Snack Stick Casing

[MarkP]

I made some snack sticks this past weekend and wanted to get some input on the chewiness of the collagen casing. I stuffed them into 19 mm mahogany collagen casings and cooked them in the oven at 170 until they hit 160. Then I put then in an ice bath for 5 minutes and removed them and put them on the counter on an oven rack for an hour. After that I just put them in the fridge until this morning when i tried them. I was hoping for a more snappy bite to the sticks but the casings were a bit chewy. The meat was nicely adhered to the casing and there was no slippage, but i thought they would have more snap. Is there any recommendations that could be the reason why they were not very snappy?

Thanks

[Austin]

MarkP
My first guess is something related to humidity. The casing being dry is where you get a lot of the snap and bite from.
Did you package them once storing them in the fridge? Once you get them cooled after cooking, packaging (especially vacuum packaging) is recommended. I would guess that if you just put them in the fridge without packaging for a while the higher humidity could make them soggy or chewy.

[Parksider]

I smoke my sticks, but as a regular step in my process I hang the sticks with no smoke until the are dry then add smoke. It seems the drier the sticks are before i smoke they have more of a snap. I would try a couple things if you are using an oven:

1. crack the door of the oven, stick a wooden spoon or something in there in the beginning to let the humidity out.
2. I agree with Austin, i spray mine with a hose to drop the temp, then into a refrigerator-they are designed to remove moisture.
3. Make sure they are completely cool before vacuum sealing.