For many years, H summer sausage seasoning is all I used for sticks. I would add extra ingredients to get them to fit my taste, mostly garlic and red pepper flakes, and of course, hi temp cheese

@McCrackin Yeah, the main difference is size of the casings, sometimes there will be larger particles of seasoning in a summer sausage seasoning but not always. You can make any snack stick into summer sausage and the same thing vice versa. That is from a retail perspective, might not work for commercial processing as there need to be specific ingredients sometimes to be able to call some a Summer Sausage or ham or what not.

Basically yes thats the only difference is size, although snack sticks seasoning has alot more flavor selection. Traditional summer sausage have a certain flavor that they try to maintain. I get about a pound of snack stick seasoning meat left over in my stuffer that i can not get out so i put it in a jerky gun and shoot it into a Summer sausage casing. No difference besides the size on that aspect.

For many years, H summer sausage seasoning is all I used for sticks. I would add extra ingredients to get them to fit my taste, mostly garlic and red pepper flakes, and of course, hi temp cheese

@twilliams

@Bruce-0 my first two things that come to mind is #1 if you didnt ice bath them directly after internal temp was reached. #2 you packaged them wet Or # 3 you had some fat out and fat get between the casing and meat

I’m really new to this snack stick deal so I was glad that at least they were good tasting but being used to the way I thought that they should be according to the way commercial people get it done. Ice water bath but I didn’t refrig over night and I probably should have Thank for ANY advice given. Bruce

An all venison snack stick is going to be pretty lean and probably not an optimum emulsion. I would suggest adding 20% fat (pork or beef) to your meat mix and trying it again. Another thing to try is to quick chill the sticks in a cold water bath as soon as they come out of the smoker to lower their temperature. Don't leave them in the water too long though. As snack stick will cool off quickly.

I used all ingredients from Walton’s and with no additional species. I used collagen cases from Walton’s and a 15 lb. sausage stuffer from Weston. The links looked good till I tried snacking on them and the cases were easier to remove than to snap them off in a bite I hope this additional info will help. Followed temp directions to the letter as well

@Bruce-0 said in [Snack stick problem](/post/32088): > Recently I made some venison snack stick with collagen cases and I used the recommendation of uncle willies recipe and the favor was awesome. I had one concern though, the casing on the stick after vacuum packing to freeze them seemed to be loose on the meat . Could anyone explain what I did wrong or what step I messed up on? They were venison and mighty tasty for sure. Thanks. It would help to know all the other ingredients you added to the venison and how it was mixed and stuffed.

@Bruce-0 how did you process them? What was your cooking schedule? Did you Sous Vide? Water bath chill? Lots of variables, but if you can give us a bit more info we can make better suggestions.

twilliams

@Jhutch91 I would recommend you go with @glen's suggestion of adding the small amount to some meat and cooking it up but for the ratio summer sausage to snack sticks is a 1:1 ratio, no adjustments are needed so yes, just use the seasoning conversion chart https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/617/seasoning-conversion-chart-for-1-lb-and-5-lb-meat-batches

You are going to want more spice in the snack sticks. The only problem may be salt content. I would mix with the summer sausage ratio and gently cook some to gauge saltiness If it is not too salty then up the ratio accordingly If it is correct on salt, head to your spice cabinet :grinning:

What chart are you asking about?

Jhutch91 I would recommend you go with glen’s suggestion of adding the small amount to some meat and cooking it up but for the ratio summer sausage to snack sticks is a 1:1 ratio, no adjustments are needed so yes, just use the seasoning conversion chart https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/617/seasoning-conversion-chart-for-1-lb-and-5-lb-meat-batches

So I’m a newbie to snack sticks but have learned to not start off at a high temp. 😁

My issue isn’t rendered fat it’s actually that the casing is slightly overdone and the inside is just greasy. As in the meat is greasy. So is it that they were just overcooked?

5 lbs straight beef
Snack sticks mix from fleet farm
Bradley smoker
Started at 120 temp increased in 10 degree intervals smoked 6 hours.