@Jonathon Yes Jonathon-it’s in your head
@mikeihuntr My only advice is to keep the water around 170F, not a rolling boil. If the casing are too tight they WILL explode then you have a really big pot of bad soup! A nice simmer is the way to go, take them out 155-160 and into a water bath. Here is a pic, we just use the turkey fryer with the basket. It makes it really easy to remove from the water and rinse. I will also recommend keeping a temp probe right in the meat you can see the wire going into the water. Good luck!!

This was a big topic of conversation because we do freeze/thaw/process/refreeze venison and pork, never an issue. As a former restaurateur and certified food handler here is what Dept of Agriculture has to say. I’ll defer to the experts:

https://food.unl.edu/it-safe-refreeze-raw-meat-and-poultry-has-thawed
Author: Alice Henneman, MS, RDN

The U. S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) advises:

Once food is thawed in the refrigerator, it is safe to refreeze it without cooking, although there may be a loss of quality due to the moisture lost through thawing. After cooking raw foods which were previously frozen, it is safe to freeze the cooked foods. If previously cooked foods are thawed in the refrigerator, you may refreeze the unused portion. Freeze leftovers within 3-4 days. Do not refreeze any foods left outside the refrigerator longer than 2 hours; 1 hour in temperatures above 90 °F.

If you purchase previously frozen meat, poultry or fish at a retail store, you can refreeze if it has been handled properly, according to USDA.

DO NOT thaw meat at room temperature, such as on the kitchen counter.

Safety will depend on whether the raw product was handled properly before it was frozen, refrozen shortly after it was thawed, cooked to a safe temperature when it is eaten and handled safely if there are any leftovers.

Ironically enough it’s better to stuff the meat cold. you could always put a little bit more water in it to get it to flow a little bit better or just use bigger casing. If you’re using casings smaller than 19 mm you’re going to tear up your equipment. You could always grab some large 2” casing and hand stuff.

First thing I would check is to make sure the seal is seated correctly. If the seal is rolling up I would definitely recommend lubricating the cylinder with some food grade lubricant like a silicone spray.
Spray the gasket too.
This shouldn’t be happening but if you are stuffing something with cure in it and stuffing into a small casing it increases the pressure a lot. You can wrap the plate with plastic wrap and that will find the gaps.

@reprice
Unfortunately hand mixing is the way to with small batches. We used to make 20# batches of sticks all mixed by hand. Seems like you spend a lot of time pulling it apart but when it gets tight and sticky you are there!

@SpicyMeatballz
Go to parts, stuffer parts, click on any tube and at the bottom is this chart:
Casing Size Stuffing Tube Size
15mm 10mm
16mm 10mm
17mm 10mm
18mm 10mm
19mm 12mm
21mm 13mm
23mm 13mm
26mm 16mm
30mm 19mm
32mm 22mm

Here’s the finished sticks all sealed up and the breakfast is getting some smoke.

We banged out 40# of our house bologna in 19mm smoked collagen, 20 hot with pepperjack and 20 mild with cheddar. Then finished up with 20# of breakfast in the pretubed 24mm sheep casing. In the cooler now and headed for the smoker!!!

@terry129 Word of caution, I don’t know the answer to your question but I’ve learned only change one thing at a time. Get your base recipe down then start the tweeking AND keep good notes! Good luck!

@hinoon Sorry for the late reply, job gets in the way of my hobbies sometimes… That correct, just crack the door on low setting to help let the moisture out. If the casings aren’t dry they won’t take the smoke and you’ll end up with very ugly sticks. The water will wash the smoke off. We live in Rochester NY and it’s cold here…so if the sticks come out of the cooler they will sweat. Just dry them out an you’ll be good to put the smoke to them.