Thanks for adding me to the forum !!!!
Here is the process for 100 lbs. smokies:
50 lbs. 90% beef trim
50 lbs. 72%-75% pork pics
grinding plate is 3/16 ( Biro grinder)
we double grind all sausages
meat temp at time of mixing is around 38 F
spice ingredients: salt,corn syrup solids,spices,msg,garlic,spice extractive, not more than 1% soy bean oil added to prevent caking, 4 ozs. speed cure (6.22% nitrite)
Seasoning weighs 5 lbs. 14 ozs.
I put about a quart of distilled water in my mixing bucket, put the speed cure in the water and dilute it
then I add the seasoning and make a soupy, slurry out of it and pour it over the meat.
I have a Mainca 200 mixer that is set to run 5- 30 second mixing cycles, then it runs 5- 23 second kneading cycles. The mixer alternates the cycles,mixing /kneading/mixing /kneading and does that 5 times. BTW, I do not use a starter culture....
In the past I have had to add more water to get the snack sticks to flow better through my Mainca hyd. stuffer.( I have to add at least 2 gallons of water per 200 lbs. of deer smokies to get them to flow at a reasonable rate out of my stuffer or I would be there stuffing all day, BUT I have never had a batch of smokies go bad no matter how much water I added.) BTW, I would never recommend a Mainca stuffer.......
The snack sticks are stuffed in 21 mm clear collagen casings.
We loop the stuffed smokies over poles and cut them at the bottom of the loop to make a 9" long stick.
I put the smokies in my incubation room which is around 62 degrees F and around 40% humidity and let them in the room over night.
Next morning I put them in my smoke house that is made of glazed tile.
Start my fire using hickory wood only.
I keep the fire low ,temp around 60-70 degrees and gradually build the heat up to 90 ish over a 5 hour period. I only need to smoke them for 5 hours or less.
I then place the smokies in my drying room until they are dried down.
I do not have a PH meter but we had the Purina labs test our product last year,.
results are as follows:
PH level-4.87
We have an old plant folks and in 99 years of business we have never had any formal training in butchering,sausage making,etc. We learned what we know the hard way and when it comes to sausage making we do the same thing,the same way week after week and it always turned out great until a month ago.
I am at my wits end trying to figure out what is going wrong with my snack sticks.
I have steamed,bleached,high alkaline treated,and scrubbed everything involved in my process and it still turns out the same.
You can see in one of the pics how the color is grayish and in the gray areas the stick actually hollows out. What is really weird is when you pick up a pair of sticks that are connected, one side has the grayness and the other side isn't as bad.
In the first pic you can see my sticks after sitting overnight in my incubation room. the stick on the left has basically the same seasoning only it contains sodium erythorbate. the stick on the right is the stick made with the previously mentioned recipe.
Can you see the gray ring around the edge of the stick on the right ?
This never happened until a month ago....
If you need more info , let me know.
Thanks again for all the input. I'm very glad I found the forum !!!!