Snack Sticks Help...

[NotFamousAmos]

My boys and I love eating snack sticks and jerky while hunting. The only problem, we have never been able to make any that we prefer to store/butcher bought. Yesterday, we attempted to change that (and mostly failed). I'm looking for help.

First, we have quite a bit of deer so that's our main meat. Heck, we have 25bs ground right now. To add some fat, I ground 15lbs of pork butts.

Yesterday, we used a 70/30 mix of deer/pork in 5lb batches (our first mistake) of sticks. Everything was done in 19mm collagen cases. We smoked all of them on my Traeger at 165deg for 2 hours and the 190deg until the sticks hit 165deg internal. The texture/look of the sticks turned out great.

Results:
LEM Original - very little taste, bland at best
LEM Peppered - the best we made but a far cry from anything peppered sticks/jerky that we have bought.
Hi Mountain Hickory - vomit, in a snack stick. I still can't get the taste out of my mouth!

Today, I have 5lb batches of LEM Hot and Hi Mountain Sweet and Spicey to smoke still. Then, the jury will be out on those.

Basically, I'm looking for better mixes/recipes/smoking tips to help my quest for a GREAT stick. Oh, and I need to do 1lb test batches...

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Owens BBQ sausage mixes. Top notch they are.

 

[73saint]

I like the PS seasonings as well as Owens. Last month I did 25 lbs of PS Tex mex and everyone at deer camp flipped out over them.
Do a fry test before u case what u make so u can see if u need more seasoning.

 

[oberst]

If you want a can’t miss, something everyone will like, get the Owens Honey BBQ Snack Stick seasoning. I have had folks who would never try wild game ALL like it. Go with 50 % pork butt on your first batch. You can drop that proportion in later batches but you want the first one to be juicy. I always add 1 pound of hi temp cheese to each half batch as I can’t make a full (12.5 pounds) batch with my equipment. Use a thermometer in order to avoid over cooking the stir. I smoke mine 5 hours with hickory.

 

[Winterrider]

Owens
" High Country" (not high mountain) is pretty good also

 

[hondabbq]

I dont have access to alot of the ones most use on here. Up in Canada the offerings are limited. We do have Hi Mountain.
I really like the cracked pepper and garlic. I add jalapenos and cheese to it and its awesome. I Use the pepperoni and add powdered tomato soup, dehydrated onions and parm for pizza ones.
I tried the ones yo mentioned and they are not really that great.
Just get creative. Also do a test fry to see if the flavor profile is what your after,if not, adjust before stuffing.

 

[NotFamousAmos]

First, thanks for the tips so far! When you all do a test fry, is it best to eat it hot or will the taste change significantly after it cools?

 

[chopsaw]

I'll speak for Owens mixes too . My opinion is the fry test checks salt . For me the taste is so different after it sits , gets smoked then sits for a few days again . That's another thought , are you letting them sit a few days after you smoke ?

 

[archeryrob]

Here is one for you. The Original recipe was R Blum from here for his pepperoni. Just looking at it I knew it was going to be hot. So I make a light recipe and did 2.5# of each. His recipe is hard to each a bunch ina row, but maybe that is a good thing? I am going to make 20# of the light again very soon. I have it in

 

[archeryrob]

Large batch recipes. I also stretch ground deer with 73% beef and that gets me at 13.5% fat. The recipes should asay Deer at top and 73% beef at the bottom. Pork butt can be 30% fat on it's own and beef with it is high enough to make sausages. Snack sticks are better under 15% and 10% good.

Mix well to geta good protein extraction and sometimes a bit of water helps as shown in these recipes.