I made my 2nd batch of all Beef/Jalapeno/Cheddar Willies Snack Sticks yesterday. Overall I was happy, but not as impressed (but still really impressed) as I was with the 1st batch. The sticks had a darker appearance, more wrinkles in the casing once finished, and the casing was a little tough. Almost like they case hardened. I ran 125 for an hour, 140 for an hour, 155 for 2, and then 170 to finish. It took almost 9 hour to finish VS. the 6 on the 1st attempt. I made a few changes in the process that had both positive and negative results. I cook in an offset stick burner so everything goes on one rack and is fired by 100% wood. The first attempt I stuffed everything into coils, but ran out of space on the cooker without having to overlap and shuffle things around throughout the cooking process to keep everything even. This time I made long runs to use all the rack space and not have to overlap. Plus it made the final appearance better as to not be shaped in arches once cut. I also lined the entire belly of the cooker with 4 full size pans with a half inch of water in them. Last time I ran the cooker dry. Again, overall I’m still really impressed. It is possible that I may have had the cooker packed just a little to tight cutting back on the flow. I’ve got a batch of TexMex coming up in a few days so I’ll make a few adjustments. I might even try to finish them in the Sous Vide after they’ve taken on some smoke.
