Beef Sticks with Home Made Stuffing Tubes....

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daveomak

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Nov 12, 2010
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Omak,Washington,U.S.A.
I made these 2 tubes some time back.... Finally getting around to my first ever Beef Sticks in casings....

I've made them casing-less before, but time to step up and make them in casings.....

The top tube is made from K-Type 1/2" copper, thin wall type.....

The bottom tube is made from brass.... It can be had in the hardware store... usually at the end of an aisle

with other brass stock used in hobby stuff... it is 1/2" O.D....  unlike the copper which is 5/8" O.D.....


The ends were annealed with a small butane torch then flared with a flaring tool... annealed

again and flared some more....  they then slide into your existing tubes on your stuffer.....

I taped the tubes in places so they fit tight...  Not in a meat contact zone.... they remove

easily for cleaning.... A washer was  placed over the brass tube flare for a better fit in the

stuffing tube......

I haven't used the brass tube yet.... It should be a good tube for 17mm casings, don't know for sure.... 


This batch was made with 21mm edible collagen casings....  tight fit but it worked....

I could get about 6' of casing on the tube...... 


I stuffed about 12", 4 tiles, and bent and stuffed some more...  tied in 2 places, (not shown),

cut, and repeat...  Next go around with sticks, I will cut the casing to the lengths I need

and slide on the tube... Probably 24" inches to make a doubled 11" stick...or something 

close to that....  then I can shorten the copper tube... to about 5" sticking out of the original tube...


I had the help of granddaughter....  we just hung the sticks....


The knots held nicely.....  24 hours in the smoker.... 12 hours at 100 deg ish... to dry the casings...

add smoke for 3 hours while raising the temp to 160 ish for the remaining 12 hours....  sticks got to

150 ish degrees...    Cooled in the smoker slowly...  


Cut into big bite sized pieces and vac-packed with Lisa B's vac-bags.... They are the best

if you haven't tried them...


The taste and texture is better than store bought.....  I used one of nepas recipes (correction) for part

of this batch and Bride had some stuff she wanted put in the meat for a Far East type stick....

One ingredient was Yoshida's... The RonP teriyaki, rice wine vinegar and Yoshida's stick....

Both were good..... I used 80-20 in the bag.... 5#'s... when I get a "perfect" recipe, 20#'s will be

the batch of choice.... until then....   Dave
 
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Sticks look good Dave! I got a Weston stuffer for Christmas but it didn't come with a tube small enough for sticks. I have a double flaring tool & I may see about making something like your smaller brass one if I can't find one that works soon. Thanks for the idea!

Oh yeah - did you use meat that was already ground for your sticks?
 
Jeremy, morning....   http://ksmetals.com/RetailLocations.html  K&S Precision Metals / Engineering  is who makes and where it is carried... $3 for 12" I think.... cheap, good stuffing tube... Different sizes also.....   If it isn't available locally, major suppliers have it.... 

Yes, I used 80-20 in the plastic tube for this batch..... I figured I was filling it with spices and cure etc. and didn't want to use "good" beef for this go around.... It worked well.... I may keep using it.... who knows.....   Dave
 
Jeremy, morning....   http://ksmetals.com/RetailLocations.html  K&S Precision Metals / Engineering  is who makes and where it is carried... $3 for 12" I think.... cheap, good stuffing tube... Different sizes also.....   If it isn't available locally, major suppliers have it.... 

Yes, I used 80-20 in the plastic tube for this batch..... I figured I was filling it with spices and cure etc. and didn't want to use "good" beef for this go around.... It worked well.... I may keep using it.... who knows.....   Dave
Thanks Dave - I will try to track some down around here...

Yeah I thought that's what you meant in the last part of your post but wasn't quite sure - now I am
biggrin.gif
 
Hey sausage king.... These would remind you of your 3rd batch... only because I had a few experts to copy from....
biggrin.gif
..

Thanks Martin... 

Thanks Sam....  
Yikes

Dont remind me of my 3rd batch.....That was 1977 
icon_eek.gif
 
Very nice thems look great       Dave (i think I may have missed something thou) so one question why so long in the smoker???  what is this 1977 recipe you talk about sorry but I was only a small one then?? NOT SO SMALL IN MASS NOW LOL

It is new years and I may have had a couple drinks too many that  I did miss something LOL
 
Good Idea Dave. I'm going to make one of Pex and one of copper. Did it slow down the stuffer pushing the meat a farther distance?
 
Woodcutter, morning.... The ID of PEX is pretty small.... I made a tube for "practice" and didn't try it....  After looking at the ID, I figured the plastic gears on the stuffer would suffer....  K copper is thin wall....  The brass tube is REALLY thin wall, about 0.014" if I remember right...

No it did not slow down.... I make my sausage really wet to ease the strain on the equipment.... It still dries fine, but you must use a low heat for a long period for the water to escape...about 110-120 I would say, for hours..... In the beef stick I used consomme for the liquid.. In the far east flavor, the Yoshida's, soy and rice wine were used to make it really wet....   
Very nice thems look great       Dave (i think I may have missed something thou) so one question why so long in the smoker???  what is this 1977 recipe you talk about sorry but I was only a small one then?? NOT SO SMALL IN MASS NOW LOL

It is new years and I may have had a couple drinks too many that  I did miss something LOL
Steve, morning....  nepas the "sausage king" wanted a taste... I was referring to his 3rd batch probably tasted like my first batch only because I had help from the forum.....   His 3rd batch was in 1977.....  Shows how experienced the "KING" is....

The recipe I used was one of nepas recipes..... it recommended 24 hours at 160 or lower in the smoker, for the "tang" to develop in the sticks....  So, that is what I did....  The next day they are REALLY good.... Every time bride has one of the ends that are in a bowl in the kitchen, she remarks on how good they are....   I think, with a little more taste testing, this may very well be my go-to-sticks recipe.....
 
Yes, I used 80-20 in the plastic tube for this batch..... I figured I was filling it with spices and cure etc. and didn't want to use "good" beef for this go around.... It worked well.... I may keep using it.... who knows.....   Dave
Looks Good Dave!

I made two batches of sticks one with 80/20 in the plastic tube from the local grocery store, wally world I think, and then the other batch with some ground beef from my butcher which is local grown beef, at the end of the day you could not tell the difference which was which, we now reserve  the good butcher meat for dinner, and the cheap stuff for snack sticks
 
Yes, I used 80-20 in the plastic tube for this batch..... I figured I was filling it with spices and cure etc. and didn't want to use "good" beef for this go around.... It worked well.... I may keep using it.... who knows.....   Dave
Looks Good Dave!

I made two batches of sticks one with 80/20 in the plastic tube from the local grocery store, wally world I think, and then the other batch with some ground beef from my butcher which is local grown beef, at the end of the day you could not tell the difference which was which, we now reserve  the good butcher meat for dinner, and the cheap stuff for snack sticks
Good to know...  I like to grind my own burger and was hoping I couldn't tell the difference.... I figure the store bought with cure #1 and all the spices was good and safe besides.....   
 
Thanks Dave I thought PP took a long time
At least there is no threat to over cooking... set at 110, walk away.... set at 120 ish, add smoke, walk away.... set at 160, wait for the IT....  

Pretty slick and easy.....  I like the finished product...   PP always makes me nervous... Nothing worse that dry PP...   
 
Nice work Dave.

I don't have the tools to make a sweet tube like that but I've been thinking about it because I want to make some small snack sticks, like slim jim thin. Thought it would be fun but probably a pain in rear to stuff em..
 
Happy New Year Dave, Just read your post about making the stuffer tubes.

My sin and I was making snack stix a few weeks ago, I have the Dakotah water stuffer modified to use air instead of water. Anyway My son leaned on the stuffing tube to hard and broke it right up close to where ift flared out to fit the suffer body.

I picked up a 1/2" X 12" piece of thinwall SS tube, did what you did and slid it inside the original section of the stuffing tube. Now I have a 12" stuffing tube instead of the shorter one that came with my stuffer.

Works great.

Rich
 
 
At least there is no threat to over cooking... set at 110, walk away.... set at 120 ish, add smoke, walk away.... set at 160, wait for the IT....  

Pretty slick and easy.....  I like the finished product...   PP always makes me nervous... Nothing worse that dry PP...   
By the way Dave thanks agian  for the other day for your help on my pp turned out great having pp tacos tonight

Happy new yrs

When you get this perfected i would luv to get recipe to make them if I could

Thanks agian - Steve
 
Looking real tasty Dave..I think you are getting the hang of this stuffing thing...

  Craig
 
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