Homemade Sausage Making

Hey guys!

I made 10lbs of beef/pork pepperoni snack sticks using Butcher Packer kit.

They are 70/30 beef/pork. They have 11.34g cure #1 in them (came in the kit for 10lbs of meat)

Instructions say grind, mix stuff in collagen casings and smoke per schedule below.
Doesn't say to let them bloom, rest in fridge to dry, etc.

I can't smoke them until tomorrow, so I have laid them out on cookie sheets in my fridge to bloom and dry overnight. I will start smoking them tomorrow around 1pm.

Is this OK? Any harm in letting them rest overnight in fridge to bloom and dry? Cure #1 should protect from anything they would grow while resting a day and then smoking for 4 hours, correct?

smoking schedule says:

1hr at 110
1hr at 130
1hr at 150
finish at 170 until internal temp is 160. Then let cool down to room temp or cold water bath (which is better?) then package and store in fridge, freeze whatever you won't use within 2 weeks.

This is my first time making snack sticks, hence the question! And which would be better, cooling naturally to room temp or stopping the cooking with cold water? And what internal temp would I remove them from the cold water bath?

thanks!
Jason

When using collagen all you need is about an hour to set the sausage at room temp and smoke soon after because the casings are not soaked, you don't have to dry them before placing in the smoker. But you should be OK with holding overnight. One of the reasons that we cool sausage with water is to have a more plump looking sausage with no wrinkles. If you will be poaching do that after the 150F phase and at 170-175, they should reach an IT of 160 within 10 minutes because of the thin diameter and the rapid heat transfer when in water. If you want that appearance in your sausage then go ahead and dunk them into cold water for a few minutes. I never do that when making snack sticks because I dry them for a few days before packaging, so they will be wrinkly anyway and will not lose any smoke flavour. Another thing to be careful about is that not all collagen casings for snack sticks do well in water and might separate after poaching.

It just so happens I am making Kabanosy today, a small portion in some left over sheep casings and the rest in collagen. I will be finishing them in the smoker and air drying, overnight in a temp of around 17C for the bloom, and three days at a temp of 11-14.

Also making a Salame Crespone, will be around 8lbs, all in one pork middle. Things are not going according to plan, but more on that later.

Thanks for the advice Chris! And sorry to hear about your Salami Crespone...I am sure you will save the day!

So do you suggest that I let these snack sticks rest at room temp overnight? Or for a day or two at room temp after they are done smoking and hit an IT of 160? I assume they are safe to stay at room temp after IT of 160 is reached, due to fully cooked (and cure #1) at that point?

I won't do the water bath, I will just let them cool down naturally to room temp, I dont want to lose the smoke flavor.

Then package after resting at room temp for a day or two, correct?

It probably is ok to dry them in cool room temps for a couple of days, that is what I am doing today. You could dry them longer if you want them drier, matter of preference. Keep them in a paper bag in the fridge if you are going eat them in the next week or 10 days, vac seal the rest.

Long does it normally take for snack sticks to get to IT of 160?

I have been smoking them since 1pm and they are at IT of 138.

At this rate I am guessing another 3-4 hours?

1 hr at 110
1 hr at 130
1 hr at 150
Finish at 170 until IT is 170

2-3 hours total should be enough. You just have to crank up the heat.

Sticks have been smoking for over 10 hours now! IT is only up to 140....
Most sites say only take IT to 152, not to 160.

Given how dry and how long these have taken (probably take another few hours just to hit 152!) will I be safe to stop when IT gets to 152?

Never seem something so thin and small take so long to get up to temp!

When ever I do snack sticks it takes an average of 12 hours. Depends on how moist your mix was.

60 minutes at 120* with no smoke to set casings to meat
120 minutes at 130* with hickory smoke from a pellet tray
120 minutes at 140* with smoke until the pellets run out (I run a single section in the pellet tray so figure on about 3 hours smoke total)
60 minutes at 150*
Heat at 165* to finish sticks at an internal temp of 152-154* (however long it takes)
Let them cool on the racks to room temp for a couple of hours

Thanks Devo.

The process I used was very similar. Took 12 hours to finally get to 152.
End product is very dry, which I like in a snack stick.

I ran out of the small collagen casings at the very end of stuffing, so I stuffed some larger collgen casings which made four nice sliceable 6 oz pepperoni chubs for pizza. I took those to IT of 152 as well, same smoking schedule. They were nice an moist when done.
You can see those bigger diameter chubs peeking out from under the tray of sausage on the left side.

Snack sticks are smoky and great. May even shorten my smoking time next batch.

Mix of 70/30 beef/pork turned out great! 10lbs wet mix turned out 4lbs after drying, so 60% weight loss during smoking/drying.

Also made 10lbs of Italian sausage (5 lbs hot, 5 lbs sweet) while I had the grinder and stuffer out!

And I have 2 coppa and a bresoala in the fridge drawer curing as well.

I think that 12 hours is definately overkill, but the sticks look great! Heck of a lot better than my kabanosy from last weekend. I won't go into detail, but my daughter's dog is enjoying a lot of treats these days and likes me a lot more.

Agreed, 12 hours is crazy...but thats how long they took to get to 152 IT. Recipe said take them to IT of 160..hell, that would have taken another 8 hours at the rate they were going!

I figured 4- 6 hours till done...man was I wrong!

Good news is that at 12 hours they are so dry and smoky that the AW water activity is probably close to zero! These could stand at room temp for a year and probably still be edible!

Devo wrote:60 minutes at 120* with no smoke to set casings to meat
120 minutes at 130* with hickory smoke from a pellet tray
120 minutes at 140* with smoke until the pellets run out (I run a single section in the pellet tray so figure on about 3 hours smoke total)
60 minutes at 150*
Heat at 165* to finish sticks at an internal temp of 152-154* (however long it takes)
Let them cool on the racks to room temp for a couple of hours

Hey Don, welcome back! Have not heard from you for a while! Glad to see that you are still smokin" sausage and not just flying that drone all over Kakabeka!

redzed wrote:

Devo wrote:60 minutes at 120* with no smoke to set casings to meat
120 minutes at 130* with hickory smoke from a pellet tray
120 minutes at 140* with smoke until the pellets run out (I run a single section in the pellet tray so figure on about 3 hours smoke total)
60 minutes at 150*
Heat at 165* to finish sticks at an internal temp of 152-154* (however long it takes)
Let them cool on the racks to room temp for a couple of hours

Hey Don, welcome back! Have not heard from you for a while! Glad to see that you are still smokin" sausage and not just flying that drone all over Kakabeka!

Well I still fly whenever the weather allows but now that it is getting cold again its time to fire the smoker back up and get some smoking done before Christmas. Had snow here yesterday so winter is coming fast

Devo,

Hi Devo, those look amazing! I'm trying to come up with something that looks similar. Would you mind sharing what types of casings you're using? Also maybe what meat? I'm trying to do something similar to Schneiders pepperettes that are available in grocery store meat counters, except with venison. BTW, i'm from Windsor, but used to spend alot of time in the Kakabeka area hunting!