Author Topic: snack sticks  (Read 7985 times)

Joe Rinaldi

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Re: snack sticks
« Reply #15 on: September 14, 2016, 08:15:19 PM »
I have the dryer and that's what I thought. I've done summer sausage with the dryer and I'm doing 25# of sticks this weekend. I've got the Waltons Willies stick seasoning on the way. Any programming ideas?
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Joe
Lovettsville VA

NDKoze

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  • Gregg - Fargo, ND
Re: snack sticks
« Reply #16 on: September 15, 2016, 12:53:27 AM »
Here is Waltons Inc says to do:

Quote
Stage   Oven      Smoke*   Shower**   Time
1         125° F      Off         Off            1 Hour
2         140° F      On         Off            1 Hour
3         155° F      On         Off            2 Hours
4         175° F      On         Off            Until Internal Meat Temp Reaches 160° F.
5         000° F      Off         On            10 Minutes

* Do not use smoke if cooking in a household oven or dehydrator.
** To shower, simply spray with water for 10 minutes, or place product in an ice bath.
++ To increase humidity for a better looking final product, place a small pan of water in the bottom of the smokehouse during the entire cooking cycle.

Cooling: Hold 90 minutes at room temperature before moving to a fridge/cooler.

But honestly, when I tried this in my #3, I didn't get very good smoke because the temps were too low and when I did start bumping the temp up I never really did get much smoke. If you try this method, make sure you use chips or wood slivers to ensure you get smoke. My problem is that I used chunks and the temp was just too low to get the smoke going with this stepped-up method. Finally, this method just took FOREVER to smoke 1 batch of sticks (close to 12 hours) and when I do this I typically try to smoke two batches per day.

So, now my current method is very simple:
  • Smoke at 150 for 1 hour without the Jerky Dryer
  • Smoke at 200 for 1 hour without the Jerky Dryer
  • Add the Jerky Dryer and smoke until the internal temp of the sticks hit 160° F
Notes
  • This method usually takes about 6-8 hours depending on how full the smoker is.
  • 25lbs of sticks pretty much maxes my #3 out and that is on 6 shelves. So every 2-3 hours after I turn the dryer on, I rotate the trays top to bottom and front to back. Otherwise, the bottom shelves will get done way before the top ones. Another reason for doing this is because I have a hot spot at the back of my smoke box. So if I didn't rotate front to back, the back-side of the sticks would get burnt.
  • This may seem too high of a temp and too fast for some people, but I needed to find a way to speed my smokes along so I could get two batches done per day without staying up until all hours of the night or getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to start the first batch.
This is what I found works best for me anyway. I would recommend experimenting with smaller batches until you find the method that works best for you.
Gregg - Fargo, ND
Smokin-It #3 (purchased in 2014) that replaced a Masterbuilt XL (ugh) and a 10+ Year-Old Big Chief (still used for fish), and few others over the years, along with variety of Weber Gas/Charcoal Grills, Anova Sous Vide, etc. devices.

Grampy

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Re: snack sticks
« Reply #17 on: September 15, 2016, 07:40:08 AM »
I have the dryer and that's what I thought. I've done summer sausage with the dryer and I'm doing 25# of sticks this weekend. I've got the Waltons Willies stick seasoning on the way.

Joe, let me know how you like the Willies Snack seasoning mix. I use it a lot and it is one of my favorites!
Jimmy from Arkadelphia, AR
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