bpschuebel Thanks. I have a batch of goose sticks in the smoker right now. I’ll make sure I don’t run out of water. I made sure I had plenty of fat in this batch and cut back on the mixing time to 6 minutes total. I just fried up the waste mix and it was very good, not rubbery at all. So, that is a good sign. The problem batches were noticeably firm when I fried up the waste from them. Still not sure which variable or variables caused the problem batches but I’m going to be more diligent about controlling all of them in the future.

Buckmaster Same experience here as sjhuntingfool said. Just a little different texture and flavor depending on how much actual pork meat is in the mix. I follow the Walton recommended portions of sure gel, sure cure and ECA and I usually add high temp cheddar to my willies sticks. There is a Walton recommended temp schedule on the website somewhere you can follow if your Traeger goes down to 120 deg. I usually smoke mine on a masterbuilt gravity feed charcoal grill which only goes down to 150 deg. so I smoke them at 150 for 5 hours and then bump up the temp to get to 160 deg internal temp. That works great for me. These are one of my most requested sticks. Good luck on your surgery.

The cold water hack is real. The first time I tried it was after mixing a batch of sausage made with ghost pepper, I was complaining to a friend about the pain involved (lungs, eyes, nose, etc) during clean up and she suggested rinsing everything in cold water during clean up so the pepper fumes didn’t get released in to the air to breath. I tried it on the next batch and it worked perfectly, both with the pepper fumes, and as a pleasant surprise, with general clean up of all the equipment. The left over sausage and fat just slides right off the equipment with cold water. I’ve been doing that ever since, whether or not I use hot peppers.

Kavon Regarding the stuffing tubes, I have found that Walton’s 19mm smoked collagen casings fit perfectly intact on the Walton’s 12mm stuffer tube. I have tried the other companies’ 19mm smoked collagen casings and have not found any yet that will fit on the Walton’s 12mm stuffer tube without pulling them apart and feeding them onto the tube by hand. So, there is some variation it the diameter of packaged casings from different sources.

I’m not a big fan of sweet meat but a lot of my family and friends (mostly females) eat up the sweet maple bacon goose sticks like they are, well, candy. So, there is probably some kind of market for this.

chippewa How many pounds can you do at a time in the MB40?

Kavon thanks. Good to know. I always do 5 lb batches and my MB1040 works great for that. Every once in a while I think I should do bigger batches though…

chippewa How many pounds can you do at a time in the MB40?

Kavon Regarding the stuffing tubes, I have found that Walton’s 19mm smoked collagen casings fit perfectly intact on the Walton’s 12mm stuffer tube. I have tried the other companies’ 19mm smoked collagen casings and have not found any yet that will fit on the Walton’s 12mm stuffer tube without pulling them apart and feeding them onto the tube by hand. So, there is some variation it the diameter of packaged casings from different sources.

Kavon My smoker only goes down to 150 degrees so I put them in there at 150 for 4.5 to 5 hours and then bump them up a bit to get them to 160 internal temp. It doesn’t take long to get there once I bump them up. Then they go in the ice bath. I’ve never had a stall happen with snack sticks that caused me to deviate much from that schedule. I’ve smoked sticks in all weather conditions. I live in KC and bad weather days are usually my days to stay inside and make sticks.

I’m in the camp of cutting them to fit the racks before smoking. I smoke in a MB1040 which has 27" wide racks. I cut my stuffed casings to 27" and put them in the smoker. When done I cut off the nub on one end and then cut 5 - 5" sticks, leaving about a half a bite reward at the end.

I’m not a big fan of sweet meat but a lot of my family and friends (mostly females) eat up the sweet maple bacon goose sticks like they are, well, candy. So, there is probably some kind of market for this.

Buckmaster Same experience here as sjhuntingfool said. Just a little different texture and flavor depending on how much actual pork meat is in the mix. I follow the Walton recommended portions of sure gel, sure cure and ECA and I usually add high temp cheddar to my willies sticks. There is a Walton recommended temp schedule on the website somewhere you can follow if your Traeger goes down to 120 deg. I usually smoke mine on a masterbuilt gravity feed charcoal grill which only goes down to 150 deg. so I smoke them at 150 for 5 hours and then bump up the temp to get to 160 deg internal temp. That works great for me. These are one of my most requested sticks. Good luck on your surgery.

The cold water hack is real. The first time I tried it was after mixing a batch of sausage made with ghost pepper, I was complaining to a friend about the pain involved (lungs, eyes, nose, etc) during clean up and she suggested rinsing everything in cold water during clean up so the pepper fumes didn’t get released in to the air to breath. I tried it on the next batch and it worked perfectly, both with the pepper fumes, and as a pleasant surprise, with general clean up of all the equipment. The left over sausage and fat just slides right off the equipment with cold water. I’ve been doing that ever since, whether or not I use hot peppers.

bpschuebel Thanks. I have a batch of goose sticks in the smoker right now. I’ll make sure I don’t run out of water. I made sure I had plenty of fat in this batch and cut back on the mixing time to 6 minutes total. I just fried up the waste mix and it was very good, not rubbery at all. So, that is a good sign. The problem batches were noticeably firm when I fried up the waste from them. Still not sure which variable or variables caused the problem batches but I’m going to be more diligent about controlling all of them in the future.