time. cut into 6" sticks. 6 to a package.
RayStripling what size snack sticks do you use? Guess that goes out to everyone, what size snack sticks do you prefer and do most people use smoke collagen or anyone use clear, fresh,etc?
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sheep casing
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RayStripling what size snack sticks do you use? Guess that goes out to everyone, what size snack sticks do you prefer and do most people use smoke collagen or anyone use clear, fresh,etc?
RJ Adventures 19mm collagen, i want to transfer over to sheep casing just haven’t got the kahunas to try it yet
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Vacuum packed and freeze
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RayStripling what size snack sticks do you use? Guess that goes out to everyone, what size snack sticks do you prefer and do most people use smoke collagen or anyone use clear, fresh,etc?
RJ Adventures I use 19mm collegen casings. I’m like twilliams I want to try sheep casings but don’t like failure.
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RJ Adventures 19mm collagen, i want to transfer over to sheep casing just haven’t got the kahunas to try it yet
twilliams I use the tubed(only way to go) sheep casings making my breakfast sausage into links… they’re amazing, my only concern was trying to use the fresh casings and hanging them without having them split while they’re heating up
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What I am reading seems to be improper prep and I would like offer a few tips.
We specialize in Wild Game and Sticks are probably the most popular item we make for folks. We Chamber Vac Seal 100% of our sticks but they are dried properly in the smokehouse and when they come out of the smokehouse they get rolled into the cooler overnight prior to packaging the next day.
I have never understood why folks Ice Bath sticks (?). When you consider the time spent DRYING them why would you ever introduce moisture back in??
An Ice Bath is not necessary to stop cooking. 156 degree sticks will cool to 41 degrees in 1 hour 20 minutes in a 38 degree cooler which is well within the USDA required HACCP requirements.
I am guessing that another mistake being made is not allowing their sticks enough time to reach room temperature before packaging.
Make sure the sticks are allowed enough time to warm up to room temperature. As they warm up condensation will form on the outside. MAKE SURE the condensation that forms on the outside has sufficient time to dry BEFORE putting them in bags and sealing.
If packaged to soon the moisture will be trapped and form ice crystals in the freezer and then turn back into water upon thawing which is what I believe folks are experiencing.
With Proper prep prior to sealing/freezing sticks should come out of the freezer the same as they went in. Keep in mind that as they thaw and warm up they will once again form condensation that will need to be dried. Taking them out of the bag and onto paper towel as they thaw will help the drying.
Hope this helps…
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twilliams I use the tubed(only way to go) sheep casings making my breakfast sausage into links… they’re amazing, my only concern was trying to use the fresh casings and hanging them without having them split while they’re heating up
RJ Adventures
Make sure to use Mahogany casings. They are intended for the smokehouse and hanging. Ours go into the smokehouse 6’ long (3’/side) and never had a split yet. -
RJ Adventures
Make sure to use Mahogany casings. They are intended for the smokehouse and hanging. Ours go into the smokehouse 6’ long (3’/side) and never had a split yet.Dan Vesel always have used mahogany casings, just curious if anyone has ever used anything else for customer preference, personal preference, etc. Also when it comes to the ice bath, yes it has been done to help lower the IT quicker, as an hour and 20 min of natural cooling may cause that cooked temp to be higher than desired, but the ice bath mostly (for those who may not have a nice commercial smoker which I assume you have) to have the casing form to the meat much better, again not many people here are using hydraulic stuffers like I assume you are so this just helps that process
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What I am reading seems to be improper prep and I would like offer a few tips.
We specialize in Wild Game and Sticks are probably the most popular item we make for folks. We Chamber Vac Seal 100% of our sticks but they are dried properly in the smokehouse and when they come out of the smokehouse they get rolled into the cooler overnight prior to packaging the next day.
I have never understood why folks Ice Bath sticks (?). When you consider the time spent DRYING them why would you ever introduce moisture back in??
An Ice Bath is not necessary to stop cooking. 156 degree sticks will cool to 41 degrees in 1 hour 20 minutes in a 38 degree cooler which is well within the USDA required HACCP requirements.
I am guessing that another mistake being made is not allowing their sticks enough time to reach room temperature before packaging.
Make sure the sticks are allowed enough time to warm up to room temperature. As they warm up condensation will form on the outside. MAKE SURE the condensation that forms on the outside has sufficient time to dry BEFORE putting them in bags and sealing.
If packaged to soon the moisture will be trapped and form ice crystals in the freezer and then turn back into water upon thawing which is what I believe folks are experiencing.
With Proper prep prior to sealing/freezing sticks should come out of the freezer the same as they went in. Keep in mind that as they thaw and warm up they will once again form condensation that will need to be dried. Taking them out of the bag and onto paper towel as they thaw will help the drying.
Hope this helps…
Dan Vesel you gotta remember majority are home processors, they dont have hanging carts to ‘roll’ in and out of huge smokers and coolers. Ice bath is best practice they can do. To my knowledge by putting in an ice bath the meat does not soak up any water. It would not be wise to pull 25lbs of sticks out of smoker, stack them on top of each other in a meat lug to put in a refrigerator. The middle and bottom of the pile wont cool as fast as the top. Thank you for the advice and tips, i did get valuble info on differences of comparement of what i was doing
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