20lbs Signature Smoked Kielbasa. Ground, mixed, and stuffed the night before. Getting some cherry smoke right now, followed by an ice bath, and then air dry.

Hey there! First attempt making Willies Snack Sticks.

50/50 pork beef mix.
Willies Snack Stick Seasoning.
ECA.
Sure Gel.

Had to mix by hand unfortunately. I see a mixer in my near future. Looked like I achieved good protein extraction. Last minute added ECA. Stuffed into 19mm casings.

On to my Rec-Teq 700, which unfortunately can’t go lower than 180. Smoked with an extra smoke tube for about 2 hours, until IT about 140*, then into a turkey roaster for a bath at 170ish for about 40 minutes. Pulled when IT was about 165*

Taste and texture seem really good. Hoping a nice overnight air dry in fridge makes them even better.

I suppose the main question that I have is that given that incredibly short processing time because of my high smoker temp, would the ECA have enough time to activate and help the cure as I went pretty much straight from stuffing to smoking. I just see some people going hours and hours…just hoping I didn’t mess up!!! The texture and color would lead me to believe it worked just fine. Just curious what others think?

Thanks again, love the community!

Chris

I did 15 years in Accounting/Finance/Consulting. Hated every minute of it. Went back to school and got a Masters degree in Special Education. Now I teach special ed in high school.

Going to bring in a bunch of Paczki for my students.

Dave in AZ I used the tubed 35-38mm natural hog casings and the spices was the Signature Smoked Kielbasa! The only thing I added was a couple tablespoons of extra mustard seed.

Chris from outside Chicago. Been grilling and making bbq for several years now. Started with a WSM 22" and now have a Rec-Tec 700. Have been getting into grinding my own meat and making sausages. Found Walton’s for casings and couldn’t be happier with them. Looking forward to learning alot more from this group!

cdavis It’s a donut on steroids. Some are filled with fruit fillings, others are filled with cream fillings. They’re big in the Chicago area.

Those look amazing!

zbigjeff Very nice! I’ve been playing around with grind. These were a coarse grind followed by a fine. Give it a fairly emulsified texture, which I happen to like. However, I do like the look of having defined meat particles/chunks, so I am definitely going to play with the grind some more.

Dr_Pain said in First Attempt At Snack Sticks:

I can’t add to the discussion because that is what I would have said. Those sticks do look mighty delicious. Let us know if the overnight helped taste and texture

The overnight rest in fridge worked great! They firmed up really nicely and I thought the flavor was more pronounced the next day.

processhead said in First Attempt At Snack Sticks:

Agree with every ones comments and great looking sticks.
Did the ECA release? You should be able to taste it when you take the first bite as a tangy flavor.
I don’t think you would otherwise taste unreleased ECA unless you chewed it very thoroughly.

Thanks! Yes there was a definite tang, so I think I was good to go! I’m going to try a batch without it and let it cure overnight to see what i think of those.

Departing Contestant I was thinking the same thing. I think I might grind some small batches and do some tests patties first to play around with it. Thanks for the reminder of being aware of sugar content.