Next to jerky, snack sticks are the family favorite. Here I will show how I make a 30 pound batch of snack sticks or hot sticks. I start with 80%lean venison and 20% pork trim. I ground the venison first as the fat has a tendency to clog up the grinder I mix the two together by hand and then added the water and spices. I use LEM brand seasonings packets After mixing the seasonings with the meat I ground it again using a finer hole plate and then packed it away in the cooler overnight to cure. in the morning I stuff the casings with the cured meat. Each smoke stick holds around 15 or 16 links that are a total of 52 inches long each. I preheat the smoker to 125F and hang the sticks. I spread the sticks in the middle so I get good air flow. Adding that much cold meat to the smoker brings the temp down to about 115F which is a good starting temp. I keep them at this temp for about 2 hours After the 2 hour drying time, I add hickory chips to make a heavy smoke. This was from my old smoker. I have since built a new one) After 5 ½ hours the temp is at 150F and I keep them there until the internal meat temp reaches 165F. I then take them from the smoker and let them cool at room temps. When cool, I put them in the fridg. After a night in the cooler, I cut them to size I saved a bunch for the family to eat and sealed the rest in about 1/2 pound packs or 12 sticks per pack. This is the point when the scavengers start to show up. It really does not look like much for all the hard work.
I know this is an old thread but wow thats a nice job. Crabtree, you should make a thread just on your smoker if there isnt one already. I'm interested in getting all my food prep stuff in order and I want to bang out some jerky and sticks soon. This has given me motivation to do so. Thanks.
He has one on his smoker somewhere. He got banned though, so there won't be any additional threads...
