I have a couple of questions: 1. After marinating, do I pat the meat dry? I do this before smoking salmon. 2. Do I add smoke only for stage 2 (for 30 minutes) or do I smoke it through the remainder of the process?
Thanks in advance!

Hi, Austin. I have been making Willie’s snack sticks for a few batches and every time I get grease pockets between the casing and the meat. I followed the recipe to the best of my ability, including the smoke/cook schedule, except that I hand mix the meat thoroughly. Would you have any idea why I am getting grease pockets?

Jonathon Thanks for the quick reply! Is carrot fiber as good as sure gel? We hand mix for about 15 minutes adding the encapsulated citric acid in the last couple of minutes. I like to do a turn-and-squeeze technique to really mash and mix the meat. Is this a bad technique?

Jonathon Thanks. I am using wild game and pork fat. I have used sure gel last time and still had “fatting out”. Maybe I need to just mix it longer