Snack stick question

Try to cool the meat more. If the meat is near freezing it may be easier to handle. It take a lot of pressure to stuff small casings. Generally a small grinder does not have the power to do this.

The more pliable the meat mixture is, the easier it will travel down the horn. sometimes adding a little water to the recipe helps me with my water powered stuffer. Not much just enuff to keep it pliable

I use my jerky shooter (a glorified caulking gun) to fill 1/2" snackstick casings. It works like a charm. I bought the jerky shooter from Cabelas I believe. I have also made little smokey type sausages this way.

Bob

Cadillac,

Thats what I like about the water stuffer. With a change in the face plate it turns from a sausage stuffer to a jerky extruder just like your jerky gun, only it holds 10 lbs. of meat at a time. Lots less reloading!

I use a cheap Nesco jerky gun from walmart for snack stix. Only disadvantage is it holds about 1/2 lb per fill.

Geiyser - 10 lbs! wow. My shooter only holds 1.5 lbs. But reloading isnt that bad.

bob

Dave,
Cologen casings can be very dilicate..you have to watch how you stuff them..too much will cause them to break, too little will let you have a link that will have too much air.

Beef sticks and the such should use natural sheep casings. The only set back to these is they are kind of pricy..These are the same casings that pork sausage use.

Trust me..being an Italian, I have made Italian fresh sausage, potato sausage, Polish sausage, and Hard Genoa Salami(Dad has a aging room in his basement).
If you have any questions on the above post and I will try to answer.

I made Pepperoni, and most people don't realise the the most important ingredient in it is ground anise...I have found that most do not include enough to get the flavor...I think I have a recipe that I could post, if I can find it.

Dave

Would be interested in your pepperoni recipe & how you make it.

Dave...

I use Cabela's 11# vertical stuffer and love it.

I have used collagen pepperette casing but prefer the finished texture of sheep casing.
The natural casing is very finicky to work with and you will waste a pile until you get the hang of it.

Were you using the collagen casing dry ? (you're not supposed to soak it).
I don't think I ever burst a collagen pepperette casing using the Cabela's stuffer.

If you make (or want to make) sausages I highly recommend Rytek Kutas' fantastic text, "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing". You can buy it from his company, (Sausage Maker), or on Amazon.
Most importantly it explains properly how to use cure, (sodium nitrite).
If you're smoking sausage you had better understand the process clearly before you make yourself pretty sick.

I have used the pepperette recipe in the book with success but recently switched to a commercial formulation from Malabar Super Spice in Burlington, Ontario.
Their 2kg pouch, (enough to do several hundred pounds), sells for around Cdn$30 and tastes as good as any commercial pepperette.
It also contains sodium erythorbate to maintain the nice red color of the finished product.

This was the original recipe I used (per 10#s meat);

2 tsp. Instacure #1
6 Tb. non-idodized salt
1 Tb hot cayenne, (I find 2gm/kg gives a nice zing)
1 tsp. ground allspice
5 tsp. ground anise seed

You can substitute the cure and salt with Morton�s Tender Quick, available in any Super Wallyworld.
Use their directions for amounts.


Your stuffing problems are likely related to your meat mixture being too stiff, (ie. not enough liquid).

It's pretty tough trying to get a stiff mixture through a small tube !

In order to avoid a stiff mixture you should only mix in the spices, (esp. the salt), just before you stuff.
Also, I add at least 10% by weight of liquid, (usually water but you can use a [cooled] broth made from scraps/bones if you have the time).

I don't smoke my sausage in my Smokette - God knows I've tried.
Sausage smoking in a Smokette is a whole other story, (I can get into it if you wish).
I now get all my sausages and salami smoked commercially.

Hope this helps....

John

John,

What do you find troubling about smoking sausage in the smokette? I do it all the time with great results. As a matter of fact, I wouldnt think of doing it any other way!

Guys, if we get into a discussion about smoking sausage, start a new thread, it will likely be a helpful/much discussed topic.

Russ

quote:

Originally posted by GeiyserQ:
[qb] John,

What do you find troubling about smoking sausage in the smokette? I do it all the time with great results. As a matter of fact, I wouldnt think of doing it any other way! [/qb]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bad-mouthing the Smokette's ability to smoke "cooked" sausage.

The Smokette's shortcomings are its inability to cold smoke and its lack of draft.

Due to the costs involved, home cold smokers are unheard of - you pretty well have to build your own.
But cold smoking is needed for dry cured sausages such as pepperoni and salami.

So, I have them done commercially by a local deli that has cold smoking units the size of nuclear reactors.

The draft issue poses a problem in the Smokette.
As you know, the sausage casing must be dry, but not too dry, before smoke is applied in order to achieve even and proper smoke penetration.

You need lots of draft to achieve this.

Yes, you can prop the door open a crack but that doesn't allow even air movement.
You'll get some sausage that are crispy while others are still soggy and you haven't even added the smoke yet!

Also, when smoke is applied to sausages you require a large volume of "soft" smoke and a way to quickly get rid of the moisture that continues to be generated by the sausage - again only achieved through good draft.

If you're making small batches of cooked style sausage and are willing and patient enough to move them around as they dry you can certainly get a decent result in a Smokette.

John

Thats it. You are making dried sausages. I've never made any dry sausage, but I know several guys around here that make this style of sausage. I'll ask them how they go about it. They make it every year during deer season. These guys are just normal country folk so I know they dont have much of an investment. Maybe I can find something out to help you. i would think the commercial places charge a pretty loony for the service. Gee, 1st time I ever got to say that. lol

Your right, I was refering to semi- dried summer sausages and smoked brats & polish sausages. I can do about 20# at a time in my smokette. They are 10"- 12" chubs. I get good results.