I have been making jerky for years with no problems with spoilage. I just recently started making snack sticks, they are delicious but I can’t get the shelf life to last more than a week to 10 days refrigerated. Waltons has a great tutorial on how to make snack sticks, just make sure you follow the steps in order.

Rusty my dehydrator won’t go over 160 so after I follow the first part of thermal processing in low temps, I move my snacks sticks, summer,sausage etc, into the oven at 175 for hr Check temp,if still not 155 raise it to 200for 15 min, check temp. Keep checking,every 15min or so til it reaches 155.

Been making sausage for 30 +yrs, my opinion is hand mixing over machine anytime. U can’t make a machine grab squeeze and twist. It doesn’t take that long to get the protein extraction your looking for by hand, maybe 5 minutes. When u run the meat the second time through the grinder you will achieve more protein extraction then mix a little more by hand you will notice how sticky the meat is. As far as helping with cold hands, use a tight fitting non powder nitrile gloves, and put u a bowl,of warm,water near u to dip hands in as needed. It will help, and won’t hurt if a little xtra water is mixed,in.