Posts made by lefty

I’m planning on taking advantage of time saving method of smoking and finishing off in water bath. Will be doing summer sausage and sticks this way. Wondering if clear smoke collagen can hold up in a water bath also?
Thanks for any advice

Jonathon Thanks Jonathon, Will give that a try with the Willies next fall. Presently have 2 freezers full of venison goodies. Thought you might want to hear that lakes in the Clark, SD area are up 5 to 6’ right now. Should be some great shallow walleye fishing coming up soon.

Jonathon, Thanks, I have been interchanging summer sausage and snack stick seasoning for several years, always trying to find something interestingly good. Since I pretty much love the flavor of the Willies seasoning I wonder what the meat block would be in a fresh brat? Would appreciate it if you had a recommendation. Didn’t mean to steal this thread…

ginsu 14 In February we made an assortment of products. When we started on Willies sticks and got to the last three pounds we ran out of casing for the meat sticks. We changed horns and filled a summer sausage casing so not to waste the meat. Well, yesterday I gave the Willies summer sausage a try on crackers. Wow! will be making Willies summer sausage next year after deer season.

Fireman, I have not used powdered milk but believe 5 table spoons would work for 25 lbs. Another product for your situation is from Backwoods [sorry] called Flavor Enhancer. Its a soy concentrate used as a binder. Can be found in places that sell seasonings. I like the carrot fiber but since your in a pinch these should be a substitute this time.

I have enough venison to make summer sausage. Has anyone tried the Cotto seasoning? Looking for a traditional taste that has good flavor. Thanks

Jonathon, That"s what i used, let me know how it turns out.

Jonathon, In regards to texture, they look like and taste like all the different sticks I have made.

Jonathon I’m eating the pickle sticks right now. Have a crew of workers in my kitchen snacking on the sticks too. Vinegar had no effect on the 12.5 lb batch I made. The guys said they are really good, couldn’t believe I made them. If you are making 100 lbs I’d go with more than 1 jar.
I also made a 12.5 lb batch of Willies sticks using cheddar cheese. Those are my favorites

Jonathon I added the pickle juice when mixing.Also i used carrot fiber as a binder. First time using the carrot fiber, impressed with the results. I also agree on not adding cheese to the pickle seasoning, think it would take away from the pickle flavor.

blackjac Have done many pounds of sticks with no water bath and have not had wet sticks.Hope it works for you. And get your shovel ready.

Make a small 5 lb batch to test for flavor several weeks ago. My Testers, grand kids said they were good but needed more dill pickle flavor. This past weekend I made about 100 lbs of deer products including the second round of the Dill Pickle stick seasoning. Went for the gold on this seasoning. Ground up a jar of dill pickles and added the juice to the block. My gosh! those kids ate 10 lbs of sticks already. This seasoning is unreal good.

Crazy amount of water in this area, going to continue with the snow we have and the blizzard going on as I speak. Anticipate a terrific spring on these shallow walleyes.

Jonathon, Clark is a great place for hunting and fishing. Hope you got on the ice. I live pretty close to Clark, if you want to get into spectacular spring walleye fishing let me know.

blackjac Had the same issues with wet sticks as you are having. Started to discontinue the water bath and it solved the wet stick issue. With cold weather I put sticks in a plastic tub outside for 15 minutes and that dropped stick temp fast. Sure works for me in South Dakota winters.