Snack Sticks Chewy Casing

[greesemunkee]

I have made snack sticks several times with great success as far as flavor. My problem is the casing always come out kind of rubbery. Before I found Waltons I bought A large pack of 21mm brown collagen casings from sausage makers Inc. I smoke them in a Webber Smoky Mountain and follow you temp increases to a T. I have tried the Ice bath a few times but no matter what I do the casing always turns out the same. I’m wondering if it is the casing brand or something I’m doing wrong. I have made several different recipes but the last three batches have been the Willeys. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks

[stanley23]

greesemunkee
Collagens are always a bi chewy, you may try to spray the casing after stuffing or right before to soak a bit.

I use a flower sprayer on mine, better use sheepcasings to go around the problem. If they come out chewy just soak them in a bit Soda water

[doc_craig]

greesemunkee I have had the same problem in the past. They would turn out about like they had a condom on them. I quit using the collagen and went to the sheep casings. This worked good but as you probably know they are a pain to work with compared to the collagen casings. The last two batches I made I used the carrot fiber binder and collagen casings and they turned out really good. The collagen has a little more toughness to it when you bite into it but still had that crisp pop to it, not rubbery at all like in the past. The binder helps hold the moisture in the meat. I am a believer in it now. I had about quit making sticks but now will be making a lot more. I learned this from reading on this forum. Hope this helps you out too. Oh, and something else that is required is lots of mixing if you aren’t already doing that. Austin, I believe that is his name , goes over that in his instructional video. Good Luck!!

[greesemunkee]

Thanks for the info. I bought a large jug of Soy Protein early on and have been using it as a binder but might have to try the carrot fiber. I see the carrot fiber mentioned a lot on this site. You nailed it on the condom comment. Consistency of the meat is spot on, so I think every thing else is close to spot on. This last batch I took the time to just peel the casing off then bagged them up. Thanks

[doc_craig]

greesemunkee I would think the soy protein would work. Like I mentioned earlier it needs a lot of mixing. I think Austin said around 8 mins. Should get very sticky and gummy. I used to think I didn’t want it that sticky. Would be harder to stuff. I would add more water, even tried vegetable oil which really didn’t work to bad but the end result still wasn’t good. I think Austin mentioned using a sure gel which I haven’t tried. You would need to find how much of the soy protein to use. It takes quite a little of it. The carrot fiber is 4 oz per 25 lbs.

[Jonathon]

greesemunkee One thing you might try to just to identify if it is part of the problem is to buy one package of sure gel binder and try that on a batch. Sure gel is a VERY good binder but as you can see it is not cheap, if you wanted to try something else I would go with Super Bind which is a mixture of carrot fiber and potato starch. Using one of these two would pretty much ensure that if a binder was going to fix your issue then one of these would. For the money I like Carrot Fiber best though, inexpensive and does the trick.

As doc_craig says protein extraction (mixing) is also VERY important in preventing the fat from rendering out of the meat which could cause your rubbery casing as the fat will come out of the meat and the casing will be cooking in it during the entire process.