Homemade Sausage Making

Total beginner here.

Cannot seem to get the wrinkle look I desire on my snack sticks. Collegen case, 20% ground beef, 2hrs @100 no smoke, 2 hrs @ 140 with smoke, 2 hrs @ 155 smoke, fan cooled at around 60, most casings are smooth, a couple are wrinkled, done on a masterbuilt electric smoker with Apple wood. They taste fine, spice is good, used cure, just not the "look" I desire.

Frustrated...

Rich-
Welcome to the forum!
Did the casings adhere to the sausage or do they seem loose?
Read through this string, it may help solve your problem.
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

Thank you Sir. Yes, the meat sticks to the casing quite well. Upon completion the casing is a bit tough, and there are a random few that did wrinkle.

For this batch I used 10% ground beef and added 1 pound of pork trimming, total was 10 pounds.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Rich

Hi Rich,

Sounds like you followed the process well, so the sausage sticks should dry and thus shrink and wrinkle. When you pull them out of the smokehouse they will be plump and smooth. I dry mine in room temp for several hours and then somewhere where it's cool, leass than 15C (59F) And when making sticks, you should add very little water or better yet, none at all.

All the best,

redzed

I think you may have just diagnosed my problem, I used approximately 2 cups of water ! Ok, so next time I will probably use no water and see what happens.

Thank y'all for the guidance.

I imagine I'll have many more questions along the way.

Rich

Hey Rich - Welcome to the forum! Just let them sit out for a couple days, if you can bear to wait, and they will lose moisture and start wrinkling up.

Cheers,
Jeff

Ok Jeff, will do along with less, or no, water at the beginning. I sent the batch with my son to deer camp, the guys have eaten most of it already ! Like I said, flavor is great, just wanna work on appearance.

Rich