Duck Season (Snack Sticks)
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With teal season opening tomorrow on the Texas coast, wanted to bring up a topic for what I plan on turning most of my waterfowl into.
A majority of my birds will go into snack sticks. My group killed around 500 birds last year so I am going to have an ample amount of meat to experiment with the different seasoning on the Walton’s site.
Last year for the sticks, I went 50/50 pork butt to lean and I was not quite happy with the end result. I actually prefer the wild taste and do not want to try and cover it up, just add enough fat to have a good end product.
My plan this year is to cut in around 20% pork fat.
My main question is should I use a binder, and if yes, then what binder?
I think I recall hearing on one of the podcasts that for the best results when working with the lean wild game, a binder is a good idea.
Also, any seasoning recommendations for wild duck sausages/cured sausages?
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We used to make hundreds of pounds of sticks with goose breasts mixed with beef fat. Didnt know about all the stuff they have for making stuff like that. We switched to jerky after a couple years of breaking grinder knives when we missed a piece of steel shot. Was faster to use a slicer and if you got a bb in there they would pop right out. We used Cajun venison stick kits for it almost exclusively as they were easy to get around here. Everyone enjoyed them.
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txoutdoorsman Yeah I would absolutely use a binder. We will be releasing a goose sausage video and article in the next few days. We used Sure Gel and 20% pork fat. Let the goose stand out without overpowering it with pork. We used Cajun Sausage seasoning for one batch and pepperoni for another, both were ridiculously good. Let us know how they go
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to find a flavor that everyone can except will always be a challenge I would try some 5 lb. batches to find one then follow Jonathon advice on the rest
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txoutdoorsman Yeah I would absolutely use a binder. We will be releasing a goose sausage video and article in the next few days. We used Sure Gel and 20% pork fat. Let the goose stand out without overpowering it with pork. We used Cajun Sausage seasoning for one batch and pepperoni for another, both were ridiculously good. Let us know how they go
Jonathon will do, I will order the sure gel. Glad I asked!
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to find a flavor that everyone can except will always be a challenge I would try some 5 lb. batches to find one then follow Jonathon advice on the rest
craigrice I do not mind going in full 25 lb. batches because even if it is not a hit with everyone, we will still eat it all. The benefit of snack stick is that they are a great, portable blind snack.
We also benefit from having a lot of duck meat to play with. Teal are not very big birds and we already put 7 lbs. of meat in the freezer from 2 days of hunting. When the big duck season opens up in November, we really start putting away some pounds of meat.
So far, I have already purchased a pack of Willie’s, Habanero BBQ, Fajita, and Jalapeno.
I have high hopes for Habanero BBQ.
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We used to make hundreds of pounds of sticks with goose breasts mixed with beef fat. Didnt know about all the stuff they have for making stuff like that. We switched to jerky after a couple years of breaking grinder knives when we missed a piece of steel shot. Was faster to use a slicer and if you got a bb in there they would pop right out. We used Cajun venison stick kits for it almost exclusively as they were easy to get around here. Everyone enjoyed them.
scott farm I tried to get on the waterfowl jerky bandwagon but it has not stuck. I think the texture just does not quite get to where I want it, so now we snack stick most of the birds. If they did not take a lot shot damage to the breasts, we will keep the fat on and breast out pintails, gadwalls, mallards, etc.
We jerky a lot of venison though, so that also factors in to why we snack stick the birds.
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I used to know a man down in Port Aransas, about 35 years ago or so who would make the absolute best Smoked Shark & Duck chips (kind of like a small wafer of smoked jerky) that was absolutely out of this world. He would just about always bring some when we were going out to fish out of Port Aransas, before we started going further south. That was along time ago, another time, & another place, a good place & a good time!
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scott farm I tried to get on the waterfowl jerky bandwagon but it has not stuck. I think the texture just does not quite get to where I want it, so now we snack stick most of the birds. If they did not take a lot shot damage to the breasts, we will keep the fat on and breast out pintails, gadwalls, mallards, etc.
We jerky a lot of venison though, so that also factors in to why we snack stick the birds.
txoutdoorsman We would put up around 1000 geese a year in the group of guys I hunt with. I agree that the jerky is texturally different than venison but the sticks seemed softer too. It didn’t have the same bite and i could never figure out how to change that.
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Jerky (deer) and sticks (duck) went really well over the weekend! Ended up going with Habanero BBQ for the sticks.
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Very nice - Looks great
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craigrice I do not mind going in full 25 lb. batches because even if it is not a hit with everyone, we will still eat it all. The benefit of snack stick is that they are a great, portable blind snack.
We also benefit from having a lot of duck meat to play with. Teal are not very big birds and we already put 7 lbs. of meat in the freezer from 2 days of hunting. When the big duck season opens up in November, we really start putting away some pounds of meat.
So far, I have already purchased a pack of Willie’s, Habanero BBQ, Fajita, and Jalapeno.
I have high hopes for Habanero BBQ.
txoutdoorsman I used the Habanero BBQ in a 20lb batch of goose sticks last year. Great flavor! If you are looking for an intense heat you will want to add some more heat to the mix. I utilized the ghost pepper cheese this year to increase the heat and it worked very well! It has a subtle back end heat too it but very tasty. You will enjoy those.
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txoutdoorsman I used the Habanero BBQ in a 20lb batch of goose sticks last year. Great flavor! If you are looking for an intense heat you will want to add some more heat to the mix. I utilized the ghost pepper cheese this year to increase the heat and it worked very well! It has a subtle back end heat too it but very tasty. You will enjoy those.
erich52 may try the cheese on the next batch of HBBQ. I do not think the flavor is hot on its own. It has a little back end kick, but I think the sweetness probably offsets a little of that heat.
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