Sous vide snack sticks/ sausage

[jpurol]

I’m intrigued with this method but have a few questions. I see Jon said smoker until internal temp of 130 then place into the sous vide. Do I need to vacuum seal or put them in naked? 2. My sticks are usual about 2 feet long so can I just put them in a meat lug with the sous vide? What size of sous vide what I need? I assume I give them the normal ice bath when they reach 160 i.t.? I do about 800 pounds of venison a year for friends and family and this process seems like it could save me a ton of time. I prefer to use natural casing for my snack sticks and sausage. Does this method affect the snap of natural casings? Thank you in advance!!!

[YooperDog]

jpurol you can put them in ‘naked’, they don’t need to packaged. After they reach temp pull and ice bath, let them air dry and bloom and then you can package. The snap will be there. I am not sure what size you would need using a meat lug. Some folks use a turkey roaster and have adapted coolers to SV. You are going the lose heat through an uninsulated lug.

[twilliams]

jpurol what casings do you use, i wanted to try natural casings instead of collagen. Any pics of final product?

[jpurol]

I use sheep 21-24mm. Pretubed from waltons. I found their casing are the most consistent. I have a photo but I’m not sure how to paste it here.

[jpurol]

Thank you Yooperdog!!!

[jpurol]

twilliams
I just pulled this pack out of the freezer.

[Jonathon]

jpurol Interesting…to the best of my knowledge no one has done them with natural casings thus far. Parksider might have but he’s busy keepy the swamp creatures in check down in FL. I am going to say the only danger would be the casing becoming rubbery. I am going to be processing a few things this week for the camp chef. If I can remember I will try to stuff a small portion of what I am doing into a natural casing and finish up in sous vide.

[Mean Dean]

The 4th generation German butcher I learned from made his hot dogs that way. Smoked to 130, then finished in a commercial size stainless steel tub with a burner underneath, heather to 165. He pulled the hot dogs at 160, placed in another tank of cold water to stop the cooking, then let bloom. Same as soups vide finishing…and he only used natural sheep casings for these.

[Mean Dean]

There was still plenty of “snap” in the casings.

[jpurol]

Thanks for the info!

[jpurol]

Well johnathon has me convinced to try finishing snack sticks sous vide style. I had 2 500 watt aquarium heaters, a pid control, and a aquarium wave maker. I put it in a big cooler and I’ll give it a shot this weekend. I tested it today and it held water at 177 perfectly.

[Jonathon]

jpurol Darn it, you guys doing all of these awesome mods is going to almost force me to do one! Poor lil ole me has to build something to make sausage processing easier on company time…love my job!

[jpurol]

It is so much fun trying to come up with creative ways to make things easier.

[jpurol]

Did 20 pounds of snack sticks finishing sous vide. Had the temp set at 173. Pulled from smoker at i.t. Of 130 took 15-20 minutes.
Pros:
Takes hours off finishing them in the smoker.
Flavor seems to be there immediately after ice bath
Consistent firmness
Great snap ( used natural sheep casings)

Cons:
Only one I can think of is you better be ready to move fast it is quick!

Conclusion:

Should of tried this years ago!

[jpurol]

[jpurol]

[jpurol]

[PapaSop]

jpurol
Just did the same thing. Pictures to come later.

[Jonathon]

Both jpurol and PapaSop We need to start doing a better job of pointing this out. IF you used Encapsulated Citric Acid then you need to keep it above 130 for an hour to let the encapsulation dissolve fully.

[jpurol]

I didn’t use encapsulated citric acid on this batch but that is good to know. So when I do,I think holding them between 130-140 for a hour before pulling from the smoker would be best?