I haven’t posted much lately. Been in the woods, hard at it since October. Season is winding down and I have been playing with different venison recipes. Made a 5 lb batch of LEM snack sticks a few weeks ago and they were a hit. So I did some research, ended up on the waltons web site, ordered some willies seasoning, eca and a few other goodies and I was set to try another batch.
I settled on doing 10lbs. I’ve only ever done 5lb batches, as my set up is pretty small. But I was ambitious, and did a lot of extra prep work. I used 5lbs of venison, 4lbs of Boston butt, and one lb of brisket fat. I also used 10 jalapeños and a 1lb block of kraft sharp cheddar cheese. I followed the willies seasoning mix amount and also used ECA, for the tang.
I did a double grind, started off course, then a finer grind afterwards. Then I mixed in my seasoning, peppers and cheese as well as water and ECA the last 60 seconds of the mix. They say that if you use ECA you should go straight from stuffing to smoking so that’s what I did.
It was a challenge getting all those sticks in my Lang, but I managed. The weather was brutal, extreme winds and cold made maintaining low temps difficult. While I was able to pull it off, I simply could not open the pit and rotate the sticks. Lost too much temp, so I just kept it shut the whole 4.5 hours. I used pitmasters choice for smoke. I cooked at 125 for one hour, 140 for one hour, 155 for two hours and the last 30 mins at 175. Then they went into an ice water bath, then in paper bags in the fridge overnight.
Man, these little devils are good. Snack sticks are a challenge, but boy the end result is spectacular. A good way to use venison too!!
I settled on doing 10lbs. I’ve only ever done 5lb batches, as my set up is pretty small. But I was ambitious, and did a lot of extra prep work. I used 5lbs of venison, 4lbs of Boston butt, and one lb of brisket fat. I also used 10 jalapeños and a 1lb block of kraft sharp cheddar cheese. I followed the willies seasoning mix amount and also used ECA, for the tang.
I did a double grind, started off course, then a finer grind afterwards. Then I mixed in my seasoning, peppers and cheese as well as water and ECA the last 60 seconds of the mix. They say that if you use ECA you should go straight from stuffing to smoking so that’s what I did.
It was a challenge getting all those sticks in my Lang, but I managed. The weather was brutal, extreme winds and cold made maintaining low temps difficult. While I was able to pull it off, I simply could not open the pit and rotate the sticks. Lost too much temp, so I just kept it shut the whole 4.5 hours. I used pitmasters choice for smoke. I cooked at 125 for one hour, 140 for one hour, 155 for two hours and the last 30 mins at 175. Then they went into an ice water bath, then in paper bags in the fridge overnight.
Man, these little devils are good. Snack sticks are a challenge, but boy the end result is spectacular. A good way to use venison too!!
