I have a client with several hundred pounds of loose pack mild and hot Italian sausage that they would like converted to snack sticks. I believe it has about 20-25% pork fat already ground in and would need to be re-ground through a finer plate. My question is what spices could I add to these mixtures to make a good snack stick. This loose pack sausage does not have anything other than meat, fat and fresh sausage seasonings so I plan to add sure cure, carrot fiber and encapsulated citric acid. Any suggestions are appreciated.

After doing a little more homework it looks like pepperoni snack sticks are going to my best bet. Talking the client out of this process for 1000 pounds of professionally prepared sausage is not really an option. They have a lot invested and need to find a way to move the product. Snack sticks are a hot commodity right now so this seems like an obvious solution. Since this was professionally processed I can get the exact ingredient list and add the required spices to create pepperoni snack sticks or some other similar recipe. I still plan to use sure cure, carrot fiber, encapsulated citric acid and most likely some additional salt to attain the correct levels. If I can master this process I will share it here so anyone with an excess of ground sausage can turn it into snack sticks.

I make brats from alpaca meat which is very lean like venison. I use a 75/25 ratio and add 2.5 ounces of carrot fiber to a 25 pound batch. I have made several batches of the philly cheese steak and the favorite combination is using 1 pound of high temp provolone and 1 pound of high temp sriracha cheese in a 25 pound batch. I grind everything through a 1/4" plate and mix just long enough to distribute the seasonings (mixed in about 1-2 quarts of water) and cheese. Too much mixing makes for a chewier brat.

wendy Sorry I am late to the conversation. I make at least two, twenty five batches of snack sticks every week and sometimes quite a bit more. I use ECA and carrot fiber in 80% of those batches and have never had an heavy acidic or vinegar flavor from ECA. I have held batches for up to 24 hours and even though it does change the texture slightly they typically good enough for friends and family :). Any time I have had casings blow open has been from too much heat and as soon as the meat is exposed to the direct heat it gets a sausage consistency because the moisture cooks away very quickly. It also turns brown even if I am using the smoker instead of the oven. Any time I have had serious flavor issues it can be traced back to my meat block. I always save out some of the uncooked product that is left in the stuffer and vacuum seal it so I can refer back it if the batch doesn’t turn out as expected. I am curious about your ratio of vension and beef as I didn’t see anything relating to fat content. Did you add additional pork or beef fat? I have purchased beef and pork fat from grocery stores that were not handled properly and produced odd flavors. Would really like to help but need more detail to really get to the root of the problem.