Snack sticks! On going thread for Friday...

[blazinfire]

Hey all! So I teased a post earlier in the week.. It's not gonna be as big of a thread as I hoped.. Time is very limited.. and I'm doing "Trial" batches.. with new seasonings to see how they are before I go head first into large batches!!

My plan was to do 10lbs summer sausage, 10lbs of snack sticks.. I also bought 2lbs of hi-temp cheese.. But we decided since we are unfamiliar with the seasonings we would do a batch without cheese as a control..

Did 10lbs of snack sticks... Using Excalibur Willy's snack stick seasoning I got from waltons inc.. I bought the two smaller stainless steel stuffing tubes LEM had for my stuffer.. I like these ALOT...

Here's 10lbs already in casing.. threw in a 2.5gallon ziplock bag til tomorrow to cure.. Hitting the smoker whenever I decide tomorrow.

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

Nothin but envy here.

What casings do you have there?

 

[blazinfire]

Nothin but envy here.

What casings do you have there?

I just picked up some mahogany 19mm casings from waltons.. ordered new stuffer tunes and hog ring pliers from LEM.

Ordered summer sausage casings, snack stick casings and seasoning from waltons.

Ordered a new javelin therm and scales on Amazon.

 

[jzadski]

If it turns out half as good as it looks it's a winner.

 

[blazinfire]

Alright here we go! I didn't really want to fill the smoker up this tight.. But I only had two sticks left in the bag.. decided to say screw it.. stuff them all in there and do it in one cook instead of 2.. hopefully that doesn't turn out to be a bad mistake.. but I'm still above the drip tray area... anything around the drip tray is hotter..

 

[SweetHeatBBQnSC]

looking good and waiting to hear more...

 

[blazinfire]

Looking pretty good.. Wont be long some of them are coming off the cooker. So I'm preparing for this to happening real soon.

 

[blazinfire]

Alright so bottom rack is done.. moved top rack to bottom rack! I really enjoyed the Willy's snack stick seasoning! So gonna make a batch with Cheese tonight..

 

[blazinfire]

Alright here's this batches Yield... this is not including the end pieces that did not make uniform pieces... so I have a hand full of sticks that's only a couple inches long.. Now I like this Willy's snack stick seasoning.. ALOT.. its a little on the peppery/spicy side? It's not over powering.. but its def more like an original flavor.. vs anything else.

Here's another idea how much that is.. fills 1 1/2 gallon size bags.

 

[Stingerhook]

So when do you ask for my address?

 

[toys4dlr]

Saw your thread and agreed, should make some snack sticks too. I mixed up a 5lb batch of my own blend. Stuffed them in natural sheep casing and on my franken cold smoker. Been there since 1030 this morning. I started out at 125 for 4 hours, with cold smoke added. Then bumped to 165 to finish. We are 7 hours in, and I have about 1 more hour to go. Thanks for the idea.

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[Jason TQ]

They look so good! I need to get off my butt and try snack sticks.

 

[jstrand]

I need to just get off my butt and make any sausage. Stuffer still new in box for way too long!

 

[blazinfire]

Well ok.. this is probably where I get into "OMG YOUR CRAZY" territory.. But yet these will be vac sealed and frozen.. we will be eating these for at least the next couple months..

Just made up another 10lb batch but with Hi-temp cheese.. First crack at hi-temp cheese as well.. always just used regular sharp cheddar.. but it does get kinda soft as they cook..

 

[toys4dlr]

Tell me how you like the hi temp cheese. I don't know why, but i have stayed away from it. I got my batch cut up and food saved, a 5 lb batch makes 48 pieces. My wife is a rehab therapist and brings these in to her clients at group, so we go through them quick. Still playing around with the amount of smoke and time with my franken smoker. I did 3 hours of cold smoke at 125 degrees, them bumped to 145 for 2 more hours. Then finished them at 170. Took a little longer than I thought, all in it was 10 hours. Looking forward to see the cheese ones. Did you use the same base flavors?

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[blazinfire]

Tell me how you like the hi temp cheese. I don't know why, but i have stayed away from it. I got my batch cut up and food saved, a 5 lb batch makes 48 pieces. My wife is a rehab therapist and brings these in to her clients at group, so we go through them quick. Still playing around with the amount of smoke and time with my franken smoker. I did 3 hours of cold smoke at 125 degrees, them bumped to 145 for 2 more hours. Then finished them at 170. Took a little longer than I thought, all in it was 10 hours. Looking forward to see the cheese ones. Did you use the same base flavors?

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I couldn't upload to imgur.. hopefully this works! But 100% I love the cheese ones better.. the hi temp cheese is better than I thought..

 

[blazinfire]

I got a rough count of 300 snack sticks all the same length.. and then whatever wasn't the same size.. i threw in a bag to eat now..

 

[toys4dlr]

Cool, thanks for the idea of the hi temp cheese. I will look into trying some. What size collagen casings are you running?? I got roughly 48 sticks of similar size out of my 5 lb run, but I am using 22mm or so natural casings.

 

[blazinfire]

Cool, thanks for the idea of the hi temp cheese. I will look into trying some. What size collagen casings are you running?? I got roughly 48 sticks of similar size out of my 5 lb run, but I am using 22mm or so natural casings.

I'm using 19mm casings... I won't know til tomorrow when I vac seal the last batch what the exact count is on the snack sticks.. I say I'm closer to 200+.. the first batch vac sealed great.. and froze great..

 

[CivilTrojan]

How long of sticks are you guys making? Everything looks really good!