- Jan 11, 2014
- 75
- 64
Okay, I really love snack sticks and wanted to try making some. Here is what I did...
-used 3 lbs. of 85/15 ground beef, 3/4 cold water, and proper amount of Cabela's Peppered Jerky seasoning and cure
-added small cubes of sharp cheddar to half the mixture
-mixed it all up good and stuffed into 21mm collagen casings (from kit)
-stored in refrigerator for about 21 hours or so
-set out to come up to room temp for 90 minutes
-smoked over pecan and apple in Mastercraft smoker cabinet
-put sticks in on grates at 9am at 120 degrees
-was at 125 at 9:30am
-was at 130 at 10am and added chips now
-was at 140 at 10:30am
-was at 165 at 11am and smoke was rolling pretty good now
-by noonish I was at 175-180 for the most part
-pulled them between 1 and 1:30pm when IT was at 157
-put in ice water bath for 10 minutes
-I had a tough time keeping temp at 170-180 and had spikes to 190 and drops to 160 but just kept at adjusting it over and over
Now here are my questions...
-I expected them to take 5-7 hours but we're done in 4-4.5 hours....why?
-sticks are a bit bigger than I like...should use smaller casing right?
-the casing didn't shrink and stick to the sticks like it should. Any ideas?
-I feel some of it wasn't stuffed full enough as I struggled with Kitchen Aide kit. Going to invest in LEM 5# vertical stuffer. Would this make casings loose? I ended up peeling casing off them anyway as I didn't like how it looked
-sticks just don't seem right to me. They seem a bit dry. They don't have a "snap". They were very greasy on the outside after cooking, cooling, drying. They also didn't shrink and shrivel like I see on everyone else's.
-do I need more fat? Did I "fat out"? Were my temps too high and too erratic?
-I don't see any nice cheese pieces inside like I see on other's pics. It seems like maybe it all melted away? I didn't use hi temp cheese, but I see others using regular cheese too. Too hot? Fat out?
Finally, sorry for the lack of pics. I promise to do it right next time!
-used 3 lbs. of 85/15 ground beef, 3/4 cold water, and proper amount of Cabela's Peppered Jerky seasoning and cure
-added small cubes of sharp cheddar to half the mixture
-mixed it all up good and stuffed into 21mm collagen casings (from kit)
-stored in refrigerator for about 21 hours or so
-set out to come up to room temp for 90 minutes
-smoked over pecan and apple in Mastercraft smoker cabinet
-put sticks in on grates at 9am at 120 degrees
-was at 125 at 9:30am
-was at 130 at 10am and added chips now
-was at 140 at 10:30am
-was at 165 at 11am and smoke was rolling pretty good now
-by noonish I was at 175-180 for the most part
-pulled them between 1 and 1:30pm when IT was at 157
-put in ice water bath for 10 minutes
-I had a tough time keeping temp at 170-180 and had spikes to 190 and drops to 160 but just kept at adjusting it over and over
Now here are my questions...
-I expected them to take 5-7 hours but we're done in 4-4.5 hours....why?
-sticks are a bit bigger than I like...should use smaller casing right?
-the casing didn't shrink and stick to the sticks like it should. Any ideas?
-I feel some of it wasn't stuffed full enough as I struggled with Kitchen Aide kit. Going to invest in LEM 5# vertical stuffer. Would this make casings loose? I ended up peeling casing off them anyway as I didn't like how it looked
-sticks just don't seem right to me. They seem a bit dry. They don't have a "snap". They were very greasy on the outside after cooking, cooling, drying. They also didn't shrink and shrivel like I see on everyone else's.
-do I need more fat? Did I "fat out"? Were my temps too high and too erratic?
-I don't see any nice cheese pieces inside like I see on other's pics. It seems like maybe it all melted away? I didn't use hi temp cheese, but I see others using regular cheese too. Too hot? Fat out?
Finally, sorry for the lack of pics. I promise to do it right next time!