Ref; Maple Snack Sticks!

[TomKnollRFV]

Alright I -love- maple breakfast sausage, but they last about five seconds in my house, I also love snack sticks, so I plan to combine 1 pound of beef and one pound of turkey to a trial run on these...

Meat:
1 pound Ground beef.
1 Pound Ground Turkey

Dry Stuff:
1 Tablespoon of TenderQuick for the 2 pounds of meat.
1 Teaspoon garlic powder.
1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Red Pepper<Crushed>

Wet Stuff:
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup <Real Maple>
1/4 Cup Ice Water
Some Hot Sauce possibly.

I'm basically following Bear's Awesome Unstuffed Smoked Beef Pepperoni Sticks, sans changing out some seasoning. I'm aiming to make a spicy maple snack stick and I want to get into using turkey as it's cheaper, and healthier.

Any suggestions/safety concerns on my ratios are appreaciated. Do you think 1/4 cup Maple Syrup is to much? I'm inclined to not want to use that much, but I want the maple flavour to come through. Maybe I should add some drops of actual maple flavouring in? I have that for when I make cakes on hand.

Mr Bear's Original Step by Step I adore and followed closely on my first pepperoni sticks below:
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/unstuffed-smoked-beef-pepperoni-sticks-with-qview.95395/

 

[crazzycajun]

Sounds like a plan just a thought have tried or thought about maple cure instead of tender quick? Cabelas,Walton’s,sausage maker,and several others I’m sure sell it. I haven’t tried it either way sounds good let us know.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I've seen it, and pure maple seasoning powder, but I have ample maple syrup on hand, and some of it is is beginning to crystalize in the jars. Just not very sure on the ratio yet. Figured I'll likely mix this up tonight and shoot the jerky tommorrow and smoke it. I've never really seen any thing about maple snack sticks before..but now with all these crazes about bacon jerky etc maybe we will.

Just gotta locate a good deal on ground beef and turkey. If I go 1 pound beef 1 pound turkey, hoping it won't be to lean. Ultimately I want to ramp this up to 5 pound sizing and then I think I'd go 1 pound beef, 1 pound pork, 3 pounds turkey.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I mixed up the maple stuff tonight...ended up throwing some sage in as well <Forgot about it in the original post, derp!>

Now I didn't -quite- measure the maple syrup well enough..well, actually the bottle I opened was akin to water for consistency, possibly from sitting around for a while. Fortunately I had an 85-15 chunk of ground chuck in the freezer that was .98 pounds, so in it went as well. We'll see how it all turns out.

I did add a bit of maple flavouring you'd use for baking because this syrup was rather weak on the maple syrup aspect. Honestly I think at this point we should enlist an experienced sausage and jerky maker to come up with a recipe for a 5 pound batch lol.

 

[crazymoon]

TKRFV, Let us know how they turn out. I'm interested in your meat mixture .

 

[gmc2003]

I've seen it, and pure maple seasoning powder, but I have ample maple syrup on hand, and some of it is is beginning to crystalize in the jars. Just not very sure on the ratio yet. Figured I'll likely mix this up tonight and shoot the jerky tommorrow and smoke it.

Maple syrup can be heated to eliminate most of the crystals. If you can't get them out just pour in small amount of water to loosen them up. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

Chris

 

[TomKnollRFV]

So it stands as 1.2 Pound Package of lean ground turkey. 1 Pound 85-15 Ground Beef and .98 pound of 80-20 Ground Chuck<Due to way to much liquid on my part>

Roughly 2 ounces of water, and only 1 TBS of QT. <As I forgot to add more for the extra pound>.

~1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 TBS Garlic. Black Pepper. Red Pepper Flakes.
Some Sage which I didn't measure as always.
Some Maple Syrup flavour extract.

...I probably forgot some thing but I mixed this up at around 11 PM and I'm surprised I remember a thing of it. Just shot them and got them on the smoker. I thought of doing strips because I stayed with the snack sticks to see if they'd remain intact or not .

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Having just finished cooling and bagging the majority of the maple sticks, I will now give my verdict on them...

I should have used more maple extract the syrup I used wasn't that strong to begin with flavour wise, but they have a faintly maple taste, and are on the sweeter side for sure. Not terrayki sugar bomb sweet, but a more natural honey like sweetness. I would suggest a full tablespoon of pepper, pepper flakes, and garlic to counter the natural sweetness of maple. Think some mustard seed etc in would work as well. Sage is hit or miss.

My goal was to make spicy maple, but if you -love- maple pork sausages that are mild for breakfast, these were spot on.