Pepperoni Snack Sticks

[Cmeyers]

need some help. Ground 25lbs total of beef and pork to make pepperoni snack sticks. Ac leggs kit, 1 ounce of #1 cure, 4 ounces of encapsulated citric acid. Called for 2 lbs of water and for whatever reason, not really thinking, I used 3lbs. I know what you are probably thinking. Anyway, thought I would smoke an extra hour at 125 to dry the out some then smoke as usual. This is taking much longer than that. Running out of time to get it all done. Can I freeze the remainder of what I have stuffed raw, then thaw and smoke at another time?

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[boykjo]

Did you stuff all 25 lbs? 1 extra lbs of water shouldnt make that big of a difference just as long as you had a good bind where the meat was tacky. Was the meat mushy and wet. Adding non fat dry milk powder will stiffen it up and bind it back together. Freezing with the extra water can make it crumbly. IMO I would keep going and finish. If thats not possible I would uncase, add the NFDM and then freeze it and stuff and smoke it later.

Edit. I see you added encapsulted citric acid. you are committed to finish it now the way it is.
You cannot frreze it or do it later

Boykjo

 

[Cmeyers]

Did you stuff all 25 lbs? 1 extra lbs of water shouldnt make that big of a difference just as long as you had a good bind where the meat was tacky. Was the meat mushy and wet. Adding non fat dry milk powder will stiffen it up and bind it back together. Freezing with the extra water can make it crumbly. IMO I would keep going and finish. If thats not possible I would uncase, add the NFDM and then freeze it and stuff and smoke it later.

Edit. I see you added encapsulted citric acid. you are committed to finish it now the way it is.
You cannot frreze it or do it later

Boykjo

Out of curiosity, how long do I have? I made it all yesterday and stuffed, some of it has been in the fridge now for 24 hours.

 

[Cmeyers]

Did you stuff all 25 lbs? 1 extra lbs of water shouldnt make that big of a difference just as long as you had a good bind where the meat was tacky. Was the meat mushy and wet. Adding non fat dry milk powder will stiffen it up and bind it back together. Freezing with the extra water can make it crumbly. IMO I would keep going and finish. If thats not possible I would uncase, add the NFDM and then freeze it and stuff and smoke it later.

Edit. I see you added encapsulted citric acid. you are committed to finish it now the way it is.
You cannot frreze it or do it later

Boykjo

 

[boykjo]

Encapsulated citric acid in meat must reach 150 degrees F for the acid to release and take its effect.
Capsules can dissolve if kept wet for too long and the acid will release in the raw meat. The sticks will become mushy.
Not sure how long it take for the capsules to dissolve but I would get to it as soon as possible.

 

[flatbroke]

Welcome to the forum and good luck. The ones you posted look good so far

 

[Cmeyers]

Thank you. First time making snack sticks. Usually make Jerry and just about everything else you can smoke. Wanted to try something different.

 

[Steve H]

Welcome to the forum! I believe if you follow the above advice. You should be fine. I made the same mistake once. And threw it away because it was very mushy. And I never thought about adding NFDM. I could have saved it.

 

[Cmeyers]

Thank you, im not really set up for smoking snack sticks actually. My pits are more for back yard smokers. They work great for brisket, ribs and so on, but to hang and smoke as many teach I can't do. How different I believe it would have been. 4 to 5 hour cook/smokes turning into 12-14 hour cooks. End product came out good just was hoping for a little more. I'm okay with it as I tell myself it was my first run on making snack sticks. This site is great with the willingness of people to help. Thank you again.