The Importance of Cooking Snack Sticks at the Correct Temperature
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- čas přidán 13. 08. 2017
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One of the issues a lot of home processors have with cooking snack sticks or other cured sausages is that they end up with an overly dry snack stick. A snack stick is not supposed to be as juicy as a bratwurst but it should retain some of its moisture. There are a few reasons for this, the two most common are that you did not have the correct fat content or you cooked your product at too high of a temperature. You want to start cooking a cured sausage of any kind at a low temperature and gradually step it up 15-20° every hour or so. This allows the meat to cook evenly throughout and retain as much moisture as possible.
For snack sticks you really want to start them out at 125 for 1 hour and then 140 for 1 hour before moving on to 155 for 2 hours and then 170 until the internal temp of the meat reaches 160. Some people go right to the 170 degrees to cook the snack stick, this is going to cause a few problems for you. First it is going to dry them out and second if it overcooks the outside of the product it will stop transferring heat to the inside and you end up with a burnt outside ring and an undercooked center!
To show you what happens we are mixing and stuffing two batches the exact same way together but we are going to cook some of them with the approved method and some of them we will start out at a high temperature and let you see the results when they are done.
The snack sticks are done cooking and as you can see the ones that we cooked at the correct temperature are pretty much perfect. The other batch however are to
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Couple of points to add here. The two main reasons to start at a low temp is: 1. dry off the casings, which should be done for about an hour prior to adding smoke, and 2. keeping the fat from becoming too hot and bleeding out of the sausage. If you burn the fat off right away, the snack sticks can become mushy. You will know this happened if you bite the stick and it doesn't have a nice "snap" to the bite, and the meat comes out the end of the casing into your mouth. Start at about 130 degrees for an hour, then 140 degrees with smoke for two hours, then increase heat by 10 degrees per hour, not to exceed 170 degrees, until you hit an internal temp of 152 degrees. Toss them in a cold water bath to stop the cooking process, cut and package. I've seen where some guys will pull them at 148-149 degrees IT and skip the water bath because they will continue to cook up to the 152 degrees after pulling them.
Love it. Thanks guys
Thanks for the great informations you provided . I am just curious to know if this cooking guidlines are the same as Delta-T cooking where temperature difference between product outside and core (during cooking ) are kept between 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.
how about a recipe and also about pork and venison ratio.. please do a how to video,i am having problems with the casings getting soft and the sticks shrinking
I read if you leave the meat cured a little longer than intended before smoking, it will taste a little salter. What is the most you should allow the meat to cure in the frig? Also, there appears to be no consensus on how long in general. I have read overnight, and also 24 hours. Thanks for any info!
Can I make these sticks in a food dehydrator? Also can I just use venison or do I need to add pork as well?
When making my snack sticks in the oven I get more than a few that the casing stay too soft or soggy. What am I doing wrong? I’m looking to get that snap to them.
Making snack sticks this weekend. Figure 10lb batch. I want to put jalapeno in it. Do I use fresh? From a jar? I thought about 3 fresh , seeds and all. Minced up fine. Any help would be appreciated.
thanks for the video info. is the meat salvageable if smoked at too high of heat causing the casings to burst open but only losing a small amount of the fat (meat was at a 70/30 ratio) before removing from the smoker? is it possible to remove the burnt casings and re-stuff the meat into new casings? my sticks were in the smoker for about 1 hours at 130° then when i added wood chips and increased the heat it lit up on fire inside the smoker. thanks in advance for any help.
How do you store them after smoking and how do you keep the casing snap
This explains a lot about why I have so many issue's
Glad it helped Nick, if you have any questions on snack sticks let us know by posting it to meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/category/6/meat-processing!
My lowest temp I can go is 165 degrees. Doing snack sticks how long should go at 165 degrees before I bump up my temperature to 170 degrees . Thank you
Can I grind my hi grated cheese and with my hot sticks meat is it going to hurt anything and do you for take my meat and mixed my spices together and leaves it for I'll come out for a couple hours after before I stuff them is that good or not or is it better to stuff your meat right away and then wait 12 hours are better stopped
What temperature do I need to get my beef sticks? I follow your recipe and I have them in my digital electric smoker for about 8 hrs and the max temp I get the meat to is 140 degrees F. They come out a little on the dry side which is why I ask. Any help would be appreciated. Do I need a better thermometer? Thanks!
Hello William,
You want to get your beef sticks up to an internal temp of 160° for food safety. If your snack sticks are not getting above 140° there are a few things that could be causing this. If your initial temp is too high it could be cooking the outside of the casings too quickly and preventing heat from transferring to the center of the casing. It could also be a lack of humidity that is causing the issue, do you have a bowl of water in the smoker when you are smoking the sticks? If you want to go to meatgistics.com and post your process I will take a look at it and see if I can see where the issue might be originating from.
Thank you,
When I make snack sticks the casing always seems tuff after, I even tried stuffing them tighter (a lot have exploded) and not so tight. What am I doing wrong? Thanks
I would guess it is the smoke schedule that you are using, or it could be the casings as well but assuming you are using our smoked collagen casings then the smoke schedule would be the most likely issue. Check out or smoke schedule for snack sticks here meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/763/cured-sausage-106-basics-of-making-snack-sticks starting out low and increasing the temperature slowly is important. It could also be you are not adding enough water to your mixture but that is not as likely.
Should you hang or put your snack sticks on trays? What's the pros and cons?
If it ain’t wrinkle, it ain’t good. That’s fact
Thank you. I like a little wrinkle. In fact, I don't do a cold water bath on my sticks for that very reason. A smooth stick reminds me of a gas station stick or a dog treat.
when smoking blue ribbon Brats how do you recommend the cooking procedure for those and the Hot link unit, thank you and I really look forward to using your products with all the awesome reviews. Doing Blue Ribbon Brats and Hot Link unit this weekend. Also do you recommend mixing the Hot link Unit with a mixing machine for protein extraction? I know the Brats don't require lots of mixing but am unsure of the Hot Link unit? Thank you
Hi Neck Beard,
For cooking blue ribbon brats I would recommend grilling them around 260° until the internal temp is 160°. For Hot Links it depends on if you cured them or not, if not then cook them the same way, if you did cure them then use the smoking schedule as in our hot dog post (meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/180/how-to-make-homemade-hot-dogs-recipe) and if you are looking for a true hot link texture then yes you want a mixer for them. It can be done by hand it is just going to be really hard!
Awesome thank you for the reply! I made 22#'s of the Brats and 24#'s of Chorizo, both turned out very good! They were a big hit with family and friends. I will be making Hot link unit and Hot pork sausage in a week or two and can't wait. Cheers from Bay Area.
I had some snack sticks made they're mushy and the skins coming off what would that represent undercooked or what
Funny thing is those "perfect snack sticks" aren't perfect to me. Those perfect snack sticks are still way too moist. I like the outside casing to be a little rubbery lol.
You leave out the very most important fact of all about the cooking cycle! What is the Internal Temperature you need to reach?
Hi Don,
You will want to cook that until the internal temperature is 160° F. For a full instructions on making snacksticks check out meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/182/how-to-make-homemade-snack-sticks-recipe.
Thank you!
@@Waltonsinc sticks have been in the oven for over 4 hours now at 200 F and still internal temp of 150. After 2 hours was 135.. is that right? this rate it will be about 6 hours at 200 to reach 160-165 F.
@@SaxonNG41 Move your probe around to make sure you aren't in a fat pocket. Also you can easily go past 200 but remember higher temperatures in a oven doesn't heat things up faster but instead dries them out faster.
@@SaxonNG41 150 degrees is enough to pull them out. The time it takes to get to 150 degrees all the bacteria is killed anyway. 160 is just the FDA's recommendation.
is it better to use collagen or natural casings on snack stick? not cheaper but better.
Hi Scott,
I prefer using collagen casings over natural casings on snack sticks. I find them are easier to work with and they have a better snap to them which most people will expect on a snack stick. Also you can get collagen in casings size smaller than you can get natural casings.
How do you know when the sticks are done?
Do you Guys put the sticks in cold water after smoking to bring internal temp back down quickly before packing
Those sticks split and dark look rustic and awesome! the ones started lower look like the shit you get at Menards.
Awesom
Awesome
after curing and cooking does the snack sticks need to be refrigerated or frozen?
If you are planning to eat them you can refrigerate them. However if you make a big batch you can always freeze your snack sticks to be enjoyed at a later date.
I'm in Australia is that Fahrenheit or Celsius??????
What internal temp. you guys cooking them to ?
Well these we intentionally cooked them too fast but we still stopped at 160°.
What is better? Using a dehydrator or smoker?
A smoker absolutely, I don't really like using a dehydrator for snack sticks. Some, like the Weston Pro Series can get to the necessary temperature but you run the risk of dehydrating the meat too quickly which will make killing off the bacteria MUCH harder if not impossible. For more information on this check out the USDA's article on jerky bit.ly/2RXxTp2
Do you use the water pan when smoking these
Anytime I am smoking almost anything, including Jerky, I like to add a water pan. Not only does it help give you a juicier product but it also speeds up the cooking process as it helps prevent the stall. On these ones I don't think we did because we were intentionally trying to create issues.
hey john does anyone use a clear gelatin to add in snack sticks
The most common thing added to snack sticks for this purpose would be Sure Gel Meat Binder. Gelatin can act as a binder for sausage but with a few issues. 1st, unless it gives you exact amounts for use in sausage, you might have some issues with the amount you should be adding to sausage, you might need to use an extremely small portion of powdered gelatin, and if you add too much it might make stuffing impossible. The 2nd isn't as big a deal with snack sticks as it would be with summer sausage but any void in your meat will fill up with a somewhat unappealing gel.
If you haven't already, creating a post over on meatgistics.com (our informational community with 30k members) you might get some more information from people who have experimented with this, it is free to join and a great place to share knowledge, ask questions and see what other home and commercial processors are doing!
why do my snack stick casing come out tough
Soak them in a cold water bath for 5-10 minutes after they are done to rehydrate the casing
Why does my summer sausage casings wrinkle?
Add a littie viagra
How come friends and family have their hands out after you make smoked sausage but they're nowhere to be found when you're making it? Why are deer so damn fast? Who invented the word sausagology?
Amen, bro! Amen!
+Southeastern Ohio Honey Bees & BBQ
Lex vitae - nobody knows when you make them - everyone knows who made them. And the word is a sausageiology. ☺☺☺☺☺
Lol so true
can you make snack sticks without the casing?
Marko Tesla yes you can
Word of caution. Sheep gut blows out when you look at them. There has to be a better way.
That definitely can happen and I would say collagen is the better way to go. If you are making a breakfast sausage or something like that then we have fresh collagen that has a better bite than sheep casings and they are stronger so blowouts are far less of a problem!
I found that everything you said is Wrong.....I cooked mine for 10 mins flipped at 10 mins, at 300 degrrees wrapped in aluminum foil and nothing burned not was undercooked . You wanna learn how to cook the country way the real country way .....?
Way to out yourself as a clown.......lol