This is a new category that can be used when you run into an URGENT issue while processing. Austin and Jon have this set up to get an alert from any posts in this category and will do their best to answer these as quickly as possible. There will be times when neither of us are available to respond quickly. Please use this category as needed.
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C88CD024-DF99-4485-9754-0BF346B6CD43.jpeg 2E16C0DB-1F5D-4749-9922-20537F7127E4.jpeg Someone please help me figure out snack sticks!!!
Yesterday, I attempted to smoke 20lbs of snack sticks for the first time. I failed miserably! According to what I’ve read, what should be a 4-5 hour task turned into 11 hours and all 20 pounds of snack sticks ruined. All of the fat rendered out of the meat and looked like a sheath of fat between the meat and the casing. Entire process is below…Friday, I thawed out 20 lbs. of ground venison that had somewhere between 10-20% pork fat in it from the deer processor. I ran all 20 lbs. through the grinder once (even though it was already ground by the processor). After grinding, I put all 20 pounds in a meat mixer and added the seasoning and cure packets from a “Hi Mountain” snack stick kit and then 5 cups of water. I mixed for what seemed like forever. Probably 20 minutes or so. I mixed for a while because I felt like the 20 lb capacity mixer was too full and it just didn’t seem like it was mixing very well. I used a spatula to help churn things around as the mixing blades passed by. I did that until I thought I had, what in my opinion looked like, good protein extraction. I’m new to this so I’m only going off of watching Walton’s and Meatgistics videos over the last week. Next, I stuffed 17 pounds of meat into the 19mm smoked collagen casings. I ran out of casing so I stuffed the remaining 3 pounds into a summer sausage casing that had been soaking for 30 minutes. Finally, I put everything in the refrigerator overnight (12 hours).
The next morning, at 11am, I weaved the long stuffed casings up and down in between the slots of the top rack of my Masterbuilt smoker. The casings hung down about 20 inches from the top rack. Then I turned the smoker on and followed the Mestgistics smoking schedule to a T. Or at least I tried. 120° for 1 hour (no water, no smoke, vent wide open). Bumped up to 130° for 1 hour (no water, no smoke, vent 3/4 closed). Bumped up to 150° for 1 hour (added full water pan and soaked mesquite wood chips). Bumped up to 160° for one hour (added more wood chips). At this point, I was 4 hours in and the temperature of the meat was only at 130° and VERY SLOWLY climbing. I’m talking like one degree every half hour. I Bumped up to 175° hoping to be done when the meat reached 165° but now the temp was climbing even slower. Thinking the meat should’ve been done by now, I decided to bump the temp to 190°. Still very little increase in meat temp. It’s now 9pm (10 hours from when I first turned the smoker on) and still had 10 degrees to go according to my meat thermometer. I cranked the temp to 225° and finally got the meat temp to 165° an hour later. I immediately removed the meat and put it all in a cooler ice bath for 10 minutes. I pulled everything out of the ice bath and placed it on the kitchen table. What I saw was something along the lines of what you’d see if your wife gave birth to an alien. I didn’t know what I was looking at and how “THAT” was the end result of all my hard work. Most of the entire length of the casings had large, long white streaks. Several spots even had like fluid in the casing that I could move around by sliding my finger along the casing. I cut a section open length wise and not only was the casing not adhered to the meat, but the white sections I originally noticed was all of the fat that had rendered out of the meat. Like a sheath of fat between the meat and the casing. Even the 3 pound summer sausage casing turned out the same way. I did rinse the fat sheath away and taste the meat and you couldn’t even taste the smallest hint of smoke. Needless to say, it was all a disaster and I’m very discouraged. Especially wasting 20 pounds of venison. Extra notes: the meat thermometer works as it should. The smoker was outside in 35° weather. PLEASE HELP!
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Just realized I’m out of Sure Gel and have everything ready to start a batch of Habanero BBQ Snack Sticks. Anything I can substitute that I can find locally?
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I’m going to make a few small hams using a pre mix cure/ brine. These hams are whole muscle leg roasts about 2-3 pounds each. The mix I have on hand does not show instructions for injecting, and soaking instructions seem vague to me. The whole jar makes 10 quarts of brine (good for 18-22 pounds of meat). It says to soak meat for 24 hours or more…? Has anyone done a brine mix like this? Would I be better off injecting and smoking after 24 hours? Or should I soak the hams for a few days and then smoke? I don’t do a lot of curing and the instructions on this mix are confusing me. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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So I processed my bacon cure incorrectly last night and just realized it this morning when I was reading through the processes again. I used 2lb of blue ribbon cure and 6oz of bacon booster to 2 gallons of water then injected. Then dilluted the mixture to 50% and covered the belly and stuck in the fridge. The whole time I was thinking man this is allot of liquid… Duhh…
At this point I have 1lb of cure left. Can I asdjust concentration or maybe leave it as is for longer? Any help or suggestions would be great. -
I have these Black Pepper Spice Lined Casing packed full of boar and deer and on the smoker. But how do you cool these off after they hit temp? Ice water or will that saturate the casing and ruin the meat
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Pk 100 blew up!! Gonna need some parts. Was Cooking some snack sticks had it set to 145 just put saw dust in the bowl, turned to walk away and the door blew open, hinges bent, door latches bent!!haven’t changed anything from the last batchs?? Any help thank you 20210321_122804.jpg
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I’m looking at this scale and there are only 2 reviews.
https://waltons.com/waltons-660-lb-scale/#trustspot-widget-wrapper
Mine just quit and I need a new one right away. Wondering if anyone on here as used this or has a scale they could recommend quickly so I can get it ordered tonight. I need to weigh lugs of meat ect. Thanks all!
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We have been perusing the website for a few weeks as we’ve decided to make a new batch of kielbasa and we’re interested in trying Walton’s natural casings (a tubed package of hog casings specifically). We’ve decided we want to try them but as we go to check out there are several shipping options that leave us wondering if we can get it in time without paying double. We stopped into the local distributor only to find they do not directly sell merchandise from there. While there we were lead to believe shipping was typically two days but our options on the website are:Economy, Expedited, UPS 2nd day Air, and UPS next day air. The ups 2nd day Air is the same cost as the casings and the next day air is double (tripping the cost of the casings). We need to know what the expected delivery times are for the economy and expedited shipping as we’re planning on stuffing sausages Saturday morning and it is currently Monday evening. The two most expensive options make this purchase unreasonable for us. Thank you for your consideration. We are in Omaha, NE if that helps.
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I’m going to make summer sausage with deer meat. I picked up the ingredients while I was in Wichita. However I forgot the sure gel binder . Is there something I could substitute that I can buy like at
the grocery store so I don’t have to wait on shipping? -
Any thoughts or advice would be helpful.
Venison sticks, Loose casings.
I use willies seasoning and love it.
I mix 70% venison to 30% pork I add seasoning, Excalibur sure gel binder, encapsulated citric acid, cure and water. I am using good fresh 21 mm smoke collagen casings
I mix in my manual meat mixer for 8 to 10 minutes for protein extraction then stuff in casings.
I place in smoker until it reaches the correct internal temp. Remove and place in a lug full of ice water.My wife and I end up having to remove the casings because they are loose and rubbery or chewy.
Casings are chewy and loose
1 - Am I doing somethinwrong.
2 - is the finished internal temp wrong.
3 - is it letting them cool in a bath of ice water.
4 - I like a round uniform stick not wrinkled up. They turn out with only a very slight wrinkle.
ANY THOUGHTS OR IDEAS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! -
I have a $130.00 order of products that I need now sitting in my Waltons store cart that they will only ship ups ground which means Barge for Alaska residents 2-3 weeks and a cost of $70.00 when a USPS flat rate priority mail shipping would be much cheaper and faster. They will loose my business and most of the rest of remote customers by not making avialable USPS shipping. I will have to spend the next 2-3 hours finding the products I need from other retailers on the internet that have USPS shipping.
Please Help
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I made a small batch of sausage and I used the recommended amount of Bactoferm F-RM-52 and 0.8% dextrose. The sausage is hanging in a controlled environment: 67 - 73 F and 85% humidity. The initial pH was 5.8. After 10 hours, the pH is still at 5.8. How long should it take for the pH to drop to 5.0 or lower?
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If a spice mix already has sodium erythorbate in the ingredient list at 0.67% should I continue to add the ECA. Product will be venison snack sticks. TIA
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Making a 5lb batch of summer sausage with Unit 107. Unable to find it in the list of conversion for per pound and per 5 lb. Any help?
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