Snack Sticks

[cnelk]

I’ve done summer sausage and jerky before, but today I did 5lbs of elk snack sticks.

Turned out great. These will be a treat while out ice fishing this winter

 

[SDHNTR]

Looks good. What size casings did you use?

 

[cnelk]

17mm mahogany

 

[butcherboy]

Looks great! I just made up some green chili snack sticks the other day from an elk I shot a few years ago.

 

[cnelk]

I did another 5lbs of smoked elk pepper sticks this afternoon.

I’ve found that they make great gifts and everyone likes them.

 

[ahlgringo]

recipe? looks great

 

[ColoradoCowboy]

Wow those look good! I would love the recipe as well if you don’t mind sharing. What did you mix with the elk?

 

[cnelk]

LEM Products is your friend!

The first 5lb batch I used the Original snack stick seasoning - nothing added. Pretty mild.

The second 5lb batch I wanted a little more taste so I added 1 tsp of black pepper and 1 tsp of crushed red peppers.
Perfect.

I add 1lb of pork fat to 4lbs of elk meat - then run it thru the grinder.

 

[cnelk]

I don’t have a sausage stuffer and I’m a cheap bastard so I modified the small stuffing tube for my grinder to fit inside the jerky gun spout.

I pre-cut my casings so they load on the tube and are already my desired length

 

[cnelk]

The precut casing end up being about 18” long

 

[torrey.harris.5]

Love elk snack sticks!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[caesAR15]

Bookmarking this thread...

Thanks OP

 

[dav1dr2]

amazing.

 

[Jahvette20]

I made 16lb with bear meat the other day. I was paranoid about trichinosis and ended up making them a bit too dry the summer sausage came out perfect though. There’s a local market that sells all kinds of pre mixed spices. I did 35lb of different sausages too

 

[horniac]

The precut casing end up being about 18” long

View attachment 226948

Looks great! A couple of questions for you;

1. It looks like you used elk burger for your sticks. Was your burger mixed with pork too or was it 100% elk?
2. Did you find much flavor difference between the oven dried and the smoked sticks? Hickory or what wood?
3. Do you find it is faster to precut your casings first as opposed to cutting them after stuffing or was that simply a function of being limited to using the jerky shooter due to being a “cheap bastard” haha?

Thanks,

Horniac

 

[cnelk]

Looks great! A couple of questions for you;

1. It looks like you used elk burger for your sticks. Was your burger mixed with pork too or was it 100% elk?

Straight burger.

2. Did you find much flavor difference between the oven dried and the smoked sticks? Hickory or what wood?

I little difference. Yes, Hickory

3. Do you find it is faster to precut your casings first as opposed to cutting them after stuffing or was that simply a function of being limited to using the jerky shooter due to being a “cheap bastard” haha?

I'm retired. I dont care about fast anymore.
But yeah, it was simply more logistical to precut the casings to the shorter spout

Thanks,

Horniac

 

[horniac]

Thanks for the response Cnelk! Always interested in other‘s techniques...

Horniac

 

[Capman]

Looks good!

 

[cnelk]

Update:

Did another 5lb batch of snack sticks today.

This time I used some Hickory liquid smoke and bumped up the black pepper and crushed red peppers to 1 tbsp each.

Totally amazing.

For anyone that doesn’t have a smoker and wants to add some smoky flavor to your meats, try some liquid smoke

 

[Catchfish]

I’ve done sticks a few times, I’ve found that I really like alder wood chips to smoke my sticks, and I bring them up to 170. It seems a little hot but I like the texture of the stick better, I’ve gone lower on temps with moose and stuff and the stick was way to wet.
Step 1 smoker at 140-150 1 hr to pans of chips, dries them out
Step 2 smoker at 200-210 until IT at 170 sometimes this takes 2 hrs sometimes it’s 3 hrs