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I have a excel spreadsheet for this recipe. I made it so I can quickly calculate the ingredients from the weight of the meat I have on hand. Only problem is I'm not sure how to upload or attach an excel .xlsx file in the new forum. I did not see it as an option and the upload file does not take the excel file extensions. If some one knows how to do this let me know and I'll add the spreadsheet to the original post.
Good question on the extension. I need to try a trick before answering that. I might know a way. Learned to get around things like that on my work computer
Don't know how I missed this! I have supplies coming for my first batch of snack sticks and this looks like the perfect recipe to start with.
Question, I didn't order the phosphates and I'm not willing to pay shipping would be more than the price of the product, would dried milk work for snack sticks?
Don't know how I missed this! I have supplies coming for my first batch of snack sticks and this looks like the perfect recipe to start with.
Question, I didn't order the phosphates and I'm not willing to pay shipping would be more than the price of the product, would dried milk work for snack sticks?
Should be fine, Idaho. Just be sure to mix it REALLY good so you don’t get clumps.
Frankly, I’ve never used a binder (like SPC or powdered milk) in snack sticks and they come out fine.
Don't know how I missed this! I have supplies coming for my first batch of snack sticks and this looks like the perfect recipe to start with.
Question, I didn't order the phosphates and I'm not willing to pay shipping would be more than the price of the product, would dried milk work for snack sticks?
$13... free shipping.... treats over 200#'s of meat... adds about $0.06 per pound.... Good for sausage and whole muscle meats.. turkey, chicken, pork .... and it really makes the meat moist.....
If you use NFDM and it's not specifically made for sausage making, it may be courser than that which is for sausage making. Simple trick to use grocery store version is run it quickly through a blender or food processor to make it a very fine powder.
And like DaveO said, phosphates are very inexpensive and a very small amount goes a very long way.
Thanks, gentlemen. I’ve used NFDM for sausage and it worked just fine. I had searched Amazon and must have missed the the binder Dave found. Off to Amazon...again.
I did the same thing on several of my AC Legg recipes. Makes it a lot easier. Hopefully I did my math correctly and don't look like a imbecile. I have used it several times and everything turned out fine.
I wanted to post the spreadsheet for others to use. However the new forum will not let me upload an excel spreadsheet (you could in the old forum). I messaged the admins, but so far no joy on them adding .xls or .xlsx file extension to the allowed types for uploads.
Well, I'm out of snack sticks. I know, it's a disaster. Well, I guess it's time to do something about that.
Here is the plan, making a 7 pound batch of beef sticks with my favorite go to recipe. A modified version of AC Legg #116 spice mix with 80/20 ground chuck. This is the recipe I'm using for a 7 pound batch. I sometimes mix a little ground pork in, but today it is just 80/20 ground chuck from Sam's Club as I did not feel like defrosting whole meat and dragging out the #12 grinder.
15.88 grams - Butcher & Packer #414 special binder (phosphates)
1/4 cup - warm water (to dissolve cure in)
23.81 grams - ECA (encapsulated citric acid - for that fermented twang flavor)
Cure #1 measured and ready to mix with water (container on right), and the other spices are in the container on the left (except the ECA which gets mixed just before smoking). If you don't have a gram scale that will read in 1/100th of a gram, I highly recommend one. It's pretty much impossible to do recipes like this with any degree of accuracy without one. Most of the larger scales have a 0.5gram to as much as a 2 gram +/- accuracy (that's a 1 to 4 gram range).
Tried mixing the meat in a rimmed pan. Bad idea. 7 pounds was just too much for this pan so I ended up transferring it to my usual stainless steel bowl. Here is the meat/spice mix/cure mix in the pan. I mixed about 50% at a time in batches for more even distribution. With the addition of phosphates the meat *WILL* get very sticky towards the end, so expect it.
All mixed up and into a storage container to go back into the fridge to rest overnight. I like to give the spices 24 hours or so to "meld" with the meat. Tomorrow, I will add the ECA and stuff into 21mm collagen casings right before smoking. The ECA is *NOT* in the ingredient photo above as I'm not mixing it in today.
For those who have not used ECA before, it needs to be added right before smoking and must be mixed by hand. The CA part (citric acid) of ECA is Encapsulated (hence the "E" part of ECA) inside a little bubble of fat. CA will cause meat to turn grey and have a mealy mouth feel if you mix it ahead of time and let it sit. If you over work the ECA mixing it by using a mechanical means to mix, such as a mixing tub with a crank handle or using a grinder to stuff the casings, you can also break the encapsulation open too soon and cause problems with the quality of the meat. The fat encapsulation is meant to melt at around 143-145* and release the CA into the meat after the meat is basically set (but not fully cooked). This adds the twang flavor you would get by a bacterial fermentation of the sticks. Another method to add twang is to use Fermento or Cultured Buttermilk Powder (Sacco brand from the grocery store). Short of truly making fermented sticks with cure #2, I like ECA as I think the flavor is closest to the traditional stick flavor. But the other methods will work (and cure #2 with true fermentation is the true 'old school' way, but it takes a lot longer and involves many more steps).
One more note about ECA. If you have the LEM brand (and several others), the recommended rate is 3 ounces for 25 pounds of meat. The Butcher & Packer brand of ECA recommends 1.5 ounces to 25 pounds of meat. This batch will have a little of both brands. I can't tell the visual difference between them. I've also seen the recommended range of 2 to 3 ounces per 25 pounds of meat on other brands. My thinking is the ECA is probably the same product and it's a 1.5 to 3 ounce per 25 pounds, or to taste. So I'm sticking with my usual ratio that is the equivalent of the 3 ounces to 25 pounds or 23.81 grams for this batch of 7 pounds. I will report if it's overkill or taste like my usual sticks do.
More to follow tomorrow with the stuffing and smoking.
I just checked back in on this post and see that they finally added excel files as an approved type to attach to a post. The spreadsheet for this recipe is now included in the very first post of this thread.
Beautiful sticks and an excellent tutorial! The only question I have is why no water pan to add moisture in the air. I know why you wouldn’t used it for making jerky since you’re drying out the meat. I thought when smokinh sausage you would want to add moisture in order to keep the casings from getting tough.
Beautiful sticks and an excellent tutorial! The only question I have is why no water pan to add moisture in the air. I know why you wouldn’t used it for making jerky since you’re drying out the meat. I thought when smokinh sausage you would want to add moisture in order to keep the casings from getting tough.
There's plenty of moisture in the meat mix. That's why you let them dry a bit to get tacky before smoking. At these low temps a water pan won't do much anyway, and since a water bath or cool down spray is usually involved, casing moisture is a moot point....
X2 on plenty of moisture in the sticks and sausage met mix.
I learned my smoking skills initially in a WSM back in 2005. A WSM is made to be a water smoker. In a charcoal water smoker the water serves more of a function as a heat control device than anything else. It's been covered before, but water wants to stay water and it takes a much larger input of energy to go from water at 212* to steam at 212*. The energy is sucked out of the air column of heated air. And steam wants to drop back down to water for the same reasons. You have to keep putting the higher energy into steam to keep it as steam. Basically water in a smoker does add some moisture to the air column, but it mainly helps moderate temp swings and hold stable temps in that 210 to 225 band which is perfect for low and slow cooking. With a PID controlled electric smoker that temp control crutch is not needed. Even in a less precise MES with the stock controls, water serves mainly as a thermal heat sink to smooth out the temp swings and overshoots.
Also with sticks and sausage smoking you are not going to 200* unless you want problems with fat out. So water not needed IMO.
