Snack stick blues

[bobfrapples]

Been processing my own venison for a few years now and really enjoy it. New member here but I’ve been perusing quite a bit of helpful information on here. Nonetheless, we typically make hamburger meat, sausage, jerky, and snack sticks. Snack sticks are my fav taste by far but they always kick my butt during the stuffing process. I’ve always had trouble getting them to stuff very easily. Over the last couple years I’ve learned to add more water, don’t add cure the night before stuffing, etc. but I’m still struggling.

This year I had hell again. We have two stuffers, one old cast iron stuffer that says 8 qt but built like a tank and a cheaper 5# bought from academy a couple years ago. Used 19mm casing but had two problems, cast iron stuffer was way too hard to crank no matter how much water I added, and the cheap one is cheap foreign made junk. Started blowing seals, stripping metal gears, among other things. Not fun.

Only ideas of potential causes is that the diameter of the cast iron might be too large and maybe a taller/skinnier well built stuffer would help? Also concerned about the stuffing tube I use for the cast iron because it doesn’t taper down in size near the throat, it’s just a straight opening all the way to the collar. Are these crazy ideas? I really didn’t want to buy another stuffer if there was a way to utilize the cast iron built like a tank. But I’m out of ideas…

[processhead]

bobfrapples
I had the same problem with my cast iron stuffer when making small diameter sticks. They just don’t have the mechanical advantage you need to push the meat through that tiny stuffer tube.

I made a longer handle for more leverage. It works wonders and makes the old cast iron stuffers usable for stuffing snack sticks.

[cdavis]

processhead great idea .

[bobfrapples]

That’s genius, I love that idea.

[processhead]

The hardest part was coming up with a 1/2 inch square drive that would fit on the pinion gear of the stuffer. You might be able to make out the modified 1/2 drive socket I welded on to the square tubing for the handle.

[Jonathon]

bobfrapples 1st, welcome to this site. 2nd there are a few things you said that could help you. 1st, don’t mix the day before and then stuff. Add a cure accelerator and go right from mixing to stuffing to smoking OR go from mixing to stuffing to holding if you do not use a cure accelerator. The meat will start to setup over night and it will make it harder to stuff. 2nd, how much water are you actually adding? 3rd make sure your seal is positioned the right way, our seals on our 7,11,26, and 33 lb stuffers don’t orientate the way it would make sense to a lot of people. The gap goes down if that makes sense? 4th make sure your meat it super cold during the stuffing process, you DONT want ice crystals but you do want everything, especially the fat to be super cold so it isn’t as sticky. Finally, what is your fat content?

Look forward to hearing from you!

[bobfrapples]

processhead I did notice the socket, I have a few extras and some square tubing I have laying around that I’ll try to rig up. Great idea, thanks for the input.

[bobfrapples]

Jonathon makes sense on the cure accelerator and going straight to stuffing, thanks.

I’m not exactly sure how much water I was adding, I only know that I added what I thought was a lot of water, had trouble, added more, to then getting blasted in the face with meat and water once the seal broke. Haha, it was quite the sight to see. And yes, I tried different setups with the seal thinking I might have it wrong but it blew out no matter how I tried it.

As for fat content, we used 50% beef(brisket) and 50% venison.

[processhead]

bobfrapples
While a 1/2 socket is a close fit, I still had to heat it cherry red with a torch and then press it on to the end of the pinion gear for a proper fit. ( after removing the pinion gear from the stuffer.

[glen]

You might try looking up four point or pipe plug sockets

[Harkness]

I also stripped the gears on a cheapish stuffer, but reworked the mounting system, took out the crank, and installed a linear actuator (12 v, 330 lbs thrust) with a transformer and bidirectional switch. Works great, now!
It’s a 5-lber, and I have a load of horns for it. Kitchen counter for size, lazy susan for sausage pickup to make it an easy 1-person job. Maybe you can do something similar.
Cheers from chilly Winnipeg!

[processhead]

Where did you find your actuator? That looks sorta like the one on the dump box of my UTV.
Great looking retrofit.

[YooperDog]

Harkness pretty ingenious

[Harkness]

processhead Amazon.ca, but I’m sure .com has them too. About $CDN. They come in various push ratings (usually 250, but I wanted more).

[Harkness]

YooperDog Thanks!

[craigrice]

glen an 8 point socket will work auto parts or farm supply , they use square
bolts on farm equipment

[akdave]

When using a conventional stuffer Instead of using a crank, I use a socket and a 1/2" ratchet which enables you to pull all the time and not have to push on the back stroke which is a lot harder for old fellows.

[Harkness]

There’s also the “Universal Socket Fit” on Amazon and Ebay which is essentially a socket with rods that fit around the head/deformed or not; they start at various external diameters and work down. If that’s the way you want to go, ebay is cheapest and Amazon is quickest. Cost is inverse to speed. Cheers from Winnipeg!

[jjischke]

processhead I think the problem is the cast iron doesn’t have the air release valve. Same issue I had when using my grinder as a stuffer. I have the Lem 5# and love it. I know Walton’s has several similar. Highly recommend!

[Jonathon]

bobfrapples If the seal was the right way and you had so much water and pressure that it broke the seal and splashed yu in the face I’d guess something is blocking your tube? I never asked what size stuffing tube you were using? Is it possible that a chunk of something blocked the tube? I have experimented with stuffing partially frozen meat, and if it gets blocked what you are describing can happen.