Unstuffed Smoked Beef Sticks
Here they are. I made them skinless (not stuffed in casings), because I find most stuffing skins annoying, and I wanted to see if I could make them without casings. They ended up ugly (looks like dog poop), but they are by far the best tasting Beef Sticks I ever ate! Nobody seems to care what they look like. It is my opinion that I can get more smoke on the meat, without skins on.
I had them rolled pretty nice and round, but I guess when some of the fat cooks out, that causes them to get lumpy----meat stays---some fat leaves.
Everybody who tasted them said they were the best they ever ate, but my kid says they could be hotter. I told him next time I'll make part of the batch extra hot for him.
This Ingredient list is almost identical to Morton's Pepperoni---Very Mild.
Ingredients:
5 lbs Beef (ground--80/20)
7 1/2 level tsp (2 1/2 TBS) of TQ
3 tsp Black Pepper
1 1/2 tsp of Mustard Seed
2 tsp of Fennel Seed (slightly crushed)
1 1/2 tsp of Crushed Red Pepper
1 tsp of Anise Seed
1 tsp of Garlic Powder
1 tsp of Italian Seasoning
6 ounces of ice water
Mix dry stuff in the water.
Mix this all real real good with the 5 pounds of ground Beef, and cover & put in fridge for 24 hours.
Day #2:
Roll out cured ground Beef about 3/4" thick with a rolling pin. Make cuts every 3/4" in this rolled out Beef. Drop one of these 3/4" X 3/4" bars into a piece of plastic wrap about 8" or 10" long by a little wider than the bars are long, and give each one a little back & forth roll, causing the bars to become cylinders wrapped in plastic wrap. Do this with all of the bars (mine were 28 pieces). Put them on a tray and put in fridge over night.
Day #3:
I unwrapped them and put them in my Old MES 30 for 1 1/2 hours at 120˚ without smoke.
Then I lit my Hickory Dust filled A-MAZE-N-SMOKER (6" X 6"), and put it in the bottom of my MES 30.
After another hour, I bumped the heat up to 130˚.
After 4 more hours, Bump temp up to 160˚ for an hour.
Then 180˚ for another hour.
Then bumped it up to 190˚.
When they were all up to about 165˚ internal, I pulled them out. They ranged from 164˚ to 175˚. Many will remove them at 160˚, but I took these higher.
Then I threw them in ice water to cool off. This made grease form on the outside of each piece, so I rinsed them off in warm water & dried them all off.
Then I put them all on a dish (except for a few snackers for that evening), covered them with plastic wrap, and stuck them in the fridge for the night.
Packed & marked them the next day, and into my bloated freezer.
BTW: Started with 4 lb. 14 oz of beef-------Finished with 3 lb. 4 oz of sticks. Lost exactly 1/3 of original weight.
These are very mild, so if you like heat, you'll have to add some to my recipe above.
All mixed with cure & seasoning:
All rolled and started in smoker:
Color starting to change:
All smoked (started packing & realized I need more Qview):
All packed up, except for some early snacking:
Thanks for lookin',
Bearcarver
Unstuffed Smoked Beef Sticks
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