Meat Stick Fail and Analysis

[snadamo]

Well, I made meat sticks. And they are damn tasty. I used the fat left from my brisket trimmings and supplemented the lean with eye of round. Used LEM collagen smoked casings, 5lb batch

However, it was an overall fail. Why? I will tell you.

• My grind could've been better
  I started my first grind with the coarsest die, and followed up with the finest die. I did not refrigerate in between grinds, and perhaps caused the fat to smear. I added my seasoning and water. On a side note, I thought the seasoning I concocted was VERY heavy on the sage. But, after mixing in, it was really nice and not overpowering. Mixing them was just fine. Was going to do with my kitchen aid mixer, but ended up doing by hand. I got the smell and texture I was looking for.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Casing them was a total PITA
  So this was my first go at stuffing not only collagen casings (more on that later), but a smaller diameter. I loaded the stuffer with the 5 pounds and put my smallest horn on. Well guess what, the damn horn was too big and I couldn't put the casings on. So I scrambled and found a plastic horn from my LEM grinder that would fit the casings. Of course it would fit the stuffer, so after some MacGyver engineering, I was able to trim the horn so it would fit on the stuffer. Mind you, this horn was like 1/3 the length of the original, so I had a really fun time adding casing to the horn every 5 minutes.
  What really started to irk me is when I got to about 1/3 cased, the stuffer started to give me a REALLY hard time. I had to put in on the hi-gear to get extra torque and even then I felt like I was arm wrestling Devon Larratt. Eventually I got the batch stuffed.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Smoked them too early
  Given all my "fun" with the grinding and stuffing, I should've put them in the fridge overnight, taken a break, let the cure do it's thing, and smoke the next day. And I didn't. By the time I was ready to smoke that day, it was late in the afternoon.
  
  
  
• Smoked them too hot
  For the above reason, I decided against better judgement to forego "cold smoking" via my pellet tube or use the Big Chief for better temp control and try to use the camp chef temp and smoke. I set to 150 and smoked for 4ish hours until they probed at 150 or so. Well, not sure if it was user error, or technical error (probably user error), but the fat certainly rendered and caused shriveling of the casing, crumbly texture, et al. This is the step I am most pissed off about. I should've listened to my gut and done it the way I know gets good results. Oh well, live and learn.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Casings are not bite-through
  Another interesting thing is my collagen casings are all but bite through. You basically have to eat them like an otter pop. Again, it tasted amazing; I nailed the seasoning and fat/meat ratio. I am going to attribute that to the fat rendering out and not causing the casings to "dry out".
  
  
  
  
  

So anyway I vac sealed what I had and threw them in the freezer. As you can see here, the rendered fat is getting squeezed out the stick.

Well I have a lot of lessons learned here, and I hope to correct them soon. Thanks for looking!

 

[thirdeye]

Allowing the product to get too warm, and not having the correct protein extraction could be the root causes.

Colder fat and meat grinds better, mixes better and stuffs better. The Mixing operation extracts protein, and the longer you mix the more protein you extract. Fresh sausage just needs a few minutes of mixing because you want a gentle bite. The texture is slightly sticky. Cured and smoked sausage products might need 5 to 8 minutes, and you want it very sticky.

Some people will grind the fat through a finer plate thinking it mixes into the meat better. Some use two different size grinds, and others will double grind their meats. All personal preferences.

Also, make sure your mixing water or other liquid is icy, icy cold. Or you can even use a crushed ice slurry. Some recipes don't mention liquid, but I can't recall ever not adding some.

 

[ssv3]

A few suggestions Adam,

Always freeze the auger, grinder head, attachments, tray before grinding. Depending on the type of sausage or sticks I also suggest keeping the meat cold or close to freezing pre and post the grinding process. Brisket fat is really tricky to play with and I guarantee you that was the problem. Brisket fat, unless properly portioned, will cause issues in most applications. Ask me how I know. :-D All the rendered brisket fat when too much, has given me grief in many applications as it turns into tallow like texture. It's def a good thing/fat but has to be used moderately. That's been my experience.

Finally I believe the smoker was running higher than 150 as that's been my experience using the Yoder because the temps fluctuate within 30-50*.

 

[snadamo]

Thanks Fellas

Thank you both Thirdeye and Sako. Allow me to respond to your feedback

Allowing the product to get too warm, and not having the correct protein extraction could be the root causes.

I tend to agree with you. I used a super fine grind for my second, and I felt like halfway through it was starting to warm up, friction et al. I SHOULD have put it in the freezer for a bit prior to the second grind.

Colder fat and meat grinds better, mixes better and stuffs better. The Mixing operation extracts protein, and the longer you mix the more protein you extract. Fresh sausage just needs a few minutes of mixing because you want a gentle bite. The texture is slightly sticky. Cured and smoked sausage products might need 5 to 8 minutes, and you want it very sticky.

I think I didn't mix for very long. I just did the stick to your palm test and it looked good. I SHOULD have used my mixer...

Also, make sure your mixing water or other liquid is icy, icy cold. Or you can even use a crushed ice slurry. Some recipes don't mention liquid, but I can't recall ever not adding some.

Not blaming the beautiful Mrs Snadamo, but I think we had a miscommunication on this one. I asked her to get me a cup of ice cold water and she poured in room temp (75F) water. Probably didn't help.

I do agree with you on all these points. I cut corners for the sake of time and I feel it backfired.

Always freeze the auger, grinder head, attachments, tray before grinding. Depending on the type of sausage or sticks I also suggest keeping the meat cold or close to freezing pre and post the grinding process.

That's like the only corner I didn't cut lol. I popped them in the freezer, along with the cubed meat and fat, for 60-90 minutes. I tend to freeze the parts longer most time though.

Brisket fat is really tricky to play with and I guarantee you that was the problem. Brisket fat, unless properly portioned, will cause issues in most applications. Ask me how I know. :-D All the rendered brisket fat when too much, has given me grief in many applications as it turns into tallow like texture. It's def a good thing/fat but has to be used moderately. That's been my experience.

I am lifelong member of the "learn the hard way" association, and I think I found that out this time.

Sad thing is; I had pork fat frozen and opted not to use it in order to use up my brisket trimmings. It's going in to ground beef from now on.

Finally I believe the smoker was running higher than 150 as that's been my experience using the Yoder because the temps fluctuate within 30-50*.

I would agree as my camp chef is certainly not as accurate as your yoder either. I wanted to use my Big Chief, but it was in an area of the garage I physically can't get to, and I dont have a hanging rod rig on it yet.




I really appreciate your guys' feedback and I hope your advice helps some of the brethren out here also.

 

[ssv3]

Pork fat for sure more forgiving and versatile.

 

[thirdeye]

I think I didn't mix for very long. I just did the stick to your palm test and it looked good. I SHOULD have used my mixer...

Not blaming the beautiful Mrs Snadamo, but I think we had a miscommunication on this one. I asked her to get me a cup of ice cold water and she poured in room temp (75F) water. Probably didn't help.

I actually prefer hand mixing because after incorporating the seasonings I sort of dive in with both hands and make a fist (and repeat) or poke my fingers in to make depressions for the ice water. The meat is so cold that I wear cotton liners under my gloves, and this sounds weird but feeling the cold is good insurance. Once the meat starts sticking to the gloves, I know the protein extraction has started, and sort of keep track of mixing time from there forward.

I used to make hot dogs with the emulsification method, and a food processor for mixing. You have to constantly monitor the temperature and add ice at the right time or the fat and protein separate. It's a pain and a couple of sausage makers told me to forget it and just go with fine grind meat.

 

[Phrasty]

Any time you see your sausage greasing out like that it's due to a few things. Thirdeye touched on them.

First and foremost your farce smeared due to not grinding and mixing while cold enough. Unless you're adding a cure accelerator like Sodium Erythorbate you should allow the sausage to rest overnight. This does a few things, most importantly allowing the sausage to cure up and set/firms up and bind the mix and secondly it allows the casing to adhere to the farce inside. The last issue like you said especially with the meat smearing a bit is to raise the smoking temps extremely slowly while cooking. This helps cushion the risk of greasing out when the mix is coming to temp.

I think you've pin pointed all the issues..

oh also as you've found out those snack sticks can be a bish to stuff... keep your meat and equipment cold and add a little bit more liquid to the mix to help the farce move through the stuffing tube. Good luck next time!

Cheers,

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

Great advise from all you guys.
Lessons I learned the hard way.

Now. Lose the collagen casings and get some 22mm sheep casings.
They can be a PIA but they are worth it in the end.
The last time I used the collagen casings, I had to peel them off to eat the sticks.

 

[ModelMaker]

Well now, if there's wrong way to make meat sticks, you hit them all! Comprehensive written notes are worth their weight in saltine crackers, (to eat with your sticks)!
Before the next go at it, make a timeline with appropriate times and temps and steps and EVERYTHING to do, and run it backwards (competition BBQ process) from when and how you want to be finished.
Then you will have all the info needed start your next batch of perfectly created beef sticks.
Ed

 

[snadamo]

Great advise from all you guys.
Lessons I learned the hard way.

Now. Lose the collagen casings and get some 22mm sheep casings.
They can be a PIA but they are worth it in the end.
The last time I used the collagen casings, I had to peel them off to eat the sticks.

Done

Well now, if there's wrong way to make meat sticks, you hit them all! Comprehensive written notes are worth their weight in saltine crackers, (to eat with your sticks)!
Before the next go at it, make a timeline with appropriate times and temps and steps and EVERYTHING to do, and run it backwards (competition BBQ process) from when and how you want to be finished.
Then you will have all the info needed start your next batch of perfectly created beef sticks.
Ed

Yep I have my own personal wiki for various notes, but a large portion of that is recipes and processes, but none for meat sticks...yet, and I should've done that before. I should have all the stuff I need for round 2 soon, i'll be following a process this time