How To Make Snack Sticks
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Austin this is not anything I have ever tried because I don’t have all the adapters for my grinder
stimy28 said in How To Make Snack Sticks:
Austin this is not anything I have ever tried because I don’t have all the adapters for my grinder
Stuffing tubes for a grinder are not too expensive. If you don’t have a sausage stuffer and want to try stuffing off your grinder sometime, take a look at these here: https://www.waltonsinc.com/parts/grinders-parts/stuffing-horns
If you give it a shot and have any questions, let us know if we can help!
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rumbbq said in How To Make Snack Sticks:
how do you get temp so low in the smoker or do i need a special one
Maintaining a low temp is going to be very dependent upon what smokehouse you have. Just start as low as yours can reach.
The smokehouse we cooked in was a commercial smokehouse (see this post) so we definitely have a few more options than most.If I’m cooking at home, my smoker only goes down to 150, so I’d just start at 150 and stay there for the first several hours, until I was ready to bump up to 175 or higher. Many small smokers and smokehouses can get lower, even to 100 or less, so it just depends on your Brand/Make/Model.
For a somewhat inexpensive model, you can get from 100 to 275 on a Cajun Injector Electric Smoker
Or a higher end model like a PK100 Smokehouse, temps can be as low as 60 (as long as your ambient temp isn’t higher) and up to 250What kind of smoker do you have?
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rumbbq said in How To Make Snack Sticks:
how do you get temp so low in the smoker or do i need a special one
Maintaining a low temp is going to be very dependent upon what smokehouse you have. Just start as low as yours can reach.
The smokehouse we cooked in was a commercial smokehouse (see this post) so we definitely have a few more options than most.If I’m cooking at home, my smoker only goes down to 150, so I’d just start at 150 and stay there for the first several hours, until I was ready to bump up to 175 or higher. Many small smokers and smokehouses can get lower, even to 100 or less, so it just depends on your Brand/Make/Model.
For a somewhat inexpensive model, you can get from 100 to 275 on a Cajun Injector Electric Smoker
Or a higher end model like a PK100 Smokehouse, temps can be as low as 60 (as long as your ambient temp isn’t higher) and up to 250What kind of smoker do you have?
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We don’t use any sure gel or citric acid our sticks always turn out good . We have a 12 mm horn on our hydraulic stuffer and it doesn’t want to push the meat through. How much water can I ad to 25 pounds without having to much shrinkage in the casings?
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We don’t use any sure gel or citric acid our sticks always turn out good . We have a 12 mm horn on our hydraulic stuffer and it doesn’t want to push the meat through. How much water can I ad to 25 pounds without having to much shrinkage in the casings?
MatthewHolzer Both of those ingredients are optional. There are various reasons to use them or not use them, but we recommend using them.
It’s always going to be slow and difficult pushing meat through such a small stuffing tube, unless you’ve got a vacuum stuffer. What brand/model of stuffer do you have? I would only recommend using up to 2 quarts of water per 25 lb of meat. I couldn’t tell you how well it would work using any more. You might also look at the lean to fat ratio in your meat as well. Extremely lean meat will difficult to stuff as well, and adding some more fat could help.
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From my experience too much water allows shrinkage, overheating smokehouse will cook out the fat-if you have a pool of fat in the bottom of your smoker it’s too hot. I made wood sticks to hang meat from out of hickory i keep them right on the sticks, ice bath or spray with hose and cold water-benefit of living in the northeast…Total smoker time is about 4-5 hours, i like a good smoke. Also put the sticks in the smoker for 15-45 until they are dry before adding smoke, it you try it while they are wet the smoke bonds to the water and runs off, looks terrible but still edible.
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MatthewHolzer Both of those ingredients are optional. There are various reasons to use them or not use them, but we recommend using them.
It’s always going to be slow and difficult pushing meat through such a small stuffing tube, unless you’ve got a vacuum stuffer. What brand/model of stuffer do you have? I would only recommend using up to 2 quarts of water per 25 lb of meat. I couldn’t tell you how well it would work using any more. You might also look at the lean to fat ratio in your meat as well. Extremely lean meat will difficult to stuff as well, and adding some more fat could help.
Austin we have a mainca em20 hydraulic stuffer. We use half deer and half pork in our spicy sticks. We always mix our meat strips with the cure and seasoning and a little water then double grind.
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Austin we have a mainca em20 hydraulic stuffer. We use half deer and half pork in our spicy sticks. We always mix our meat strips with the cure and seasoning and a little water then double grind.
MatthewHolzer
When we got our hydraulic stuffer I had the same issue. They were never meant to push through that small of a tube. I talked to a butcher supply company and he explained to me if you are using casings smaller than 32mm you WILL blow the motor out. We have a 1hp and he is it’s not if but when the motor goes if we continue to do 17mm casings. So i stepped up to the 21mm casings, i fine grind one time both pork and venison and add about 1qt of water to 20# of meat. It has helped but still a slow go and still trip the breaker on the motor a couple times when we do 100 pound runs. I mix the spice and water into a slurry using a wisk, that also helps. -
Austin we have a mainca em20 hydraulic stuffer. We use half deer and half pork in our spicy sticks. We always mix our meat strips with the cure and seasoning and a little water then double grind.
MatthewHolzer Parksider
I cannot speak for the quality or abilities on a Mainca or other brands, but…
We sell and recommend Talsa Stuffers. We have one here in our test kitchen as well. They do not have a problem running snack sticks on a 12mm horn. 10mm can get to be a little more difficult but can work fine still. A 12mm horn works fine for us and stuffing then into 19mm collagen casings.Even on the smallest Talsa we offer, at a 26lb capacity and 1.75HP, they will stuff snack sticks fine. I think a lot of the capability just relies on what brand and quality of motor is in the hydraulic stuffer.
If you are doing half deer and half pork, the deer is going to be very lean so just make sure the pork used has a high enough fat content. You can safely use up to about 40% of the total product weight in fat and water (approximately 2 quarts water and meat at 75/25 lean to fat ratio), but that’s the limit I’d suggest. If you still struggle to stuff snack sticks at that point, it may just be a limitation on the stuffer you are using.
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