How To Make Snack Sticks

[MatthewHolzer]

Austin we have a mainca em20 hydraulic stuffer. We use half deer and half pork in our spicy sticks. We always mix our meat strips with the cure and seasoning and a little water then double grind.

[Parksider]

MatthewHolzer
When we got our hydraulic stuffer I had the same issue. They were never meant to push through that small of a tube. I talked to a butcher supply company and he explained to me if you are using casings smaller than 32mm you WILL blow the motor out. We have a 1hp and he is it’s not if but when the motor goes if we continue to do 17mm casings. So i stepped up to the 21mm casings, i fine grind one time both pork and venison and add about 1qt of water to 20# of meat. It has helped but still a slow go and still trip the breaker on the motor a couple times when we do 100 pound runs. I mix the spice and water into a slurry using a wisk, that also helps.

[Austin]

MatthewHolzer Parksider
I cannot speak for the quality or abilities on a Mainca or other brands, but…
We sell and recommend Talsa Stuffers. We have one here in our test kitchen as well. They do not have a problem running snack sticks on a 12mm horn. 10mm can get to be a little more difficult but can work fine still. A 12mm horn works fine for us and stuffing then into 19mm collagen casings.

Even on the smallest Talsa we offer, at a 26lb capacity and 1.75HP, they will stuff snack sticks fine. I think a lot of the capability just relies on what brand and quality of motor is in the hydraulic stuffer.

If you are doing half deer and half pork, the deer is going to be very lean so just make sure the pork used has a high enough fat content. You can safely use up to about 40% of the total product weight in fat and water (approximately 2 quarts water and meat at 75/25 lean to fat ratio), but that’s the limit I’d suggest. If you still struggle to stuff snack sticks at that point, it may just be a limitation on the stuffer you are using.