MAKING SNACK STICKS RECIPES

Steps:

• 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.
• Prepare all of your seasonings, clean and rehydrate your casings, and rehydrate your starter culture. The starter culture needs to rehydrate for 30 minutes prior to use.
• Grind your very chilled meat and fat on a course plate then regrind on a medium plate
• Add your seasonings, the ice cold water, and the starter culture to your mince meat and mix till it becomes very tacky. If you grab a small handful it will stick to your hand if you hold your hand upside down.
• Stuff your mince meat into the casings and hang them in an area where the temperature is 85f-95F for 24 hours (you can also place them in your oven with the light on during this fermentation stage)
• After 24 hours of fermenting place the snack sticks in your smoker and begin to apply smoke (we use an external cold smoker for this)
• Cooking Schedule

Steps:

• Cut meat into 2” pieces and place in the freezer for 15-20 minutes while you set up the meat grinder.
• Set the grinder up with a 3/8” plate.
• Grind meat once through the 3/8” plate. Alternate between pork and venison every 8 oz or so to start the mixing process.
• Place the ground meat in the fridge while you reset the grinder with a 3/16” plate.
• Mix in Honey BBQ seasoning, cure and encapsulated citric acid to the meat block. Mix for 6-10 minutes until protein extraction has started. The meat should be very tacky and stick to your hands.
• Mix in the high temp cheddar cheese until just combined.
• Set up your stuffer with a ½” horn and crank down until the meat fills the horn.
• Load the casings onto the horn and fill the casings.
• Lay the cased sausage on sheet trays and place in the fridge over night to allow the cure to work and for the flavors to marry.
• The following day, preheat your smoker to 120 degrees.
• Hang the snack sticks, no longer than 4’, on smoke sticks and place in the smoker. Increase heat to 130 degrees and follow this smoke schedule:
• 1 hour – smoke on
• Increase heat to 150 degrees
• 1 hour – smoke on
• Increase heat to 170 degrees
• Remove sawdust and cook until internal temperature of the snack sticks reach 155 degrees.
• Remove the snack sticks from the smoker and allow to hang at room temperature for 45-60 minutes or until the internal temperature drops to 110 degrees.
• Then place the snack sticks in the fridge to cool completely down below 40 degrees. Enjoy!