Smoked Venison Snack Sticks

Ingredients

• 9 lbs lean venison
• 5 lbs pork butt
• 1 lb beef trimmings
• 1 ps seasoning stick sausage kit
• water

Directions

1. Coarse-grind the venison and pork butt and pass the beef trimmings through the grinder once.
2. Use your hands to combine the meat in your biggest container.
3. Add seasoning to meat before grinding. If you pre-ground it, hand-mix it in now.
4. Add a little fat first, then pass the meat through the grinder one last time using a quarter-inch plate.
5. Mix the cure, water (one ounce of water per pound of ground meat), and ground meat together for five minutes. It’s done when a clump sticks to your hand.
6. Use the collagen casings provided in the kit and stuff your sausages.

Cure the sausages in the fridge for 24 hours.

1. Preheat the smoker to 100°F or the lowest setting available.
2. Hang about five sausages on each rod before placing them in your smoker.
3. After one hour, increase the smoker’s temperature to 150°F and add a full pan of hickory sawdust.
4. Around the five hour mark, increase the temperature to 170°F. The snack sticks are done when they reach an internal temperature of 155°F (eight to ten hours later).
5. Optional: For drier jerky-style sticks, turn the temperature back down to 155°F and smoke for four hours. Dunk them immediately in an ice bath for five minutes.
6. Once cool, cut them into six inch sticks. Place them back on the large baking sheet, uncovered, and in the fridge. Remove when the casings start to bloom.
7. Preserve them using a chamber vacuum sealer.