First time snack sticks and thermo processing

[taufrecht]

I am struggling with my new PK100 getting meat sticks up to temperature. The first time I made snack sticks it took 30 hours or so.
I am on my second attempt. I have 25 pounds of meat sticks in the smoker. I am on hour 16. I have turned the temperature all the way to 250 degrees with 1250 watts. My internal temperature of my meat will not exceed 127 degrees. Outside temperature in Montana is -8 degrees.
Does does altitude along with outside temperature have that much effect on my new smoker?
Has anyone else struggled this much? I was really looking forward to finding great success with the PK100.

[Bob Stehlik]

taufrecht try putting a pan of warm/hot water in the smoker. The water will raise the humidity and convey the heat better. You can also heat some water in a turkey roaster to the temp of 177 degrees F and finish them off in the hot water bath until a IT of 160 degrees is reached. A lot of people are using the hot water bath/sous vide method to cut hours off the finishing time.

[smokinbubba]

Sous vide = going to bed at a decent hour.

[taufrecht]

The water is working.
Before I but water in the smoker I had icicles from the smoker to the concrete. -8 degrees brings its own challenges

[processhead]

Modern smokers have a lot of controls and temp sensors which we have come to be very dependent on.
It is good to have an accurate backup thermometer that you can trust when things just don’t seem right.

[taufrecht]

Agreed I have a Meatometer I bought at Waltons. I wish I bought the 4 pack instead of just the single. Love love it

[GWG8541]

smokinbubba My first run of snack sticks with the sous vide was today.

[YooperDog]

GWG8541 looking good. I use a turkey roaster right now, but will be going that route hopefully soon. It is like going going from bottling to kegging.

[taufrecht]

You don’t have to put them in a bag when submersing in the water. Those look so much better than mine. We made 275 lbs of sausage including 50lbs of Willies snack sticks today. I smoked 50 lbs of habanero mango brats. The best of the best.

[processhead]

I like my finished snack sticks somewhat dry and I am wondering about if that is even possible when finishing sticks in hot water? The only thing I can think of is letting them air dry in the refrigerator after all thermal processing is done, before packaging.

[YooperDog]

processhead I let mine air dry in the fridge and they get like a salami and a solid snap. Kabanosy makes a good stick, growing up the local shops would have them hanging on the rack with their other cured sausages in varying stages of dryness. Probably wouldn’t float today.

[s.a.m]

YooperDog I do the same thing, I’ll let them in the fridge uncovered a couple days, do the same with my whole muscle jerky

[Jonathon]

taufrecht 30 hours for snack sticks is way too long so there are a few things that could be going on here. (sorry, I know we’ve kind of moved on but I wanted to point this out)
You might have gotten case hardening, where the outside of the casing either cooks or dries too quickly. At -8 I hope you warmed up your smoker first and then tried to keep the doors open for short periods while you loaded it? Adding humidity is a good way to increase the thermal processing energy as it fights off the stall and helps convey the heat more effectively into the meat.
Last thing, it COULD be an issue with your PK-100. I remember someone else saying something similar recently. I hope they don’t have a bad batch of controllers or something out there. Using a thermometer that can check the ambient temperature in the smoker is probably idea.

And, of course, finishing in water speeds everything up!

[smokinbubba]

processhead i bloom mine with a fan blowing on them. Works good.

[twilliams]

smokinbubba the term “bloom” i dont quite understand, the look of my snack stix, summer sausage and ring bologna has the same look from finished out of smoker to 20 minute ice bath to 1 hour set dry time and after overnight in fridge before packaging. So not really sure on the term or what it is supposed to do

[smokinbubba]

Bloom is basically a resting period after the ice bath. Some smoked products will develop a nice mahogany color. It also dries a little. It really helps my sticks that were finished in sous vide. Didnt see much color change in thise tho.

[taufrecht]

I used the MEATER thermometer. The internal ambient temperature never got close to the setting of the PK100. I even set it up to 250 degrees at high watt setting. The temperature never got above 150.
What would be my next step?

[twilliams]

taufrecht call customer service at proSmoker

[processhead]

Could be several things causing that.

1. Bad temperature probe telling the controls that it is hotter than it actually is, so the controller doesn’t call for the element to turn on.
2. Bad control board.
3. Bad or intermittent wire connection between control board and the element.
4. Bad heating element. Usually when they go bad, you will get zero heat .
   Depending on your skills and comfort troubleshooting electrical power equipment, you may want to have a technician look at it for you.

[twilliams]

processhead i assume it is under warranty, if that is the case only a certified technician can dive into it.