New at making beef sticks and they seem salty

[banwart87]

Hi all!

Newbie here but wanted to take up a hobby and start making beef snack sticks. Been using 19mm mahogany collagen casing, 2 hours of smoke at 150 on a traeger texas pro 34 and then finishing in the oven up to 160 IT. I've tried jalapeno seasoning from excalibur with high temp cheddar and right under recommended amount of sure cure. texture and appearance turned out perfect. Tried a couple other seasonings including willie's snack stick mix and a homemade rub from an avid smoker friend. They all taste pretty decent but there's some kind of tangy salty flavor that all the snack sticks have which is hard to describe. I'm using 80/20 ground beef and grinding fine before mixing. Main concern is the salty off-taste that I haven't tasted in other snack sticks I've had. Any suggestions?

 

[zwiller]

I'd start with checking the math on the cure. Have any details?

 

[banwart87]

zwiller thanks, i scaled down to 1 pound batches for experimental purposes until I can get this where the flavor is right. Couple days ago I made a pound with willie's seasoning and only used 1/8 tsp of sure cure rather than the 1/4 tsp it called for in 1 pound of meat. same thing, kind of a salty tangy flavor. Perhaps some brown sugar would help?

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Not enough salt in 1/4 tsp cure to make your mix over salty. I use willies allot and have never had over salty. How much willies did you add to your 1 pound?

If im reading your post right you made 1 pound batches. Did you combine those batches for a larger stick amount?

 

[zwiller]

I do small batches like that all the time for same reasons but I go by weight. I looked up and your not too far off on that. Rick beat me and he is the master so...

 

[banwart87]

Not enough salt in 1/4 tsp cure to make your mix over salty. I use willies allot and have never had over salty. How much willies did you add to your 1 pound?

If im reading your post right you made 1 pound batches. Did you combine those batches for a larger stick amount?

I used the conversion chart on the Walton's website and used 2 tbsp and 1 tsp to season 1# with Willie's. Several days prior I made a 10# batch of jalapeno cheddar but since those seemed salty, I decided to only do a pound this time and see how it turned out and that's when I switched it up to Willie's seasoning as well so I just made a pound of that alone. Put the seasoning, sure cure, and water all together in a cup and dumped it into the ground beef all at once so there wouldn't be patches of heavy seasoning here and there, I've seen that works best for even mixing. Is there a length of time I need to be above or under when mixing to extract the protein? Would that have anything to do with the flavor? Sorry for all the Q's...

 

[tx0303]

Does the mix have citric acid in it? That will give a tang like a Slim-Jim.

 

[elsos]

I used the conversion chart on the Walton's website and used 2 tbsp and 1 tsp to season 1# with Willie's. Several days prior I made a 10# batch of jalapeno cheddar but since those seemed salty, I decided to only do a pound this time and see how it turned out and that's when I switched it up to Willie's seasoning as well so I just made a pound of that alone. Put the seasoning, sure cure, and water all together in a cup and dumped it into the ground beef all at once so there wouldn't be patches of heavy seasoning here and there, I've seen that works best for even mixing. Is there a length of time I need to be above or under when mixing to extract the protein? Would that have anything to do with the flavor? Sorry for all the Q's...

Have you been still getting the tangy flavor?
I've used Willies and it might be a little high in salt. If you use a little less then add garlic, onion and pepper it helps.
I've always been using ECA so I do end up with the tangy flavor, but it doesn't look like your adding any.
Just curious if you've made more and if you're still getting the same results.