Snack Sticks water squirting out
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Made my first snack sticks this past weekend. I just bought some 80/20 about 3 1/2 lbs of hamburger. Used w pepperoni seasoning, ECA, carrot binder, sure cure and about 8 ounces of water. I had troubles with my wireless thermometer so I had to keep poking at the sticks to find out what temperature they were at and every time I did a lot of water squirted out. I am thinking that is not good. And just one more thing is it normal to have a lot of fat on the outside of the casing when down?
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sbtech are you sure its water? Thinking it is liqufird fat just like cooking a brat you end up having some squirters. However the carrot fiber will retain moisture with the 8 oz. Of water for 3 1/2 lb batch is pushing it i believe
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How did you mix them, and how did you cook them (time, temperature, etc.)?
Since you didn’t grind the beef, protein extraction and binding may have been an issue. If that’s the case, a protein-based binder like Sure Gel might help.
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I have a mixer that works pretty good. It is made for mixing large quantities of dough. There seemed to be a lot of proteins extraction. It could have been fat. Did the gradual cooking in electric smoker. Started out at 130 degrees. They were in the smoker for about 8 hours. To me the sticks seemed a little dry. Is it normal to have a lot of fat on the outside casing.
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sbtech I am thinking twilliams is right and that was fat or something went really wrong somewhere. The fat on the outside is a sure sign of “fitting out” which is when the fat renders out of the meat because protein extraction wasn’t achieved when mixing. In general no, it is not normal for the fat to be on the outside (or inside between meat and casing) of the casing. If you have the time and a probe thermometer I would run it empty and check to see if the temps your smoker is telling you are what it is actually running at.
Carrot fiber will hold up to 26 times it’s weight in water so if you added 8 oz of water and 0.5 oz of carrot fiber (which would be the correct amount fo 3.5 lb) then it should have easily held that amount, which leads me back to thinking it was fat somehow.
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sbtech When you pulled it apart, was it stretching? I hate not having a good way to explain this…look at this https://youtu.be/wStH-RtQUY8?t=85 did it stretch that much?
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I am not sure if it was that stretchy. It was hard to get off my hands because of being very sticky. I have a good size dough mixer that I was using because I was so happy not getting my hands so cold because I have hand mixed turkey for snack sticks without casings. I am learning and will try and duplicate what you showed in the video. I ordered the GrillEye from you and will test my temperature in the smoker when I get it. If it comes down to it I will get a meat mixer because my kids want snack sticks for Christmas. One more thing would it be better to mix just seasoning and surecure without the binder to test the protien extraction.
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sbtech Awesome, look forward to seeing if that improves/fixes your issue. I am also curious as to how your grilleye is working. I fought with mine this morning trying to get it to connect to the cloud and ultimately gave up. We have a very positive review of it Here that I put a note on and will actually be taking down if I don’t get my issue fixed through support. I am hoping it is just my unit but it has been giving me issues ever since I updated the firmware. It used to be perfect and then that update just knocked something wrong with it!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltons.com youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/@waltonsinc
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Wow I looked on the equipment page under wireless thermometer and there is no Grill Eye Pro. I will be happy with this one if it is accurate. I went thru 3 batches of snack sticks because of temperature. Waste of money and time. Don’t mean to bug you but asked about putting the binder in after I mix meet and get the protein extraction. Also should I add a little water to the meat with seasoning if I don’t put the binder in to get my protein extract
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sbtech what was your smoke schedule? What unit are you using to do this? Yes you always want add some water to help mix and stuffing into casings. I dont like using beef personally as do to the fatting issue. I use 50/50 venison pork blend at a 70/30 fat ratio. For some reason pork fat seams to hold better.
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sbtech When you add carrot fiber won’t really matter but I would suggest you add it early on at same time as water/seasoning. With sure gel or another binder that has protein in it you absolutely want to add it at the beginning as it makes protein extraction easier by adding protein to the mix. As for water, I do everything at once, aside from Encapsualted Citric Acid and cheese, both of those go in during the last 60 seconds of mixing.
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Brian Schneider My opinion would be no, don’t let it update. I got a response from them but it didn’t fix my issue. I am waiting for a response to that but after seeing what some other people are saying I am thinking this isn’t just my unit that has this problem. If I had to guess I’d say unit bought before a certain date aren’t working well with the recent updates but that is just speculation. If we can’t fix this I am taking down our positive review from Youtube. I don’t really want to do that and we have never done it before but at this point the thing just isn’t working right. Angers me too because it was working wonderfully.
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltons.com youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/@waltonsinc
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Jonathon I just wanted to check with you again to see if you ever gave your grilleye another chance. My unit is a few years old and I was avoiding the firmware updates to avoid the problem with not being able to connect via the cloud service. But I went to use my grilleye pro over Xmas and wasn’t able to connect to the cloud and I checked the firmware version and it had been updated. I sent grilleye customer service an email and they responded a few days later with some instructions on how to get the cloud service restored. I will attach a screen shot with the instructions as they worked for me.
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Brian Schneider Just a little input about GrillEye. I bought the version before the pro. I did not see the pro on the website. Anyway I bought it back in June and used it a couple of times in my Masterbuilt smoker. My wife and boys bought me a bit boss for Christmas. The temperature rose up to 590 degrees on one probe and the others were reading fine. The temperature was fluctuating between 590 degrees and 350 degrees. Replaced the probe same thing. I tried a newer style probe and same thing. Now I thought i will see what happens if the temp drops. Well it did not but started on another port on the GrillEye. I did the same process as I did on the other port. Contacted GrillEye on the 6th. They responded on the 8th asking me to check a few things they may cause the problem. I did what they asked and not the problem. They also wanted a receipt for the GrillEye and I am thinking that is long gone. Thanks to Angie Anderson she emailed me a copy of the receipt and forward it to GrillEye. I have not heard from them so sent another email on the 13th asking did they get my email. Not heard back, This is just a FYI and not upset just giving info just incase anyone else might have problems. I say it was a great product and liked how it worked. Johnathan suggested I get it to to test my smoker amdient temp. He was right on because in my Masterbuilt I had 4 different temps. Thank you Johnathan
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brian SCHNEIDER I’ve been using the Meater+ for everything basically but I will go back and try to fix that. If it works I will replace that old video with a new one. I loved the functionality of the unit and initially it was great, so hopefully, this fixes that! sbtech I am glad it helped identify the issue for your smoker, somewhere we used firebricks to stabilize the wave in our smoker and I am wondering if they could actually work to stabilize top to bottom heat fluctuations? I’ve got an old Weston vertical that had some fluctuation so I could test this is people thought it could be helpful? Hopefully grilleye gets back to you, if you bought it from us let me know I can get a receipt if it was bought online or by calling in!
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sbtech I’m also going to try updating firmware and following the instructions and seeing if that works!
