Snack sticks

[Rogers]

Ok so I did some beef snack sticks with ground chuck 80/20 I did 5 lbs and added 1 lb of chopped bacon and hi temp cheese, mixed very good couldn’t hardly get it off my hand it was so sticky, 19 mm casings,started them out at 130 degrees for a hour no smoke then started smoke hr later went to 140 and 10 degrees every hr after till 180 and cooked til internal 160, cold water bath and when I started cutting them up they had a lot of grease pockets I would call it,I also did 50% deer and 50% pork sticks and did the same thing but did not have any problem any answers on why the beef did it is it because I added the bacon?

[Jonathon]

Rogers Was the bacon cooked? The reason I ask is that the uncooked bacon fat is much more likely to render and pool (which is what it sounds like you had) when cooking, that’s not to say that it can’t happen with cooked bacon but it is much less likely. You were at 80/20 with 5 lb of beef then added bacon 1 lb of bacon which would be about 40% or just under a 1/2 lb of fat.

So Austin probably needs to check my math here but you had:
1lb beef fat
4 lb beef lean
.4 lb bacon fat
.6 lb lean bacon
Whic is:
4.6 lb lean
1.4 lb fat

So that’s 23% fat content which is totally fine, so it is not the fat content of the stick that caused your issue so maybe it was the content of your fat.

I’ve added bacon before and it has made it soggy in areas but I have never seen a grease pocket. Would you be able to either post a pic of it or if you can’t post can you email it to me at jonathon@waltonsinc.com? I think the bacon will be the issue though as the rest of your process sounds good to me. When you made your deer/pork sticks did you add bacon there as well?

[Jonathon]

Rogers One other thing, as a general rule for making sausage the higher the fat is on the animal the better it is for sausage making purposes. Interestgly (at least to me) that is actually where the term “high on the hog” comes from!

[Rogers]

Jonathon The bacon was not cooked and no I did not put bacon in the deer sticks I am thinking it is the bacon, I think I will cook it next time crush or grind it into a powder.I will try to get some pictures the flavor is good but it is just a little bit too greasy. The kids love them though LOL!

[Jonathon]

Rogers That’s one of the great things about kids, they don’t need perfect products, just as long as they taste good! I think if you cook it and break it up you will have much better results next time.

[Rogers]

Jonathon for sure and yes I will try cooking the bacon first to illuminate a lot of the grease and then grind it up like I do when I dehydrate my peppers should work really well thanks!!