Had a little time over the weekend to fire up the pellet grill and smoke up some Venison snack sticks.
Recipe started with 6lbs of lean Venison from our opening week family hunt to which I added 2lbs of brisket trim from various smokes this summer.
Cubed it all up, mixed with 1 tablespoon of my seasoning blend per lb and let it get semi frozen spread on a sheet pan.
Once cold/semi frozen I ran it thru the meat grinder to a fine grind into a meat lug.
Next took about 1 cup of warm water and dissolved our total amount of curing salt into it. This was leftover from a Hi-Mountain kit and I added exactly the amount per pound as found in the original hi-mountain kit instructions for their ground jerky cure. No add chilled water to make 4 cups total (1/2 cup per pound).
In the meat lug have someone slowly drizzle in the cure/water mixture to fully incorporate and evenly distribute. Continue Hand mixing the meat until it becomes tacky and just starts to emulsify a little.
Let rest overnight in the fridge pressed down tight and sealed with food wrap to make it air tight.
Sorry, didn't get any photos of the initial meat processing.
The next morning I grabbed some 1x1 aluminum angle and quickly made some tabbed slats that clip onto the original upper tray mounts of my PitBoss. Then after some measuring found two new cooling racks from CT that I modified a bit perfectly fit the new upper to roughly double my snack stick/strip output.
Extruded them onto the cooling racks using a jerky gun and smoked at 160* with oak whisky barrel pellets for about 5hrs or until done to your liking. I also ran a smoke tube for additional smoke the first couple hours.
They turned out still flexible and have a chew similar to the JackLinks steak strips. They turned out Awesome!
For seasoning on this batch I used roughly:
~1 Tbs Herbmare fine Seasalt with herbs
~2 Tbs fresh cracked black pepper
~2 Tbs granulated garlic
~1 Tbs Jalapeño powder from Amazon (stuff tastes amazing and isn't overly hot)
~2 Tbs BBQ PitBoys BigTexan BBQ Rub for sweetness and to round out the flavor profile.
You can pretty much add whatever you like to the mix for seasoning combinations. Just watch the amount of salt adds up between the seasoning you add + the curing agent contains additional salt and sugar. After mixing the meat and Before! adding the cure I took out a meatball sized amount of the mix, cooked it smash burger style and check for seasoning knowing it would end up a little saltier once the cure was added and a lot saltier once dried/smoked.
Adjust salt, sweet and heat to your taste buds as needed.
Next up is Garlic Pepper Brats and Venison Pepperettes soon as my new 15lb Stainless sausage stuffer arrives from BC
Recipe started with 6lbs of lean Venison from our opening week family hunt to which I added 2lbs of brisket trim from various smokes this summer.
Cubed it all up, mixed with 1 tablespoon of my seasoning blend per lb and let it get semi frozen spread on a sheet pan.
Once cold/semi frozen I ran it thru the meat grinder to a fine grind into a meat lug.
Next took about 1 cup of warm water and dissolved our total amount of curing salt into it. This was leftover from a Hi-Mountain kit and I added exactly the amount per pound as found in the original hi-mountain kit instructions for their ground jerky cure. No add chilled water to make 4 cups total (1/2 cup per pound).
In the meat lug have someone slowly drizzle in the cure/water mixture to fully incorporate and evenly distribute. Continue Hand mixing the meat until it becomes tacky and just starts to emulsify a little.
Let rest overnight in the fridge pressed down tight and sealed with food wrap to make it air tight.
Sorry, didn't get any photos of the initial meat processing.
The next morning I grabbed some 1x1 aluminum angle and quickly made some tabbed slats that clip onto the original upper tray mounts of my PitBoss. Then after some measuring found two new cooling racks from CT that I modified a bit perfectly fit the new upper to roughly double my snack stick/strip output.
Extruded them onto the cooling racks using a jerky gun and smoked at 160* with oak whisky barrel pellets for about 5hrs or until done to your liking. I also ran a smoke tube for additional smoke the first couple hours.
They turned out still flexible and have a chew similar to the JackLinks steak strips. They turned out Awesome!
For seasoning on this batch I used roughly:
~1 Tbs Herbmare fine Seasalt with herbs
~2 Tbs fresh cracked black pepper
~2 Tbs granulated garlic
~1 Tbs Jalapeño powder from Amazon (stuff tastes amazing and isn't overly hot)
~2 Tbs BBQ PitBoys BigTexan BBQ Rub for sweetness and to round out the flavor profile.
You can pretty much add whatever you like to the mix for seasoning combinations. Just watch the amount of salt adds up between the seasoning you add + the curing agent contains additional salt and sugar. After mixing the meat and Before! adding the cure I took out a meatball sized amount of the mix, cooked it smash burger style and check for seasoning knowing it would end up a little saltier once the cure was added and a lot saltier once dried/smoked.
Adjust salt, sweet and heat to your taste buds as needed.
Next up is Garlic Pepper Brats and Venison Pepperettes soon as my new 15lb Stainless sausage stuffer arrives from BC
