Snack sticks meat ?

[JohninPa]

So I tried to make some snack sticks over the weekend. Unfortunately I ran into an issue when it came to stuffing them. I was trying to use my grinder to stuff them and it didn’t work out too well. Needless to say I got frustrated and stopped because I couldn’t find a stuffer locally. I have a stuffer on the way to me know. So the meat was all mixed up and ready to be stuffed and I also mixed in the encapsulated citric acid. I went ahead and put it in some ziploc bags and dropped it into the freezer. Will this be ok to thaw out and stuff and smoke or not ? I hate to lose the meat but don’t want to waste my time and the casings if it’s not going to turn out too good. So wondering if it’s worth the effort or if I should just start over. Anyone have any suggestions for me?

[Jonathon]

JohninPa That’s a tough one because the best thing to do would be to toss it. The reason for that is that meat is setting up pretty hard right now and trying to stuff that meat into a snack stick casing is not going to be friendly to your brand new stuffer. Now, you could add some more water to try to make it more pliable but even with that you will have to use your best judgement, if it doesnt feel like it is “soft” enough then you need to toss it, or just make patties out of it.

[Dave R]

Jonathon JohninPa you could also make it into loafs, bake/smoke and slice like a summer sausage. View the Walton’s video on imitation bacon. Just a thought. I use 2" half pans with about 7# of meat. Good luck

[lamurscrappy]

Thats also wasted meat which is probably worth more then casings. The citric acid throws a wrench in this. If you got it froze pretty quick you might be ok. I would unthaw the meat in cold water (maybe 2 -3 hours to unthaw) then put it all back in a tote and add some more water. Just enough to make it pliable and stuff worthy. Then stuff and right to smoker. If you didnt freeze it right away the acid destroyed it and its worthless at that point. Im not a citric acid fan either.

[JohninPa]

Ok. I think I will just start over from the beginning again rather than mess around with what I got in the freezer now. Being it’s my first time making them I want to have an idea what I could of messed up in case they aren’t that good. I may just try to do around a 5 or 6 # block of meat. 1/2 venison and 1/2 pork butts. If I do this size block how much water should I add?

[mikekll]

JohninPa
JohninPa - I did exactly that. I put mixed snack stick meat in gallon Ziplock baggies and froze it for several months. It was just fine when I thawed it and made snack sticks several months later.

[JohninPa]

mikekll said in Snack sticks meat ?:

JohninPa
JohninPa - I did exactly that. I put mixed snack stick meat in gallon Ziplock baggies and froze it for several months. It was just fine when I thawed it and made snack sticks several months later.

Did you happen to have mixed the encapsulated citric acid in it or not? I did put it in a few different bags so I suppose I could just try and stuff one of them and see how it turns out.

[mikekll]

JohninPa
I had not put encapsulated citric acid in. I had spices, pink cure, soy protein and freshly ground jalapeños in it. I would not hesitate for a moment if I were you about using it. As long as you put your cure in to ensure no botulism occurs, you’ll be just fine.

[Jonathon]

JohninPa As for how much water you should add that is going to have to be by best judgment. I would think a 1/2 pint for a 6 lb meat block should be enough but i don’t know. Another issue is that by mixing that in you are probably going to rupture casing on the ECA and it is going to interact with the meat sooner than you would want. So, like lamurscrappy quickly go from stuffing to the smoker.

[Unionguy1019]

JohninPa I did this about a year ago, stuffer broke. The only issue I had was my binder must have been affected by the freezing process as the fat in my sticks rendered out. Stayed inside the casing, tasted good just didn’t look good with fat between the casing and meat.

[Jonathon]

JohninPa With what Unionguy1019 just added I would strongly consider tossing the meat.

[JohninPa]

Jonathon said in Snack sticks meat ?:

JohninPa With what Unionguy1019 just added I would strongly consider tossing the meat.

I came to the conclusion that I am going to do just that. I think I would of been fine but used too much water when mixing it and too hard to stuff with the grinder. I will be trying again this weekend.