# Venison snack sticks



## hfmanifold (Jun 28, 2020)

Hello all.
In a few weekend I will be smoking about 15 lbs of venison snack sticks. I have 4 lbs of pork fat that I will be mixing in.  

two questions. First if prefer not to use a pre made mix so does anybody have any good recipes? I have a lot of extra maple syrup and honey that I would like to use a little bit of one if possible. 

Secondly. What are some good binders? Is read a lot of different information on them and have never used any before.

thanks


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## tallbm (Jun 29, 2020)

hfmanifold said:


> Hello all.
> In a few weekend I will be smoking about 15 lbs of venison snack sticks. I have 4 lbs of pork fat that I will be mixing in.
> 
> two questions. First if prefer not to use a pre made mix so does anybody have any good recipes? I have a lot of extra maple syrup and honey that I would like to use a little bit of one if possible.
> ...



Hi there and welcome!

I do at least 40 pounds of venison sausage each year and snack sticks follow the same general practice as sausage.

I do 80/20 meat to fat ratio using pork fat.  That means for 5 pounds of sausage i have 1 pound pork fat 4 pounds pure 100% venison grind.  These come out perfect!  
Your ratio will be just tad fattier but you are well within good sausage ratios.

Unfortunately I have only used mixes and haven't found ANY homemade recipes I like but I have mostly been fooling around with Frankfurter recipes.  So far nothing beats the LEM's Cured Franks Seasoning with 100% pork sausage.
For my venison sausage I have pretty much landed on LEMs Fresh Brat seasoning, its very good just got a tad shy of their measurements to not get overly salty brats.

When mixing homemade sausage and needing binders many use Non Fat Dry Milk (NFDM).  I'm lactose intolerant and have a bunch of Soy Isolate on hand so I use Soy Isolate but if I wasn't lactose intolerant i would just use the NFDM, its cheaper and easier to get.

I'm sure others will chime in with more info as most of my post was just me rambling with no real good answers hahaha :)


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## 73saint (Jun 29, 2020)

I like the mixes/blends also.  I find that they give a great “base” recipe.   And then I accent those recipes with non-salt ingredients that compliment that particular blend.
I recently used carrot fiber in a large batch of venison bologna and was very happy with the results.  Lots of good binder options.  Like tallbm said,
Soy isolate Is excellent, non-fat milk powder works well (but I’ve been told it’s better if you ninja your nfdm to get as fine a texture as possible before adding. 
I bet if you check out some Walton’s, lem, ps seasoning or ac Leggs, you wouldn’t be disappointed.  They’ve got some great blends!


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## hfmanifold (Jun 29, 2020)

Thanks for the great information!! I just purchased some waltons snack stick seasons and some binder. 

Do you guys use the encapsulated citric acid? or smoked meat stabilizer? didn't know if there are needed or just optional.  I will be leaving the sticks in the fridge for about 24 hours before i will smoke them so i wasn't sure if i needed the stabilizer or not.


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## 73saint (Jun 29, 2020)

hfmanifold said:


> Thanks for the great information!! I just purchased some waltons snack stick seasons and some binder.
> 
> Do you guys use the encapsulated citric acid? or smoked meat stabilizer? didn't know if there are needed or just optional.  I will be leaving the sticks in the fridge for about 24 hours before i will smoke them so i wasn't sure if i needed the stabilizer or not.


I’ve used eca once or twice.  Although last few times I’ve not used it.  Don’t care too much for the twang. Have not used a stabilizer to this point.  Others may have more info on that.


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## 73saint (Jun 29, 2020)

If you haven’t already, do a snack stick search here.  Lots of great threads and ideas.  Every time i start a new project, I search it here first and just start reading.  Inevitably I learn something I hadn’t originally considered.


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## tallbm (Jun 29, 2020)

hfmanifold said:


> Thanks for the great information!! I just purchased some waltons snack stick seasons and some binder.
> 
> Do you guys use the encapsulated citric acid? or smoked meat stabilizer? didn't know if there are needed or just optional.  I will be leaving the sticks in the fridge for about 24 hours before i will smoke them so i wasn't sure if i needed the stabilizer or not.



I've never used citric acid in my venison sausage.  I have also never used meat stabilizer but used plenty of Cure #1.  I don't see the purpose of meat stabilizer if you use cure #1 which is basically mandatory for sausage if following smoked sausage practices.

Cure #1 inhibits bacteria from growing and such since smoked sausage and snack sticks are smoked at such low temperatures for such a long time.  That is the whole purpose of Cure #1 plus it also gives that signature flavor for sausage, snack sticks, backon, smoked turkey legs, etc.
I'm not sure if your waltons seasoning comes with cure #1 but if it doesnt then u will want to buy some.  Cure #1 is also called Prague Powder but you want #1 NOT #2.

Let me know if this info helps :)


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## hfmanifold (Jun 30, 2020)

tallbm said:


> I've never used citric acid in my venison sausage.  I have also never used meat stabilizer but used plenty of Cure #1.  I don't see the purpose of meat stabilizer if you use cure #1 which is basically mandatory for sausage if following smoked sausage practices.
> 
> Cure #1 inhibits bacteria from growing and such since smoked sausage and snack sticks are smoked at such low temperatures for such a long time.  That is the whole purpose of Cure #1 plus it also gives that signature flavor for sausage, snack sticks, backon, smoked turkey legs, etc.
> I'm not sure if your waltons seasoning comes with cure #1 but if it doesnt then u will want to buy some.  Cure #1 is also called Prague Powder but you want #1 NOT #2.
> ...



Thanks for the info

Yea i have a pound of cure #1 for bacon curing in the cabinet.  From the website it waltons seems to come with with some as well


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## hfmanifold (Jun 30, 2020)

How long can the snack stick sit in fridge before cooking? I am wanting to make them on Thursday evening but wouldn't be able to smoke them until Saturday or Sunday at the earliest.


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## 73saint (Jun 30, 2020)

I usually smoke them the day after stuffing.  If I had to guess, I would say you are fine.  But I'd just be guessing.


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## Winterrider (Jun 30, 2020)

You should be fine leaving them. A few years ago was going to make a batch. Had all seasoned up and was going to smoke the next day. Had something come up and didn't get to them until 2 days later. 
I'm still around or just got lucky


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## tallbm (Jun 30, 2020)

I agree with the other guys I think you will be fine.  The whole purpose of cure is to keep things from going bad.  Even though its ground I would think there is zero issue for it sitting around uncooked for a number of days more than your case :)


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## indaswamp (Jul 23, 2020)

hfmanifold said:


> Thanks for the great information!! I just purchased some waltons snack stick seasons and some binder.
> 
> Do you guys use the encapsulated citric acid? or smoked meat stabilizer? didn't know if there are needed or just optional.  I will be leaving the sticks in the fridge for about 24 hours before i will smoke them so i wasn't sure if i needed the stabilizer or not.


If you use ECA, you are committed to stuffing and smoking immediately. When you add ECA and then let it sit in the refrigerator, the vegetable oil capsule can soften and rupture releasing the ECA into the meat too early before cooking and the meat will become mushy. The purpose of the  cure accelerator is so the cure will act fast for immediate smoking/cooking. Alo helps with color formation and oxidation.


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## smokenharley (Aug 12, 2020)

HFmanifold, I'm a little late with a response here but I thought I would add my 2 cents. 

I have been making venison snack sticks for probably 15 years and the first two years I tried many different recipes -  from scratch and pre-packaged. I finally settled on one that most of my friends enjoy and especially my wife. That is AC Legg snack stick seasoning. It is sold in packages for 25# of meat but can be easily parsed out for smaller batches. As many others have mentioned, I embellish with spices and cheese as I wish without any other modifications. It could be pepper flakes, fresh jalapenos, or cayenne - all work OK. As fillers go, I have used both Soy and NFDM. I have found the non-fat dry milk to provide a better texture. When I add this to my recipes for 10# of snack sticks I add approximately 1/4 - 1/3 additional cup of water. Obviously there are many many ways to create a good snack stick and your journey will be to find the one that works best for you. And by the way, I do use cure #1 in all my sticks simply because of the slow smoke and the possibility of a bacteria issue. One last note; you may want to consider skinless casings as well. I use and love them for snack sticks, sausage, and hot dogs.

Smoke away


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