bambi candy….

Love this part of the deer season. Smokers is running with hot dogs right now and another batch of pups go in it tomorrow. Tomorrow though I’ll be able to snack on some of these sticks while every thing is working.

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Mmm mmm those look delicious

Thanks. They are tasty. I normally won’t sneak a taste until they’re cooled off completely but, well, I had to. Not sorry in the least.

I had enough venison left from other sausages to make a 13 pound batch, otherwise sticks weren’t on the list this year. I haven’t told my daughter yet so I might actually get to chew on some before she descends on the freezer. These little suckers are pile of work, hard to stuff and are expensive. Those casings are a fortune. Its a great investment though and while watching the tube there’s hardly anything more satisfying than chewing on a stick and sipping a touch of wine. I made a cherry wine this fall that will go with a stick or two and a chunk of swiss cheese.

Tom, nice job on snack sticks. They look awesome!! Are you using collagen casing? I use both collagen and sheep casing. I prefer the sheep casing.

Can’t go wrong with a snack stick. Ya PITA. We have a weekend coming up we will have around 150# of snack sticks to do. Along with about 100# of weiners. Fun time of year. Keep the smoker, smoking!

Thanks for the kind words. You’re the master at this stuff. I’m using 19mm collagen casings for the sticks. I’ve tried other sizes but the casings are too frail. The 19’s are supposed to be the most popular size and are made a tad bit tougher. I’ve tried sheep casings but they are real touchy and like to pop although I haven’t really tried the on the tower stuffer so they may work ok on it. Expensive though.

I got the hot dogs ground and stuffed. I stopped half way thru the stuffing to fill the smoker and get it puffing, then went back and finished stuffing. The other half of the batch will smoke tomorrow. The pups went into 26mm collagen.

Dang Tom them look dandy. Any chance you adopting me!!!

I’ve got #50 of summer on smoker right now- half cranberry wild rice and half jalepeno chedder. Did my sticks last weekend. They are certainly more work and the casings are a little spendy if you buy in small batches or locally sourced. If you buy a bulk pack of the 19 collagen they are a MUCH better price for around $115 and right now they are actually on sale for $100. Best price I’ve seen for bulk pack and of course I had just ordered supplies a few weeks ago. As fragile as sheep casings are I only use them for breakfast links with a higher pork percentage to slide in there easier- much more successful stuffing than with snack stix mixtutre.
https://www.waltonsinc.com/19mm-smoke-collagen-casings

They are work indeed. I’ve tried the cannons with a stuffing nozzle and a 25 pound batch will wear the best of the best canons out. I’ve stuffed sticks off two different grinders and that’s where the real headaches are found. I picked up a stainless pipe for my vertical stuffer and have used that now over the last couple years and it seems the easiest, but still a lot of work.

I make enough of these. if I make them at all, to take care of a snack craving once in a while. When done I cut them into 6″ sticks and put 10 to a sealer bag and vacuum pack them, then to the freezer. I keep the ends and trimmings in a bag in the fridge and gnaw of those first.

I give mine 4 hours of cool smoke, then off to the oven for thre-4 hours at 190 degrees, then to a hanging rod in the garage. I have some large “s” hooks that hang off a ladder hanging horizontally and have a fiberglass rod supported by the hooks and ladder. The sticks get hung over that rod for a couple weeks to dry more. I like the intensity that develops in the spicing/seasoning when the sticks are harder and drier rather than chewy.

I just brought my pepperoni in and gave it a vinegar bath and then dried it off. Its finally pizza ready. Its hard enough to club someone into submission….billy style. I’m cutting it into shorter lengths and freezing it after vacuum sealing.

Tom, what’s a vinegar bath?

The pepperoni will develop light mold on the surface of the casing while hanging. I mix up a 50/50 vinegar solution and use a soft brush to wash it off, then dry with a paper towel. If you go into a grocery store that sells “traditional” summer sausages that look sort of crusty and maybe have a white mold on the sticks, that’s what this is. Washing it off with the vinegar solution kills it and it won’t recur for some time. We made pizza for dinner tonight and the pepperonis were dry enough so them cam in and I washed them down and then cut them in more manageable lengths and froze them.

You and I’ll need to have a beer some day. Your pepperoni you made a couple months ago, correct?

Yes sir.

Keep in mind that this sausage was stuffed and went right into an oven at 190 degrees until the internal temp on every stick was at least 160 degrees. I is not a smoked sausage. Because of the high pork content the casings were very oily after cooling so I wiped then down to get rid of as much of the oil as possible, then hung them in the garage. The garage is attached but not heated and they were hung away from the house in a colder area to dry.

When I brought them in today they had the appearance of a stick of pepperoni you’d buy to slice for pizza. Also, the drying will intensify the flavors. When this sausage was fresh I wasn’t all that crazy about it. A couple weeks ago one of the kids begged a stick off me and made pizza with it and was very impressed. That’s sort of what led me to bring it in today….that and Ma mentioned making a pizza and why not try the sticks in the garage. Drying this until its near hard has greatly improved the pepperoni taste.

Now I understand. Thanks Tom .

Potassium sorbate is another compound you can mix with water and spray on hanging sausage to inhibit mold growth but its sort of spendy. If a guy was doing thousands of pounds of hanging meat this spray would be the way to go but for the small amount I fart with the vinegar does the same thing for basically nothing.