Just did my first batch of snack sticks last night. They came out pretty well, but there are some issues I need to fix and would appreciate any feedback.

First, I used 80/20 ground beef for this test batch of Jalapeno Cheddar Beef Sticks. My recipe for 10lbs included seasonings (Walton’s jalapeno mix), 1/2 cup powdered milk (Nestle’s “Nido”), 1/4 oz pink salt, liquid smoke, 1/2 lb high temp cheese, 1 cup fresh roasted jalapenos, and 1 oz of encapsulated Citric Acid. The end product was way too tart for me and overpowered the jalapeno and cheese. Should I eliminate the citric acid completely? Maybe cut it in half? Is it even needed? I like a little tart taste, but this was too much.

I used my Weston’s 48" smoker for the first time as well…seasoned it as per directions. I could not get the temperature to stay below 150 degrees without cracking the door open for the first 3 hours. I could get it to 125 degrees but the door was literally 1 inch open. Is this normal? I had the temp set on “low”, but it kept climbing too high, even after I tinkered endlessly with the dampers. Also, the temp guage on the smoker and the temp readout on my ThermPro were much different, and I went with the ThermPro as the correct temp. The only time I closed and latched the door was after the 125, 140, and 155 cycles (4 hours). I left it on low and latched the door, when I returned and hour 1/2 later the internal meat temp was around 160, but a couple of casings had burst and leaked fat and I had a nice bonfire in the smoker to deal with. I removed sticks, ice bath for 10 minutes and left out to dry till following day. I did use mesquite chips for the 140 and 155 cycles, and got good smoke. I didn’t use any water in the smoker at all (mistake?).

As I said, they are not bad, but could use improvement. My first smoking experience was disappointing as well, because I had to babysit the smoker for almost 6 hours.

What can I do to improve my product and efficiency?

I forgot to mention that I mixed the meat for 8 minutes in my new Weston’s 44lb mixer…and found out that it doesn’t really mix the meat too well after it starts to get tacky. It more or less clings to the bottom of the hopper and I had to “unstick” it with a wooded spatula several times to keep mixing. I was expecting it to do all the mixing, but I ended up mixing in the cheese and jalapenos by hand in a bowl since the mixer wasn’t cutting it…

Jonathon Thanks for all of the information, I will certainly incorporate it into my next batch! I was using my ThermPro probe to measure ambient temps inside the smoker unit, but your explanation leads me to believe it may have been inaccurate since it’s a probe. I’ll get an ambient thermometer and try it again!

Parksider Thanks for the reply and advice, I will get the dual probe thermometer you mentioned and give it another try. There is definitely a learning curve here, but I am not discouraged, in fact, I am excited to make the changes and try it again! Thanks for your help!