It depends on how much you are grinding.
If just a pound or two, a dinner plate might do.
But for larger amounts you may need a platter, or even a tub.
Since I use my wife’s Kitchenaid, I do my first grind into the mixing bowl (5 pound batches), then mix in the fixins.
After chillin the villin in the cooler, I will regrind but usually right inta the stuffer can.
Then roll out the big longin.
So yeah, plate size matters if you want your meat off the table.

Got to be careful or somebody like me will give you a really silly answer…

JohninPa said in Stuffing snack sticks?:

I have a lem #12 grinder , believe the smallest tube it came with is a 5/8" will that work with the 19 mm casings?

If that is the O.D. (outside diameter) it should. 19mm equals 3/4".
Personally, I would want a smaller stuffing tube than 5/8" for snack sticks.
https://www.metric-conversions.org/length/millimeters-to-inches.htm

But LEM may not want the back pressure a smaller tube could cause.

I did some snack sticks with my grinder on a KitchenAid, but quickly realized the value of a dedicated stuffer.
I use a 5 pound stuffer because I’m Mr. Smallbatch. It’s a lot easier to use a stuffer so you can control the feed rate.
I’m also pineing over a real grinder to do that step. But doing well enough doing my grinding and mixing with the kitchenaid.

When you are a Mr. Smallbatch, 19 mm casings tend to use up your hard won stuffin.
So I think I’ll stick around the smaller casings, and Willie’s Snack Stick mix.

chippewa

I went this way on Ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-9-16-x-3-8-Snack-Stick-Tube-AND-17mm-Casings-for-Sausage-Stuffer-LEM-606/152809566253?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Works great for me on my 5# LEM stuffer. No problems at all.
I use Willie’s Snack Stick Mix, and still using the Collagen casing that came with the tube. (Because I’m Mr. Smallbatch.)

Congratulations Joe!
Awe sum work you put in there man!
And awesome pictures, too!

I second Jonathon’s advice.
Willie’s is a great taste by itself, and how to is right here.

I like to do a 50/50 Beef/Pork Shoulder mix.
Course grind, mix in the Willie’s, Refrigerate over night. (Gives the cure time to cure.)
Then regrind with a 3/16" plate.
Refrigerate for a couple hours to rechill. Then put the batch in my 5 pound stuffer and make rope.
At that point, into the smoker to smoke and bake to 165° IT. Ice water bath. Then whack into ~8" sticks and package in 5’s.

I like 17 mm collagen casing for mine. Gives it a “snap”.
I use Apple Wood as my smoke. I typically eat a package of 5.
That’s why I like 5’s. If I did 10’s, or 20’s, I’d likely eat them all.
And since I share, my dog would get to danged full.

Jonathon, could you please give him the link to the reducing page for lesser than 25 pounds of meat? Thanks!
(I’m off to go drag a trailer around in L.A. traffic.)

I guess I’m just not that adventurous.
I smoke and cure meats for preservation reasons.
Adding water, with a pan or any other device seems counter productive.
People I’ve seen with curing chambers do not use a humidifier like that. They use what is more like used in a humidor for cigars. (Think a large storage, walk in refer sized chamber.)
A vaporizer like what I see in that picture is going to mold your sausage.
And Lord Knows, us guys don’t want to let our sausages mold.

Carry on…

Didn’t cook nothin.
But I did start more sow belly curing.
I’m maken Maple Bacon for the 6 YO Grand Daughters request.
Two slabs, all I had on hand.

It’ll see the pan in 4 weeks.

johnsbrewhouse said in Kitchenaid mixer for 5lb batches of sausage?:

The corkscrew is a doughhook and won’t mix well.

Well, it would probably mix dough ok.

I’d say to try it.
What the heck, you might find something you really like.
Me, myself, and I prefer to use my smoker. But probably because where ever I’ve been, I’ve managed to make one up.
I use a dehydrator to make jerky whenever I want to run a batch. But that’s different than a snack stick.
I tried Ground Meat Jerky, but never liked any of it.
But hey, if you don’t try, you will always wonder.

Here is a thought to throw in here. (Hey, that’s a here, here sentence.)
I saw where a guy used his driver drill, with a socket on it to run his vertical stuffer.
Never tried it myself with mine. But I’ll put it out there to chew on.

I find working my vertical is a bit of work. I clamp it on a corner of our kitchen island, and sit on one of the counter stools.
Works OK for me, with Arth Shoulders, Arth back, and cranky old man syndrome.

So you might have what you need to make an electrical stuffer. Worth pondering.

I’m kinda drools about a push button stuffer. Or one with a foot switch. :ok_hand_medium-light_skin_tone:

I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, it’s what I have. My wife suggested I try using it, and getting a meat grinder attachment for it.
I was on that like stink on dog-doo. I went shopping and found a Stainless Steel grinder attachment for it.
It works OK, but I think a real meat grinder would be much better.
Once I’ve ground my meat, I put it into the 6 quart SS bowl with the paddle type mixer. I use the OEM paddle, and leave my wife’s fancy cookie paddle alone. (My Momma didn’t raise no fool!)
I typically do 4-5 pound batches, and they work great in the mixer. I just did a 4 pound batch of Willie’s Snack Sticks last week. (Because I found two packages of 50/50 Beef/Pork I had put up in the freezer.) They each had 1 pound of each meat. LOL, My 50/50 freezer pack of grind fodder.
I course ground the meat, refrigerated it for a couple of hours, then did the mixing adding my proportioned Willie’s Mix with some Prague Powder added and mixed into it. Mixed it long enough to get it gooey, then reground it with a medium plate (3/16", I think?), anyway, reground it finer.
I did something new for me when mixing my small batch, I kicked up the speed towards the end. The meat separated from the paddle nicely and was able to get some boogy in the mixin. But it didn’t fly out. Whew!
Then I stuffed it in my sausage stuffer (5 pound) and made rope with it.
But I think using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer is the cats meow for small batches like I always make.
Seems to work good.

Well, I don’t know what happened here. But my lengthy post got wrecked.
Cold Smoking is described as smoking items at less than 100° F. I cold smoke a lot of what I make, Bacon’s, Salmon, Nuts, Salt, Butter, etc.
My bacon, snack sticks, and sausages, all have cure added to be sure they are done properly. I feel cure and it’s use if fine when the finish product is finally cooked to the point the cure remaining is neutralized by the heat.
I haven’t found any complaint with Walton’s Seasonings, and suggest you begin here. I also have a shelf of other seasonings I like to employ to make my own variations on seasonings. I did that with Meat Snack Sticks, but came back to enjoying Willie’s Snack Stick Mix.
I don’t know what a Breakfast ring sausage is supposed to taste like. So cannot recommend there. Austin or Jonathon should be able to help you.

I use an Amazen Tray to burn pellets or sawdust in for all my smoking. I’ve come to prefer using sawdust in the tray, and get 6 hours of smoke from a full tray of sawdust. I dissolve wood pellets with a bit of water, then dry them back out into sawdust for my smoking fuel.
To me, pellets have a stronger flavor, maybe a more bitter end result. I don’t taste that with sawdust.
My current favorite is Apple Wood Pellets. That is after using Hickory wood for ~ 50 years. So it’s a big change for me.
I used a Bradley Smoke generator for about 12 years, but Bradley priced their fuel out of my realm of “reasonably priced.”
So I’ve transpired into pelleted wood for my fuel. Available everywhere, and cheap.

Cold smoking can be done in any of a variety of ways, from a cardboard box, to a BBQ, or any sort of thing. (But not in the house!) I use one of two Masterbuilt Electric Smokers I have modified to do my smoking in. (Modified because they did not work for my type of smoking)

I smoke cured bacon for 6 hours with Apple Wood Sawdust. Everybody seems to love the bacon I make. And everybody is still alive. So I count that as a success. LOL!

Hi Betty,
Cold smoking is defined as smoking items at <100° F. (Less than 100° F) I prefer it for much of what I make, then finish it when it is cooked.
I cold smoke Bacon, Salmon, Nuts, salt, butter, etc.
I use Prague Powder in weighed amounts. 1.1 grams per pound of meat.
For my tastes, I typically smoke my cured bacon for 6 hours, with Apple Wood sawdust. I use an Amazen tray that works for Pellets or Sawdust. (I like dual use out of items I buy.)
If I want a stronger smokiness, I just use pellets.
But dissolving the pellets with a little water, then drying out the sawdust, gives me a milder tastier smoking result.

Cold smoking can be done in any appropriate sized container, even a cardboard box. But I use one of my Masterbuilt smokers. (One I was given. One I bought)

Things I cold smoke I generally vacuum bag and freeze, for later use, after cooking.
As long as you use cure, and always use it in the recommended amounts, everything should work fine. Cooking cured meats and meat products renders cure neutral.
I enjoy some of Walton’s seasonings, especially Willie’s Snack Stick mix. But I also use my own season’s and combinations as well.

I’d like to see what you make.

bckarl

Well, I think I would rather be shot, than to be Loranna’d.

Jonathon said in Snack sticks , masterbuilt smoker?:

pauliedmondsjr Just chiming in to say great post! Good amount of detail and step by step instructions…trying to take my job?! I’m going to do some social media posts with this, do you have an Instagram, Twitter or FB account you’d like me to tag?

Thanks Jonathon, I try to be helpful.
No, I certainly do not want your job. I don’t want to move. LOL! (But being able to use the Company kitchen and equipment is enticing… drool.)
I’m on FB, but not real active on FB. For personal reasons. I can message you a link if you’d like?

bckarl
Hi!
I’ve done both, the shelf, and hanging.
But I’m old fashioned, and think meat hanging in a smoker does something for it.
As for results, probably a toss up. It tastes good to me.

pauliedmondsjr

Add in: My 4 pound batch yeilded 35 sticks shown, plus a couple of samples.
I used 17mm collagen casing.
YMMV.

JohninPa
LOL! Just did a 4 pound load yesterday. (I’m Mr. Smallbatch, I do 5< loads generally.)
I mixed my meat at a 50-50 ratio, Beef/Pork shoulder. Works for me.
I use Waltons, Willies Snack Stick Seasoning. Tastes just right. I ground my mixture with my course plate, then mixed in the Willie’s with my Pink Salt added (Proportioned by weight of the meat) while mixing.
Then reground through a 3/16" plate, and let the mixture chill down again. After a couple of hours, I stuffed my collegen casing using my stuffer. That snack stick rope got put up over night to let everything work.

Using my MES 30, this time I decided to cut some pieces out of some old SS oven racks I saved from a bygone kitchen range. Worked good with some smallish S-hooks to hang it from one of the MES racks. The oven rack was thicker bar, and wider spaced, and worked out just dandy. Plus, I could load my folded ropes from the small baking pan onto the new hanging rack easily. I’ve used 1/2" copper water pipe before, hung in my smoker. But I think this new thing works betterer.

So the rope is hung nice on a rack I’d already pre-fit to my MES 30, I hung it up in my pre-heated MES (125°), and started my sawdust burn using an Amazen tray in a Mailbox Mod*. Apple Wood is my preferred wood, about 2 hours works for me.
The “Program” ia 125° for 1 hour. 140° for the next hour. 155° for the next 2 hours. And 175° for the remainder until the internal temperature reaches 165°. I got that right here from Austin’s Meatgistics video.
Now, typical for MES smokers, the temperature in mine runs high. I use one of my leave-in meat thermometers for the Snack sticks, with an oven probe to monitor the MES box. (Thermo Pro TP-08)
If you do that, you can set the “Food Probe” alarm to let you know when the snack sticks reach 165°, bingo, Done. ;^)

• = I did >1< Salmon smoke in my Brand New MES 30 and knew I needed to modify it. I’m a smoker, not necessarily a cooker. I cold smoke Salmon, Bacon, Nuts, Butter, Etc.
  Things I cold smoke are cooked after, or blanched before, they are smoked.
  If you are interested in this modification, I suggest watching this Video on YouTube.

I got the Willie’s Snack Stick Mix to do 25 pounds. But I dole it out in batch weights for the pounds I have available to do. Hence, Mr Smallbatch. At nearly 70 YO, I’m not sure I could handle doing a full 25# batch. And if I did, I’d probably be pooping Willie’s mix trying to eat it all.
25 Pounds of Snack sticks is considerable cord wood to gnaw on.
Ergo, Mr. Smallbatch here. With MES smokers on hand to do Smoking. But processing Snack Sticks in a MES is a great way to make them, using Walton’s Meatgistic’s video for referance.

Inna tray: (Small baking pan)

Inna Rack:

Inna a Vac Bag ready to Snack:

Hope this helps.