Smoked Pepper Jack Snack Sticks

• Clean your meat of any silver skin, sinew, arteries and cut into small strips or cubes. Place the meat and fat in the freezer for an hour or until the temp reaches 32f – 34F.
• Clean, rinse, and flush your casings. Let them rehydrate in cool water for 3-4 hours or overnight. Optional: add 1/4 tsp of baking soda for every cup of water to make the casings easier to work with.
• Prepare the starter culture and all of your seasonings. If you plan on using encapsulated citric acid instead of the starter culture, make sure to have that ingredient separate as you will be adding it to your meat by itself at the end of the process.
• Get your cheese cut into small cubes and set to the side.
• Double grind your very chilled meat and fat on a medium plate (6mm). Rechill before the second grind.
• Add the starter culture to your meat then mix. Next add the seasonings and the liquids, mix till the meat becomes a very sticky farce. If you grab a small handful it will stick to your hand if you hold your hand upside down. Finally add the cubed cheese and mix to incorporate.
• Stuff your mince meat into the sheep casings and form your links. I like to keep mine as long ropes then just cut them to size once I'm finished.
• After you form your links place the sticks in your smoker and cold smoke them for 2 hours. Keep the temps under 100f (37.7c)
• After the cold smoke we need to ferment our links. Place the links in an area where the temperature is around 90f (32c) for 12 hours and where the humidity is relatively high 85%+. If you have a digital smoker and it can reach those low temps, you can place a tray of water in the smoker along with your snack sticks and set the smoker to 90f (32c)> You can also use a seed mat and place your sausage in an ice chest for 12-13 hours. The target ph is 4.6 A ph meter is super helpful but not entirely necessary.
• Once you hit your ph (for the starter culture motioned above it usually takes 12-13 hours) you can begin drying the snack sticks.
• Place the snack sticks in a drying chamber and set the temperature to 55f with a humidity of 80% and let the sticks hang there to dry for 2-5 days.
• After the sticks have dried out a bit you can now cook your snack sticks. Cook them low and slow starting at 150f (65.5c) for 2 hours then ending at 175f (79.4c). You are looking for an internal of 145f – 150f (62.7c-65.5c)
• After cooking dunk them into a cold water bath to stop the cooking process.
• Cut the sticks into your desired lengths and enjoy.

Alternate preparation methods

IF YOU ARE USING ENCAPSULATED CITRIC ACID you will follow all the steps above with the exception of the starter culture addition. After you have added the cheese you will add the encapsulated citric acid and mix to combine.

IF YOU CAN'T COLD SMOKE OR DRY THIS SNACK STICK. Simply smoke and cook at the same time after linking or after fermentation. Follow the same cooking schedule as mentioned above