Gomez I’ve butchered my own venison for probably 20 years and I’ve almost never been disappointed using freezer paper. For years I wrapped in plastic first, then followed that with butcher paper. But one year I ran out of the plastic wrap and just went with butcher paper. Never a problem or a smidge of freezer burn.

I think part of the secret is to learn what I believe is called a “butcher wrap,” which you can learn on YouTube. Another tip is to always press out all the air you can as you wrap. If the freezer paper is tight against the meat and you tape the package up nice and tight, you’ll be fine.

The only thing we don’t do this way is our ground venison. For that, we use freezer-grade Zip-Loc bags and package the “Bambi burger” in one-pound portions.

Good luck!

I thin

It’s been several years since I’ve made these and I’ve forgotten a lot. I followed the recipe here at Walton’s and have a couple of questions:

1. I did a 3/8 grind on 4# of venison, followed by a 1/8 grind. My 1hp #8 grinder did just fine with the 3/8 plate, good particle definition. But when I did the 1/8 grind it really slowed down and darn near emulsified the meat and fat (I added 1# fat trimmings from bacon). The consistency and appearance were almost like bologna. I’m smoking now, so I don’t know how they’re going to be, but I want to know if the bologna-like consistency is correct? I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have just done a second grind with the 3/8 plate.

2. I started out trying to stuff with my grinder but it’s way slow. Is that a common problem when stuffing with a grinder? I ended up using a PVC hydraulic stuffer that I MacGyver’d a few years ago. It does great, but has so much “horsepower” that it’s kind of hard to throttle it down for snack sticks. So, my question is “Does everyone eventually gives up on stuffing with a grinder or am I maybe doing something wrong?”

Thanks!

I’ve made 3-4 batches, mostly snack sticks, but also summer sausage. Product comes out pretty good, but I still struggle a little to keep the 19mm smoked casings taut after cooking and water bath. I’m using Sure Gel and get good protein extraction.

This question, though, deals with dowel rods to hang my snack sticks in the smoker. Right now I’m using an electric MES clone and I have have a good set of electronic thermometers to monitor both smoker temp and meat temp. Currently I’m smoking the sticks in coils laid flat on the smoker racks. Like most smokers, mine has hot spots, so sometimes a section of a coil on the outside is ready before the rest.

I want to try hanging the sticks to see if that evens out the cooking some. If I tie the ends of each sausage “rope,” then I can rotate them not only left to right on the dowel, but I can also rotate the loop top to bottom, to even out that variable as well.

If I’m making any sense, has anyone else tried this? Does it help, or am I being waaaay too picky and technical? I know some folks add fans and take other measures to even out the temp, I’m just looking for something a little simpler. If someone else has explored sliding “ropes” around left to right and vertically, what can you tell me?

Thanks!

Jonathon Thanks! On these sticks I’m running 4 pounds of lean venison and adding 1 pound of bacon ends, so 20% fat, plus Sure Gel and then ECA at the end of mixing. I think you’re right that much of the solution could be simply stuffing the casings just a bit tighter. On this last batch I was using a new manual stuffer by myself, so I was cranking with one hand and tensioning the casing with the other. Since blowouts mean stopping and tying off the two ends, my subconscious probably caused me to let the casing slip off the horn a little too freely.

I’m glad you agree that my idea of rotating the snack sticks on a dowel isn’t whacko.