shelf life question

[rdemler]

Could someone fill me in on the shelf life of snack sticks?Freezing vs ziplock and in fridge,and can they be left uncooled say for back packing etc.?Thanks for your time.R Demler

[Whisky Fish]

Depends entirely on how they were made and if you are talking about home made vs store bought. All the store bought ones that I know of are shelf stable and don't require refrigeration. If you have a recipe/technique for home made, let us know and we can answer the question better. for a shelf stable product you need a combination of cure and/or fermentation and drying. Kingudaroad is real sharp on the fermented sausages you might search his threads for more info.

[rdemler]

I've been using premixed spices that comes with cure for a certain amount of meat.I smoke to a inside temp of 145.Venison and pork.I did a search for shelf life but did'nt get the info I needed on snack sticks.Thanks again for any info.

[Meat Hunter]

If you just using a regular store bought premix/cure pack, I would say they need to go into the fridge. What you could do next time is add a starter culture to the mix, or you could use your own blend of spices along with cure #1 and a starter culture and ferment them, that way you could have them sit in a jar on the counter. Best bet now is to divide them up, pack and freeze what you are not going to use withing the next few days.

If I missed anything here, by all means, someone jump in and correct me :)

[Whisky Fish]

A cure by itself won't do the trick. It needs to have a high acid content as well and a low moisture content. I'm not an expert on fermented sausages. I'll PM Kingaduroad for you and steer him this direction. He'll know the safest route for ya, or maybe Richtee, Gunslinger, BBally, ect.

[Kingudaroad]

The exact shelf life will depend on the amount of moisture you left in the sticks. If you let them dry where they are shriveled up and snap off when you try to break them, they will last a few weeks easy in cool dark storage like say 60 degrees. If they are moist where you can bend them without them breaking, they should still be good for a week or so. The first issue you will have will probably be mold on the exterior casing, and that can just be wiped off prior to eating.

Keep them as cool as you can and give them a good smell before eating.

Have a great trip!

[Kingudaroad]

I should also add that having them vac-packed will add to the shelf life. So it would be better to have 5 packs of 5 sticks each instead of one pack of 25.

[rdemler]

I did leave them with pretty good moisture left in them.I was hoping to keep them for at least a few months taking some from the freezer every few days.I did have the option of using the encapsulated citric acid,but of course I did'nt.I was told it was just for an extra bite in the flavor,and did'nt make a differance as far as quality of the sticks.Looks like I'll be doing alot of vac sealing.Thanks again for all the info.

[Richtee]

If you let them dry where they are shriveled up and snap off when you try to break them, they will last a few weeks easy in cool dark storage like say 60 degrees.

So I assume there is a measurment of moisture related to this? If one had the equipment I guess. I have done them both ways, more a sausage a couple times. But I think I prefer the drier "snapstix". And use the ECA as well.

[Kingudaroad]

Aw - Water Activity

Water activity is an indication of how tightly water is "bound" inside of a product. It does not say how much water is there, but how much is available to support the growth of bacteria, yeasts or molds (fungi). Adding salt or sugar "binds" some of this free water inside of the product and lowers the amount of available water to bacteria which compete very poorly with salt. Molds are very good competitors for free water. We could make Aw lower by lowering the temperature of the product but that is not practical as the temperatures for making fermented sausages are well defined. A much better solution is to lower water activity by drying.

Air drying is the process employed in lowering water activity (moisture removal) and has to be properly controlled otherwise it may lead to a number of defects including a total loss of product.
During the long drying process of salami, the original hurdles lose some of their original strength as the nitrite is depleted and the number of lactic-acid bacteria decreases and the pH increases. This is offset by drying which lowers water activity by removing moisture and the sausage becomes more stable in time.
When using drying as a main safety hurdle, salami is microbiologically stable when Aw is 0.89 or lower.
The drying chamber should not be overloaded as a uniform air draft is needed for proper drying and mold prevention.
Below certain Aw levels, microbes can not grow. USDA guidelines state:
"A potentially hazardous food does not include . . . a food with a WATER ACTIVITY value of 0.85 or less."

Here ya go

[Richtee]

Alllright... I have read that before now that I see it again. Just din't stick I guess. Sooo... how does on measure Aw?

OK never mind. Phew...
http://www.meatupdate.csiro.au/data/...Pack_08-98.pdf

[Whisky Fish]

Alllright... I have read that before now that I see it again. Just din't stick I guess. Sooo... how does on measure Aw?

OK never mind. Phew...
http://www.meatupdate.csiro.au/data/...Pack_08-98.pdf

Now you see why I deferred the question. I know this stuff, , ,but I'm not sure why I know it Gotta be able to defend a hypothesis

[Kingudaroad]

Well....without the ability to accurately measure the aW, we can still deduct from this information that drier will last longer than moister.

[Whisky Fish]

I would think percentage of weight lost would be a pretty accurate indication of moisture content. Another good reason not to deviate from a known recipe/formula

[blues_n_cues]

Well....without the ability to accurately measure the aW, we can still deduct from this information that drier will last longer than moister.

or how many "consumers are involved".
i haven't done snakstix yet but the last time i did 5lbs of jerky it lasted approx. 24 hours between 2 kids & the f.i.l.