# Venison Snack Stixs with QVIEW



## exromenyer (Dec 19, 2013)

So I used a recipe from NEPAS for some Snack stixs.  My son and I did a 10lb batch.  I had some vension and some bison burger so I mixed about 4lbs venison, 4lbs bison and 2 lbs pork fat cap from some boston butts I smoked recently.  I did not have any 19mm or 21mm casings so I tried some 16mm casings.  They were a little tough to stuff, I think I would need to adjust with a little more water next time, maybe a little less than 1/4 of a cup more.  I also tried some ECA for the first time.  Man do they have a great taste.  I did notice that some of the links have a little bit of fat build up in them (if you look at the last picture you'll see the white spots) so that tells me I think that I didn't render it all out but maybe could have went a little longer with the smoke.  All in all what a phenomenal taste.  I truly think this might to date be my best tasting ones yet.  They are in a brown paper bag in the fridge overnight and will vacuum seal them tomorrow.  They already have a nice SNAP to them which is impressive for me.  I would also say the Maverick ET-732 temps were all over the place as well.  They were close but just drove me NUTS to some extent.  I have my old faithful Oneida (Revere) temperature gauge and stuck several to ensure they were done.  I took them to about 155 degrees according to my gauge which is OK with me.  Here are some initial pictures and will post the money shots tomorrow.... 

Thank you for looking.  Merry Christmas to all.....













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Any suggestions why I have these pockets of fat build up ?  Did I possibly add to much fat or need to get it a bit hotter?  They are done, delicious but some have fat build up.......













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## andy riley (Dec 19, 2013)

Excellent job! They look great.


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## elginplowboy (Dec 20, 2013)

Sticks look great, u had what is called fat out or fat rendering. Main cause is taking smoker temp too high or starting too high. Shouldn't smoke above 170. Or it will happen if u put cold sausage in a hot smoker(ie straight from the fridge directly into a preheated smoker). Nepas has some sausage smoking steps in a post somewhere and I have followed them with excellent results. Basically here is what I do to save u some searching. 
Turn on smoker to preheat at 130
While preheating, pull sausage from fridge and allow to hang and dry to get to room temp. After about 1hr my smoker is ready and sausage goes in at 130 for 1 to 2 hours checking for a dry outer casing. Then bump 10 degrees and roll smoke ever hour for the next 4. Stop raising smoker temp at 170 and wait till meat temp is 152. Pull and bloom hanging at room temp for two hours then in the fridge.


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## exromenyer (Dec 20, 2013)

ElginPlowboy said:


> Sticks look great, u had what is called fat out or fat rendering. Main cause is taking smoker temp too high or starting too high. Shouldn't smoke above 170. Or it will happen if u put cold sausage in a hot smoker(ie straight from the fridge directly into a preheated smoker). Nepas has some sausage smoking steps in a post somewhere and I have followed them with excellent results. Basically here is what I do to save u some searching.
> Turn on smoker to preheat at 130
> While preheating, pull sausage from fridge and allow to hang and dry to get to room temp. After about 1hr my smoker is ready and sausage goes in at 130 for 1 to 2 hours checking for a dry outer casing. Then bump 10 degrees and roll smoke ever hour for the next 4. Stop raising smoker temp at 170 and wait till meat temp is 152. Pull and bloom hanging at room temp for two hours then in the fridge.



Thanks for the explanation and directions. I actually attempted to follow nepas directions. I think my maverick et-732 probes are faulty along with a constant battle with my MES 40. The temps just never seem to coincide even on a nice day outside. I did exactly what you stated in your post but at some point and I dont know how the temps must have got to high. I physically mever turned the temp gauge above 170° but I swear that Bbq probe temp was all over the place.  As you can see from my post I hung them on the dowels for an hour while the smoker stayed at a constant temp of 120-130°. I raised the temp 10° every 2 hours until they hit 152° and the high as that smoker tempwent was 170°. I'm at a loss!  I am open for more suggestions and maybe a new smoker sometime.  I am not convinced the Mes is worth 1/8th of what any of us paid for it because you have to make a 100 mods to make it worthwhile. 

Thanks,
Tony


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## elginplowboy (Dec 20, 2013)

Yep it's your smoker. Your mes probably does like mine and has these crazy over shoot runs. My display would say one thing while my cabinet probe said another. Here is what I figured out mine was doing. At the start I would set at 130 and mes would over shoot by 5 degrees. I thought ok that's fine. But set at 140 now over shoots by 10 degrees. Not too bad. So now set to 150 and the fun really begins now over shoots range from 30 to 50 degrees. Yes it's crazy. And now every bump after that same thing. Set to 160 and run up to 210 fat out and I'd be pissed. Sausage was looking fantastic beginning and middle smoke till those bumps over 150. Guys on this forum suggested using a fan or start peeking and opening the door. I did that(opening and checking)and problem resolved. But man it was a pain to figure out. I do a ton of sausage and stix so my plan now is to get a pid from auber instruments to help control the craziness. Hope this helps.


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## exromenyer (Dec 21, 2013)

ElginPlowboy said:


> Yep it's your smoker. Your mes probably does like mine and has these crazy over shoot runs. My display would say one thing while my cabinet probe said another. Here is what I figured out mine was doing. At the start I would set at 130 and mes would over shoot by 5 degrees. I thought ok that's fine. But set at 140 now over shoots by 10 degrees. Not too bad. So now set to 150 and the fun really begins now over shoots range from 30 to 50 degrees. Yes it's crazy. And now every bump after that same thing. Set to 160 and run up to 210 fat out and I'd be pissed. Sausage was looking fantastic beginning and middle smoke till those bumps over 150. Guys on this forum suggested using a fan or start peeking and opening the door. I did that(opening and checking)and problem resolved. But man it was a pain to figure out. I do a ton of sausage and stix so my plan now is to get a pid from auber instruments to help control the craziness. Hope this helps.


Yes, it definitely helps.  I'm not sure if it helps my EGO to know that everyone else here struggles and to just keep plugging away or what but it helps...:)  I actually this morning retested my Maverick ET-732 probes and found that the the food probe is about 2-3 degrees high and the bbq probe is about 4-5 degrees high in boiling water.... I mean when water boils the hottest it can get is 212 degrees so they were running 214-216 degrees most of the time......The real PITA is where to put the bbq probe in the smoker... I've clipped it to the left rack holder, clipped it to the top middle rack, 2nd rack in the middle and so on and so forth knowing that everyone experiences the back bottom rear to be really hot so I don't put much down there........  Do you have any suggestions on what works for you if you're using the MES 40 and if not any suggestions on electric or propane smokers that you have had good success with for my future reference?

Thank you,

Tony


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