Finally got these done. Started Monday evening and had 'em smoked by Wednesday evening.
My kids love meat sticks, so I took 2lbs off the top of this batch and rolled up some meat sticks to cook along with these loaves. Like @Bearcarver I didn't use any casings and I found the rolling of the sticks to be quit relaxing.
Just one thing: delicious!
A few observations from my experience:
For some reason, I had a heck of a time getting them up to temperature. I followed @Bearcarver 's cooking method, but by Wednesday evening they still weren't rising in temp. I thought they'd be done before I went in for church, but they were still at 129° when I had to leave. So I just left 'em and decided to hurry home afterwards. When I got home (3 hours later) they were up to 135°. So I set the oven to 350° and brought 'em inside. They rose to 165° in about 15 minutes. The upside to this was that they got some serious smoke laid on 'em since they were in the smoker for so long.
I used 9 lbs. of mule deer that a buddy gave me when he was cleaning out his freezer (you should see the Alaskan moose he just got!). He packages his deer straight, whereas I mix in beef tallow to give mine an 85/15 fat mixture. I decided to just go with the straight lean deer and see how it turns out. Next time I'll add in some fat. They're a bit on the dry side, but no matter - these things are still delicious and definitely won't make it past hunting season.
I mixed a few loaves with jalapeno and cheddar. Mmmmm! And I think the cheese gave off a little bit of that needed fat moisture to these loaves.
How about that TBS?
Group photo, everyone! (You can see the grainy texture from the lean deer)
I fried some up like you said, Bear, and then went ahead and threw an egg on top. This is a breakfast I could get used to!