Qsoft meat

[Doug Kapfenstein]

Soft meat sticks. Hey guys, I have a problem. My meat sticks have pretty much always been nice and firm and then I asked about my casings not sticking very well. I also had an issue with my temp not getting up to where I wanted it unless I really cranked up my smoker temp. It was suggested that I should be adding a little water in the water pan (which I had not been doing). I did that today and my casings are only so-so and my sticks are kinda soft. Could it be that the water kept the sticks from getting/staying firm? I used two different temp readers(I-grill and grill eye) with two different temps all the way through. I took the sticks off when the highest one said about 165 and the lower one reading about 145. Maybe that was the problem? Any help. Is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

[vjbutler]

Doug Kapfenstein I think we need more information to help out. How big are the batches? What smoker are you using? Smoking on sticks or racks? 145 will definitely produce a little softer stick but not mushy. Can you tell us a little more about the consistency? Are you mixing long enough to get good protein extraction? Hand or mechanical mixing? What is your cook cycle? Sorry for all the questions but any of these factors will affect your final product.

[Doug Kapfenstein]

vjbutler Hi vjbutler. I’m making ten pound batches in a vertical smoker. I try to stay with the guide from the Waltons videos for time and temps u til the end and then I have to bump up to around 185 to get my final up. To 160-165. I use a c*****s manual mixer for right around 10 minutes. The sticks came out soft, but not mushy. Some of the casings aren’t stuck to the meat real well. This is the first batch I’ve used a c*****s casing also. I ran out of my usual ones and had to improvise and they are closer to me. I’m not real happy with these so it may be my last time with them too. I peeled the casing off of one of the sticks that wasn’t stuck very well and there was a grease like on the meat. I was thinking that might be from not getting hot enough? Definitely a few things I’m going to change the next batch. First may be to make sure of my thermometer. Thanks for any thoughts and ideas.