Beef Snack Sticks

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

ernurse28

Fire Starter
Original poster
May 10, 2013
43
10
Michigan
Hey Everyone! So I decided to experiment with some beef snack sticks over the weekend. Unfortunately I don't have a vertical stuffer so I had to improvise and use the LEM jerky shooter (Snail Method) but works if its all I have for now. I mixed up one pound 85/15 ground beef with High Mountains original season per the recommendations for ground meat.(I know it's not a big batch but was my first try and did not want to ruin a large batch!) Loaded the gun and stuffed some 19mm collagen casings.

 
Last edited:
Looking good so far 
biggrin.gif
  
thumb1.gif
 
Here's the sticks after stuffing. Prior to extruding the meat I tied the one end with butcher string and then at the end I tied another piece of string to keep the sticks firm. Not too bad.


 
After the fact of tying the sticks up to one of my racks I was able to run across some stainless v racks for sticks that I will use in the future. We do what we have to do to smoke some meat!! Hah!

 

I have done a lot of researching forums on SMF to try and creat the perfect stick! After much browsing I ran across some excellent info courtesy of one of Nepas post! (Thanks!!) and I followed his guidelines for smoking times and temps. To sum it up started them at 100 and worked my way to 170 to a IT of 152 (approx 9hours for mine) in my Bradley Smoker.
 

Ok after about an hour I couldn't wait any longer!! Here's a cross view disregard the hole in the center from my meat probe.
 
Last edited:
Good job........they look great.

Yes......one must use what one has. I still have my hand crank grinder and my jerky cannon. Thank goodness for electric grinders and vertical stuffers...

Brad
 
Smoking B I used hickory for 2hours of smoke and it was just right. I would like to try some others coming up. What's your experience with wood and preference?
 
Bkleinsmid thanks for the comments! It did the job for what I have. I do have a kitchen aid grinder as well but I tell you those 2 items are on my wish list for Christmas! Hah!
 
Smoking B I used hickory for 2hours of smoke and it was just right. I would like to try some others coming up. What's your experience with wood and preference?
I use hickory a lot too - also oak. I mostly smoke longer than 2 hours as well but I usually like a good bit of smoke... It all depends what type of sticks or sausage I'm making - maple & cherry is a good profile. Apple adds a nice flavor to some... It really depends on what you are going for & your personal tastes. Your best bet is to play around with different woods & see what YOU like the best 
thumb1.gif
  plus you get to eat all your experiments 
biggrin.gif
 
Smoking B thanks for all the info! Your right it's all in your preference. I need to keep trying these small batches to figure things out more. I'd like to try a sweet and spicy stick! You have any recipes for something like that?
 
Congratulations on your first sausage smoke!!!!
The sticks look Great!!!
Like B said, play around and find what you like best, that is the fun of making sausage, but be careful it can get addicting!
 
S2K9K thanks for the comment! I'm very happy with that way they turned out! They even passed my dads picky palate today so that goes a long ways! Hah! That's the problem with this hobby is very addicting but rewarding and educational at the same time! We're always learning and what a shame that we have to be personal taste testers of all of our tasty experiments! Thanks again!
 
S2K9K thanks for the comment! I'm very happy with that way they turned out! They even passed my dads picky palate today so that goes a long ways! Hah! That's the problem with this hobby is very addicting but rewarding and educational at the same time! We're always learning and what a shame that we have to be personal taste testers of all of our tasty experiments! Thanks again!
Yes, but being a personal tester has its benefits.  Make sure everything you make, detail it, either on a computer or in a book.  If doing so on a computer, store the info on an external hard drive, as your C drive will fail, it is just a question of when.  That way, when you eat that perfect piece of meat, you will have a record of how it was made, rather than relying on your memory.  Works better, every time.

I use a book, students note book.  Date at the top, above the lines, inside left margins, dates and times.  Then I detail what I did or how I did it  As an example, I do not write ‘put meat in brine’, I detail the brine also.  Right down day I smoke, detail times I start warm up, put meat or whatever in the smoker, every time I open the door and why, time I finish and any comment as per anybody that eats what I just cooked,  Doing different multiple items, I do different pages for each item.  Some day, I might do this on a Computer.

music-064.gif
     
canada-flag-14.gif
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky