Pizza Jerky and Snack Stick is coming back!

[Jonathon]

I remember twilliams being a fan of this and he might have been the 1st to alert us that something was happening with the seasoning. If I remember correctly he let us know that a bag had expanded, like it was full of air. We told Excalibur, they pulled it eventually and reformulated it. Well, it is back and we have ordered some, so we should have it in a few weeks!

[WVTim]

Jonathon great

[twilliams]

Jonathon no, no, no, lol. The seasoning bag did not expand. During the cooking/smoking process there was a chemical reaction which created a gas and expanded the meat which made the casings rupture on the summer sausage casings. The snack stick casings they filled with the gas and left them very spongy and some ruptured as well. Typically when you put your finished product into the ice bath the product sinks, these did not. They floated. I tried using that seasoning in a brat mix as well, upon taking the seasoning and mixing in with the water for better dispersion I noticed that it got very frothy. I thought I was doing something wrong. After a second attempt at snack sticks I got the same results. By this time I have made several hundred pounds of sausage and sticks with different seasoning with zero problems so I immediately knew it was a seasoning issue. I contacted Excalibur, on my phone call of explaining what happened the Rep said” oh are you the person that just sent in the photos”? Um, no I am not sir, he explained that he just received photos of the exact problem I was having. Upon them studying this they found that the tomato powder in the seasoning was extremely acidic creating that to have the reaction making the gas during the cooking process.

[calldoctoday]

twilliams Wow! That must have been devastating too, loosing all that meat & wasted effort. That is sad.

[twilliams]

calldoctoday yep, 25lbs maybe 37.5lbs I can’t quite remember, went to the land fill. I didn’t care about the cost of seasoning. It was the venison and pork trim I couldn’t get back. Well over $100

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

twilliams that’s a crazy story. Glad they’ve worked on that issue

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

twilliams that really sucks! I’m paranoid about catastrophic loss like that happening.

[samspade]

Ok and the payoff was Excalibur gave you???

[twilliams]

samspade haha that’s funny, they never offered to reimburse anything. They did state it was still edible, just unappealing to the eye. I won’t supply my paying customers that type of garbage. I wish I still had the photos but I deleted them

[twilliams]

Deepwoodsbutcher it’s definitely always something that could happen. A lot of variables in sausage making. Maybe you forgot to add the cure, or used the wrong salt, or maybe your smoker element goes out in the middle of the cook, or maybe something happens to your hanging strings and all your product ends on the bottom of the smoker, or your smoker blows up from a volatile reaction( someone here has had that happen), or the inside of your smoker starts on fire due to poor maintenance or fat drippings on the burner. The list could go on. It’s never a good feeling but you learn from it and move on.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

twilliams definitely experienced some smoker issues in the past. One thing I learned doing curing and sausage making under USDA inspection was to document the ingredients in your recipes as they are added. We had a sheet with the recipe in one column and you had to rewrite the ingredient and amount in the next column as you added it. This was the way they could verify that the correct amounts were used and incorporated into each batch. It was a little redundant, but traceability was a huge concern for obvious reason. Even at home doing small batches, I like to have a check list.

[twilliams]

Deepwoodsbutcher that’s a great idea!!!

[bocephus]

Deepwoodsbutcher I am laminating my recipes, I think as I add ingredients I will check it off with erasable marker. This is a good idea, thanks. I usually measure out seasoings in seperate bowls before and add but this is a good way to double check.

[calldoctoday]

twilliams I bet it was all worth a lot more than that.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

bocephus that’s a great idea. I also like to measure things out ahead of time.

[AdamusLignus]

Tried to make snack sticks the first time with a bunch of hard-earned venison and shanked it. Hard. I’m still pissed at myself.

[Spidey]

AdamusLignus I know how you feel. Ruined a few batches myself, however there is a great wealth of information to be found here in the videos and members in the community, to guide you to success.