My virgin snack sticks making adventure…
The deets:
75/25 ratio pure Michigan whitetail venison/pork fat.
Half Willie’s and half habanero seasonings.
Ghost pepper cheese.
Carrot fiber binder.
Encapsulated citric acid.
19mm Smoke Collagen casings.
Lessons learned:
- Don’t buy a cheap mixer. One blade bent during mixing and it would not crank in the reverse direction! Also, have some way to secure the mixer to your work table…it took two of us to hold it and crank.
- Don’t use the full amount of carrot fiber binder recommended in the recipe. It came out kinda pasty…I’m thinking maybe using half next batch.
- Stuffing: Had a heckuva time threading the 19mm casing onto a 3/8 inch tube. Had about 3 blowouts during the 11 lbs of stuffing.
- Stuffing: It’s a bitch cranking the stuffing through those small diameter tubes! Definitely a 2 person job…
- Stuffing: Find some way to secure the stuffer to your work table…C clamps, wood clamps, whatever. It took two of us wrestling to hold it in place, crank the handle, and guide the casing.
- Smoking: I laid the sticks flat on four wire shelves. I’d figure out some sort of rotation schedule to move the shelves so that you get more even cooking of the sticks. The lower shelves were over cooked a bit and the upper ones under cooked.
The results:
Taste is awesome! And baby they got some heat…:-) Here’s a couple pics.
