water/ice water bath ??

[shane102]

Why do a bath in water after pulling snack sticks from smoker?
Should I do an ice water bath or just cold water bath?
how long in water?

Thank you
Shane

[AdamCA]

shane102 The reason you do an ice water bath is to stop the cooking process and typically 15-20 is sufficient. Once you pull them out of the water let them sit on the counter for an hour or 2 then hold in the fridge overnight before vacuum sealing them in bags.

[Jonathon]

shane102 Ice bath is going to give you a better-finished product than just cold water. It doesn’t have to be all ice cubes but somewhere around 50/50 starting point of water to ice is a good ratio.

[A Former User]

I agree about the finished product like john said. I use a couple of frozen 2 liter juice bottles in the water. tip: The square ones waste less room in the freezer and will cool a couple batches before you need to refreeze them.

[shane102]

Jonathon when you say ice bath will give better finished product what do you mean. what does the process accomplish to make better??

thanks for the help

[shane102]

AdamCA why hold in the fridge overnight?

thanks for help
shane

[A Former User]

You want to get it cooled all the way down before packaging, vacuum packing to prevent condensation from forming. That can cause freezing issues, freezer burn in the future.

[Jonathon]

shane102 An ice bath stops the cooking process if you don’t get the heat down it will continue to cook and you will have a dryer more overcooked product. It also can leave you with a dry casing that wont have much snap to it

[Sean Clouthier]

for some reason when I perform an ice bath w/ water, my casings tend to separate from the meat. What am I doing wrong? Lately, I have been putting them in a meat lug and dropping them into my freezer chest for 15 to 20 min. Is that ok instead of water and ice?

[Tex_77]

Sean Clouthier it’s probably not the best way, an ice water bath will stop the cooking much more rapidly than just dropping into a sub freezing environment.

[samspade]

Sean Clouthier the separation might be caused by you thermal schedule. If you dont bring the temps slowly the result may be a layer of melted fat between the casing and meat.

[processhead]

Sean Clouthier said in water/ice water bath ??:

for some reason when I perform an ice bath w/ water, my casings tend to separate from the meat. What am I doing wrong? Lately, I have been putting them in a meat lug and dropping them into my freezer chest for 15 to 20 min. Is that ok instead of water and ice?

The reason ice water lowers the temperature faster and more effectively than placing them in a cold freezer is because cold water absorbs and transfers heat much more efficiently than cold air does.