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Pun intended. lol
I started with 25 pounds of a 50-50 venison-pork mix seasoned and stuffed into 21mm casings instead of the smaller, harder to stuff 19mm casings. These were brought to the necessary 152 degrees in the oven then transferred to a cooling rack in the garage where they were misted with a liquid smoke solution three times during the cooling process. They hung for two full days to complete the drying process, then cut to length and vacuum wrapped. 20 packages of sticks and 5 nice packages of ends and trim.
The liquid smoke process was new to me this year and will only get used on sticks. It sure puts a super nice smoke flavor on the casings that seeps into the meat really well and is all the smoke they need. Getting them to the 152 degrees in the oven helps keep the moisture level in check and they're pulled as soon as that temps is reached. Makes for a super nice stick. In past years I'd smoke the freshly stuffed sticks for about 4 hours to get some smoke flavor on them but at this time of year in Minnesota it can get to be a real iffy proposition with the smoker since the internal smoker temp has to be monitored to keep it consistent and wind or rapid outside air temp rises can raise heck with doing so. The spray method puts about the same amount of smoke on the sticks as four hours in the smoker then they'd get finished in the oven anyway. Doing the misting simply removes four hours of time spent handling meat where things could have gone wrong.
This year's stick are super flavorful.....gone a little snap to them by not hot. Really pleased with the outcome. I'll be doing this again next time around.
I started with 25 pounds of a 50-50 venison-pork mix seasoned and stuffed into 21mm casings instead of the smaller, harder to stuff 19mm casings. These were brought to the necessary 152 degrees in the oven then transferred to a cooling rack in the garage where they were misted with a liquid smoke solution three times during the cooling process. They hung for two full days to complete the drying process, then cut to length and vacuum wrapped. 20 packages of sticks and 5 nice packages of ends and trim.
The liquid smoke process was new to me this year and will only get used on sticks. It sure puts a super nice smoke flavor on the casings that seeps into the meat really well and is all the smoke they need. Getting them to the 152 degrees in the oven helps keep the moisture level in check and they're pulled as soon as that temps is reached. Makes for a super nice stick. In past years I'd smoke the freshly stuffed sticks for about 4 hours to get some smoke flavor on them but at this time of year in Minnesota it can get to be a real iffy proposition with the smoker since the internal smoker temp has to be monitored to keep it consistent and wind or rapid outside air temp rises can raise heck with doing so. The spray method puts about the same amount of smoke on the sticks as four hours in the smoker then they'd get finished in the oven anyway. Doing the misting simply removes four hours of time spent handling meat where things could have gone wrong.
This year's stick are super flavorful.....gone a little snap to them by not hot. Really pleased with the outcome. I'll be doing this again next time around.