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.
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!
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!