First off, awesome website and awesome supplies.

Secondly, I made some venison snack sticks for the first time and was looking for some recommendations. The flavor and outside texture are on point but the inside has an odd texture and feels mushy. Below is what I did. Do you have any tips or recommendations?

3-1/2 lb of ground venison
1-1/2 lb of ground pork fat
4.5oz Willies snack stick Seasoning
0.8oz Carrot Binder
0.2oz Sure Cure
0.4oz Smoked Meat Stabilizer
6.4 oz of ice cold water

I mixed everything in a kitchenaid for about 8 mins and added the smoke meat stabilizer the last min. I used 16mm collagen casing and stuffed them with a grinder.
Is it possible that I didn’t achieve a good enough protein extraction by using a kitchenaid mixer?

Would adding some pork and less pork fat help with the texture?