AJ from Mount Pleasant, WI…
Have been enjoying meat snacks and jerky most of my 58 yrs. Been smokin’ meat on a homemade UDS for about 3 yrs. Enjoy trying new techniques and flavors so I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time on the Walton’s site and this blog. Thanks in advance for the hospitality! God Bless!

Most recipes I’ve researched suggest an IT of 152° - 155°. My question is, what’s the most efficient method of taking the IT of a snack stick. Should I use a probe and slide it into the center of one of the snack sticks hanging in the smoker? Is it better to slide the probe into the top of a snack stick as it hangs or up from the bottom? Thanks in advance for your help!

AJ

Thanks for the reply Gents! I have a Maverick ET-733 Dual Probe Thermometer that I use when smoking. I inserted one of the probes from the top down into one of the sticks and it seemed to do a pretty good job.

This was my first attempt at homemade snack sticks and based on the feedback I received from one of my daughters and my wife, two of my three biggest critics by the way, they both told me the sticks were really good. Needless to say I was pleased with their feedback but know there are some areas that need improvement.

A week ago this past Saturday I ground and prepped pork for making a small batch of Linguica. I followed the recipe and used Prague Powder #1 in a ratio consistent with the larger recipe.

How can I tell if the meat is still usable and how long will the sausage meat last if refrigerated? I made a small batch since it was my first time attempting to make linguica so if I need to discard and start over, no big deal. Thanks in advance for any help!