Maybe this has already been suggested but I’ll add my 2 cents anyways. I was making a 5 lb batch of snack sticks yesterday with my 11 lb Walton’s stuffer and you know how it always leaves about 3/4 lb of your ground and mixed meat in the throat? Usually I just make some hand formed sausages or use it to add to a batch of scrambled eggs but this time I made a strong jalapeno based blend with ghost pepper cheese and didn’t think the wife would like it. So, when the stuffer was done stuffing the casings I was trying to think of something to get the rest of the meat out of the throat and I saw my lemon tree was loaded so I put a lemon over the top of the throat and ran the plunger down-worked like a champ! The lemon fit inside the throat and gave me another 6" of snack stick. All that was left was a small handfull of meat that I made a patty out of. Next time I’ll put a second lemon in there when the first is all the way in. I tried some old hamburger buns the last time I made sticks but they just flattened out and didn’t get the meat out. Lemons are the perfect size! Hope this helps! R!

I’m Randy from the Butte county area of N. Ca. I’ve been making jerky and smoked salmon for years but thought it would be fun to try my hand at making sausages. I have a Huntrite grinder with stuffing tubes and a Masterbuilt electric smoker. I’ve already made some Italian and breakfast sausages that turned out pretty good. I’ll be doing my first batch of snack sticks with Willie’s seasoning and all the other ingredients I got from Walton’s

I ran out of the collagen casings the last time I made breakfast sausages so I formed the bulk meat into sausage size rolls with my hands. I put them in the freezer for an hour or so till they firmed up then vac sealed them. Freezing them first keeps them from being crushed by the vac sealer. Time consuming but it worked and my wife likes them better with out the casing.

Today was my 3rd batch of snack sticks but I’ve done a couple batches of breakfast sausage and some brats in the past couple of weeks. I’ve never been satisfied with the texture as it’s always come out kind of like a hot dog. I’ve been using a countertop cheapy grinder that grinds pretty well but I think my texture problem is due to the meat going through the auger again to get it in the casings. It looks like the auger is grinding it to mush trying to force it into the casings. I put 2 cups of high temp cheese in today’s batch but as the meat was going into the 16 mm casings there was no sign of any cheese-just meat mush. Time to upgrade to a sausage stuffer!

I have the same smoker and as mentioned above I use a smoker tube with pellets that I place upright in the smoker after getting the pellets going. I usually do just a half tube of pellets and that gives me about 2 hours of good smoke. It works great if you’re doing something like jerkey or snack sticks where you don’t want high heat but still want some smoke. I don’t get any smoke out of the little wood chip chamber that came with the MB unless I have the temp set for over 180. With the smoke tube I can have smoke at 125 degrees.

I let my dog back in the house early one morning before a fishing trip. She came running in and started rolling on the carpet but as she ran past me I realized she’d been sprayed by a skunk-too late! Before I could get her back outside she ran into the bedroom where the wife was still sleeping and jumped on the bed-total pandemonium. My wife wasn’t real pleased when my fishing partner showed up and I had to leave. But, still married-47 years this year.

txbigly I haven’t taken the plunge yet on a stuffer. Just discovered that my auger driven meat grinder isn’t the right tool for stuffing sausages even though it came with the attachments. My latest snack sticks look more like hot dog sticks because of the texture.

I just hope that someday my wife doesn’t sell my stuff for what I told her I paid for it!

@Mr-Fwed That’s how I do mine. I cut the meat into about 1" x 3" pieces then mix in the seasonings & pork fat. Sometimes I’ll let that sit in the fridge for a few hours before doing the first grind. Refrigerate again for a couple of hours and do the second grind. Always comes out great.

It’s the Walton’s 11 lb. A bit bigger than what I really need but it’s built like a tank. The instructions that come with it leave a lot of room for improvement though. Translated by someone and not done very well. Throw them out and watch the Walton’s video about how to maintain their stuffer. I can do the 16mm snack sticks by myself-just don’t let go of the handle with pressure on it. You’ll do it but only once!

I like the idea of how to go about resolving something whether it’s a problem or just an inconvenience and seeing how others have overcome it. My initial post had to do with the frustration of the left over meat in the throat of the stuffer and trying something to remedy it. My first thought was putting a ball on top of the throat and then running the plunger down again. I tried the bread thing that I use to get the meat out of the auger of my grinder but all it did was mash flat on top of the meat due to the force it takes to push the meat into the casing. The lemon trick worked great and didn’t smash it. Next time I’ll put a second lemon on top of the first after the first one is pressed into the throat. As to the issue of the piston not going to the bottom of the stuffer can I’m wondering if the shaft could be reindexed at the top where the gears engage it so it would have more downward travel. I’m not familiar with the Cabela’s brand of stuffer so not sure if that’s possible. As I use to say in my cabinet shop-it’s not messed up if it can still be fixed! R!

PapaSop There might be a hidden meaning there someplace. I was working at an Air Force base in England when all the email stuff started happening.

That looks good-I’m referring to the frosty bottle of Fireball!

Meateater1 Thanks-that’s what I was looking for.

I just made 4 racks of Jerky in my 30" Masterbuilt on Sunday. I used a marinade using some oriental sauces from the fridge. Today, I’m making 3 lbs of brats-I’m bored and just trying to keep busy. Here are my suggestions for your next event-hope I win something! Randy.
#1-Buffalo Wing Jerky
#2-Pepper & Garlic Jerky

I’ve done the bourbon bacon and it imparts a nice bit of flavor-a bit of a smoky taste but different from smoke flavor that comes from the smoker. Hard to describe but nice! R!

Fresh side pork is really good-sorta like a very thin pork chop. If you want bacon just get a whole pork belly (Costco) and follow any of the many techniques on youtube. Iv’e done 5 or 6 and use a very simple dry brine. Takes about 7 days for the brine to soak then just smoke and slice to your desired thickness. I’ll never buy bacon again. I’ve also been curing select cuts from Pork shoulder and treating it like bacon only it’s much leaner. Google Buckboard bacon.

I did some smoked deviled eggs a couple weeks ago-really tasty but not the prettiest eggs on the table. The smoke turns the white part a slight brownish-green color and there were smoker grate marks on them. But, they were really good. The wife cooks the eggs (from my chickens) in her instapot (the only way she does them now) and peels them. I put them in the smoker for about an hour with light smoke. If you want I’ll have her tell me the recipe for the rest of her deviled eggs. I also put about half a dozen smoked eggs in my 6 year old pickling jar. It’s like my sourdough starter-keep feeding it!

Jonathon It’s a timing thing. By the time I get the pork barely frozen, cut up and seasoned it’s usually too late in the day to grind, stuff and smoke. I can start the next morning and get it smoked and chilled in a reasonable amount of time. That, and I’m a little lazy-just getting use to this retirement thing. Randy.

pr0wlunwoof I bone out a pork shoulder roast (butt) and kind of butterfly it. Pick out the best parts of it to use for bacon and use the rest for sausage. I usually get 2 nice pieces from each butt about 4 or so pounds total.
Mix 1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbs. Kosher salt
3 oz. pink cure salt
1 Tbs black pepper
Blend all this together and rub equally on the pork. Place pork in a zip lock bag and pour in 1/4 cup real maple syrup.
Put the bag in the fridge-on a pan in case the bag leaks. Every day turn the bag over and massage the brine into the meat a little making sure all sides of the pork is coated. After 7 or 8 days remove the pork from the bag and rinse well under cold water. Then soak the meat in ice water for an hour-drain and soak another hour. I kind of work the meat a little to get some of the salt brine out of the meat but it’s a personal thing as to how salty you want the bacon. After the second hour remove and pat the meat dry. Place it on a cooling rack and put back in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight uncovered. The meat should be fairly dry but tacky. Place it on your smoker rack and lightly coat with a little more syrup and sprinkle with course ground pepper. Smoke at 180 degrees till you get an internal temp of 150 or so. Remove from the smoker and let the meat rest in the fridge for a couple of hours till it’s cool and firm. Slice to your desired thickness and enjoy.