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marknb

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Feb 5, 2009
152
10
Come on now, outta da gutter you....

Can someone please explain why the collagen casing just fell off my pepperoni stick? Was I supposed to add some water to the meat mixture before stuffing to improve how well the casing binds to the meat? Other ideas?

I don't think it was too loose immediately after stuffing, and I'd expect the casing to still bind up with the meat even if there's some shrinking during cooking, so wassup wit dat?

Thanks all,

Mark
 
not too sure on what the culprit is, but i add a little powder milk to my emulsified sausage to help binding and my casings are bound pretty good. is there a layer of fat between the meat and casing? that would be too hot of a smoke.

i'm sure you'll get a heap of help way better than mine soon. good luck.
 
The only thing I can think of that would cause that is you didn't stuff them full enough.
PDT_Armataz_01_15.gif
As they dried down the meat shrunk away from the casing.
 
I dunno what the problem is but I give ya a big thumbs up for getting my attention with the thread title
biggrin.gif


Thought we were headed down hill quick...........
 
What temp would you go with, Chef? The sticks were only in there for about 2-3 hours before I had an internal temp of 158. About 3.5-4 hours total.
 
they were done on a dehydrator and the thermostat doesn't actually have temperatures. I set the dial to "meat", as opposed to "fruit leather". :O

Based on the internal temp reading I got from the probe thermometer, I'd be guessing it was maybe 200F?

Don't worry, I'm picking up my brandy new Centro smoker (aka MES) on my way home tonight - tee hee, giddy with glee.....
 
All good stuff guys, thanks. I think between proper temp, overnight curing, and some milk solids (heard some powdered milk will also give that characteristic meat stick tang), that should solve the problem. Ya know, for what they are, that being dehydrated, non-smoked, baggy-skinned honey garlic meat sticks, they taste pretty dang good! Thanks again.
 
Mark,

I have never used a dehydrater for sausage but made a ton of smoked sausage and smoked kielbasa. Some of the key points I always pay attention to when making my sausage are.

1) I use a mixture of coarse and fine grind meat
2)I always ad a percentage of pork if I'm making a beef sausage
3) if making pork sausage, I try to keep my lean to fat 80/20
4) mixing can play an improtant roll in binding, I add water a little at a time until I see the fat becoming a little stringy
5) When I smoke my product, I always use a curing agent and let it sit for 24 hrs
6) last but not least, I never let my smoker get over 170 degrees, with a finished internal temp of 150-155.

Good luck
 
Thanks Tsulcoski. Will the cure (Prague #1 or the like) give the sausage that nice mahogany colour as well? At what temp does your stuff sit for the 24hrs? I just got a Centro (Masterbuilt) Electric this weekend, and did a batch of pepperoni sticks. Really great smokey flavour, but the colour is of roasted sausage, not a proper pepperoni stick....also burned heck out of several racks of ribs, but that was my own dang fault for not reading instructions carefully.

Following all the great advice here, the casings are adhering much better now. My parents are visiting for 10 days and mom helped with the stuffing of this most recent batch (made them too fat to twist without tearing the cases, but bless her anyway - it took us a couple hours).
 
Mark,

Generally I use a premix cure from the sausage source, I like the maple flavor one. The cure makes the meat stay pink inside when your smoke it but does not really ad to the external color . If your making smoked sausages or a pork product, add some lean beef and mix well, this will also enhance the color. As far as the mahogany color, I burn Hickory for the strong wood smoke flavor and cherry for the great mahogany color. I refrigerate mine over night in a regular refrigerator, approx 36-38 degrees.
 
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