Wet Sticks

[Doug Kapfenstein]

I made a batch of sticks (80/20 beef hamburger) and when I got to temp (around 160) I took them out of the smoker and they looked great as usual. I put them in an ice water bath for a while (maybe almost an hour) and when I went to dry them off and cut to length they seemed to be very wet under the casings. I use mahogany casings and used about an ounce of water per pound of meat. I might have gotten just a little bit more water in when mixing but would that have caused this? Wouldn’t that water cook out during the cook process? Thanks for any input

[Parksider]

That’s a long time to leave in a water bath, wondering if that had something to do with it. The idea of the bath is to just stop the cooking process and limit the carryover cooking. I’d try hanging them for a day then bag them up. If you hang in the fridge it will draw some of the moisture out.

[Doug Kapfenstein]

Parksider ya I usually don’t let them sit that long. Got caught up in a show on television. Lol. I am hoping that’s the reason so it’s an easy fix. Thanks

[Jonathon]

Doug Kapfenstein Yeah like Parksider said, that’s a very long time, shouldn’t need more than 20 minutes. Hanging them might help dry them out but I think your casings are going to continue to separate from the meat, once you get some moisture in there it is usually not reversible.

You could simply peel the casings if hanging them doesn’t work? Wouldn’t have the snap and they would look a little odd but shouldn’t affect the taste much, if at all.