I’ve been processing my own venison, elk and bear meat for years. Just when I thought I knew it all I stumbled across your video and learned about your cherry trick. Just ordered dehydrated Bing cherries off Amazon and I’m going to add it to my next batch of snack sticks. Thanks for the info!!
Heath hi mountain is the only seasoning I use. Started yrs ago with the breakfast sausage . Now brats , breakfast sausage and snack sticks.will have to try the cherries . Happy munchin 🦌👍
Great idea with the Traverse City Cherries!! I bet those are awesome. We process all of our own deer as well. I love to make my own snack sticks with high temp cheese. I need to get some dehydrated cherries and give it a go! Thanks for sharing Heath👍🏻👍🏻🇺🇸
Those meat sticks look delicious! I need to get a stuffer and a smoker to be able to do this. We already process our own deer but haven't ventured outside of just steaks and burger. Great video! Thanks for showing us!
Just made my first snack sticks recently and about to make another batch soon. May try your dried cherry recipe. Being from Michigan, I know all about the Traverse City area cherries
Excellent job of breaking everything down! I really enjoyed it. I have the 1-HP Cabela's grinder, but not a stuffer. I'll have to do it with the grinder for now. I actually can't wait to try this process. You made me hungry for some good venison sticks.
If you add some ice cubes to the end of your grind it will clean out your grinder and you can add bread to the end of your stuffing to clean the stuffer out as well
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors - Hi, instead of the dehydrated cherries, what about Fruit Leather? It's reasonably chewy and pretty easy to make (plenty of youtube vids to show you how). All you're doing is pureeing some fruit in the blender (can even be frozen fruit), then simmering that on the stove until it becomes very thick and no longer runny, then you spread it out as a flat layer on a tray to bake in the oven or in a dehydrator, to dry it out. You could then probably chop it up into tiny bits that you can mix into the meat along with the rest of your mixture. With Fruit Leather, you could experiment with as many flavor combinations as you like.
NO, ice is hard on things and can actually break grinders and it dulls blades which leads to fat smear. Just run some already ground meat through to get the stuff that may not have passed through, then just clean out the meat immediately to get all the meat.
I made venison jerky and meat sticks with my Cabelas home pro grinder and jerky gun. It worked PHENOMENALLY! I used about 5lb of thick cut bacon in mine, with about 35lb of venison, using the Cabelas hickory, pepper and original (split in thirds). I smoked them on my Pit Boss vertical competition series pellet smoker @180 degrees, with mesquite pellets. I could not have asked for a better outcome. The snack sticks are uncased, which actually made it easier, and harder, as when I “caulked” them onto the trays, they couldn’t be moved after that and had to be smoked immediately. But, I didn’t have any casing so I just experimented and it turned out fine.
Never heard of putting dehydrated cherries in the snack sticks. I'm going to have to try this and bring some new flavor to northwest PA. Thanks for sharing.
I'll need several samples to be sure lol A local guy around. here made Ruben tasting snack sticks and oh my God were they good! I might be able to get out this coming week for hunting.
Man I never thought about adding cherries I've been making high mountain products at home for years. You have to try trail bologna, we love it especially frying it up while ice fishing
Glad I came across your channel. Nice presentation sir!!! Can't wait to try the dried cherries. We use bread to push the rest of the meat through and shut the grinder off before the bread comes out of the grinder,
Rodney, I do a little less on the cherries than I do the cheese. That should give you a starting point then adjust to your flavor on the next batch. If you get some made up let me know what you think.
Great video Heath and it sure reminded me of my meat cutting days at our family store. We used AC Legg quite a bit and three grinding plates that needed to be kept sharp to not heat the meat in the process. Have you ever made Goetta?
As long as you're adding water, you can clean out the grinder by adding ice cubes and running though the grinder. This will get out all if that good meat.
Buy yourself a meat mixer that will attach to your grinder will make mixing easier also be sure to tell everyone that cold water is best to use. I make my own summer sausage, jerky and snack sticks
We use a sweet dry cherry. I personally put a little less cherry in than I do cheese. So if I use a ratio with 5lb of cheese I’ll do about 3.5lb of cherry.
Have you done these without the cheese but with the cherries? And how many pounds of the dried cherries do you use per recipie? Is it like 1/4 bag or so?
Thanks for sharing this. We did make these yesterday. They turned out good, but not mind blowing. It would be really cool if you would share how much cheese and cherries you used. Here is what we did: 10lb batch of meat 70/30 beef to pork butt, 1.25 lb of cheese, and 1 lb of cherries. Making food videos is great, but even better when there is a better guideline for others to follow regarding quantity of ingredients. If its a big secret then don't even post the video.
Not a big secret at all, I just make them different every time. Everyone’s taste is different. This batch was made with what cheese and cherries I had left.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors thanks for this. I may have missed you saying so, but how much cherry by weight? I noticed your link to the cherries was 4 lbs but that seems pretty heavy?
Stuffing TIP*............Fill a ballon half full of water (obviouslytie it off), when plunger bottoms out retract it, drop ballon in and drive plunger back down. Balloon will clear stuffer throat and horn. Probably not going to get it down to stick part of of horn (too small) but works great on larger horns.
Dude! that is the best meat stick recipe I've ever seen! Thank you for sharing, new sub here. And I have a recipe for you since you shared this, but I can't put it on here. So I will need to email it to you. The if you like it, you can post a new video with it., Thank you!
I clean out my grinder by running several pieces of bread through it. you can tell when the bread starts coming through your grinding plate because of the different color.
Just saw this video for the first time, and it is perfect timing as our archery deer season is underway here in Pa. Looking forward to giving this a try, they sound great. My Recteq smoker will certainly do the job. I may even try bear meat sticks as well ( if my wife or I are fortunate enough to get one this year) Appreciate the detail in the video !!!
Take a pound of meat and grind thru small plate, lay out on wax paper and place in refrigerator for a few days to get a leathery feel, then mix into sausage, that small chunk gives you a little chewable chunk that gives a little texture
We’ll check it out! I haven’t had much time to watch UA-cam lately with deer season, tracking deer with our dog, kids sports, work etc. but I’ll go watch it now!
Excellent looking snack sticks!!!!! I've never seen sticks made with your secret ingredient (not giving it away - watch the video). How much of the secret ingredient did you add to that 20 pound meat batch? I do like to doctor a commercial mix to make mine. I've been using AC Legg #116 as my base, and adding ECA (encapsulated citric acid) at the end gives it that extra twang most people love. I do add other extras, but not wanting to hijack your video, I'll leave it at that (main point was try ECA if you have not - just read up on how to use it).
An exact amount of water per pound of meat would be nice, I would hate to add to much water and ruin the sticks after this much work but I will give it a try. I think you are really on to something with the cherries, sweet & spicy is so good. Thanks buddy.
There’s not really a set amount. All depends on the meat. I’ve had times I’ve had to add a lot and sometimes only a little. As long as it feeds through the stiffer food you’re all set. They are delicious!
What you need next is one of those paddle meat mixers. Mix in your seasoning while it's spinning before that first grind and back in to incorporate well before second grind and back in before stuffing for a quick spin and to add extra seasoning becausei always pan fry a little patty to taste test plus any cheese peppers etc . It's a game changer. I do a 80 20 mix for everything burger fresh and smoked sausage snack sticks summer sausage etc. But when I can get it I much rather beef fat. A little more expensive but so much better... Give it a try. I use to just grind some of my burger once through the small die but stopped. For me even though it's small grind the texture is off and you get little chunks that looks like diced roast. No offense just sharing my experiences.
Jimmie, I have one of them but it is a bit small and I’ve found that cleaning it is more work than it saves. I’d like to get the one that hooks to my grinder one day though.
got that right traverse got some great cherries my buddy drives up there a brings back boxes fulla them delicious red cherries ive made him some pie an then he said he wanted a cherry pie an i told em i need fresh cheries an he said i ate em all already i says well ya better go fer another run you know where ta go
If ya like a good breakfast sausage, give the AC Leggs #10 a try. Its our favorite for that application. Gonna try some snack sticks this year. Never thought to add the cherries. About how much do you think you add roughly to the 20 pounds of meat? 1 pound, 2 pounds?
For the your smoker I just took the door sensors off and bridge the wires so it thinks the door is always closed. you get greese in the sensor and it can not close the circuit.
@hardworkingmanoutdoors - Hi, instead of the dehydrated cherries, what about Fruit Leather? It's reasonably chewy and pretty easy to make (plenty of youtube vids to show you how). All you're doing is pureeing some fruit in the blender (can even be frozen fruit), then simmering that on the stove until it becomes very thick and no longer runny, then you spread it out as a flat layer on a tray to bake in the oven or in a dehydrator, to dry it out. You could then probably chop it up into tiny bits that you can mix into the meat along with the rest of your mixture. With Fruit Leather, you could experiment with as many flavor combinations as you like.
good video and job they really look good yes the clean up is a job that why the old people had hog killings and done all they could at once. take care, be safe and well.
Nice job. A few pointers. Clean that venison better, removing all the silver skin. Use smoked bacon in place of the pork fat. If you must add cheese, buy quality, not low priced cheap foods from Amazonioa. I would like to taste your sausages.
This is what the guys in the Meat department do, except their whole room is refrigerated. The manager called the casing; 'edible plastic'... LOL Recently, I like the Maple Syrup one they did. They do a Ghost Cheese one, NO WAY! Yeah they hang and smoke them too! They give us the nubs and ends and we make beef and cheese vacuum seal bags. .5 lb, colby jack, swiss, pepper jack.
I do a maple flavored breakfast sausage that is good. I’d try the ghost pepper one if the flavor was good. A lot of times the hot stuff has bad flavor imo.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors at any rate Heath 'bar' (don't hear the name Heath much), your video was cool. Impressive that you do that all yourselves. part of me want to say, mail me a stick, they keep. I've done them from the store! J/k. peace love and groovy colors!
I was going to say cooking skills are better than mathing skills, but looks like it's already been pointed out. Still very good video. Cool extra ingredients
Great video! My understanding is you use pork belly and no other source of fat in a ratio of 80:20. That being said, what would you estimate the fat content at of a typical pork belly?
The cherries I use:
amzn.to/412PrCo
How much weight of the cherries did you use for a 20 lb batch
I’ve been processing my own venison, elk and bear meat for years.
Just when I thought I knew it all I stumbled across your video and learned about your cherry trick.
Just ordered dehydrated Bing cherries off Amazon and I’m going to add it to my next batch of snack sticks.
Thanks for the info!!
You’re welcome, they’re always a huge hit! I just ordered more for my next batch as well!
Health, this is the best thing ive seen in a while. I love the cherry ingredient. Great job on the meat sticks, thanks for showing. ❤
Kenny
Thanks Kenny, it’s amazing. Looking forward to the next installment of the chopping down a tree challenge!
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors haha, should be interesting.
I'll be making these Saturday. Cherries from my own tree and dried at home. Elk I harvested last fall and pork from a local organic rancher.
Awesome! I think you’ll love them.
can't see how that would go south
Amazing video! Thank you so much
You’re welcome and thank you.
I just made these sticks. All I can say is, wow. These are great! Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome. I haven’t found one person who doesn’t love them yet.
As always, THANK you for these awesome vids....
You’re welcome Jerry! Appreciate the feedback!
Thanks for this, Brother! I know you put a TON of time into figuring out the recipe and everything. I cant wait to give this one a try!
You’re welcome, they are awesome!
Heath hi mountain is the only seasoning I use. Started yrs ago with the breakfast sausage . Now brats , breakfast sausage and snack sticks.will have to try the cherries . Happy munchin 🦌👍
We make maple breakfast sausage and it’s very good. I plan on doing a bratwurst video eventually with some other seasoning and they are absolute fire!
Sounds great thank you for sharing will be trying this
You’re welcome, they’re delicious!
Looks really good my brother took a deer to the Amish next to him last year they make amazing deer sticks and summer sausage
Oh yeah, I’ve had some really good sticks made before, but also some not so good sticks.
I have never tried High Mountain, I use LEM, my own mix and “Age of Anderson”. I have to give this one a try. You did a nice job, great explanation.
Thank you, we love them.
Looks Awesome!! Thanks!!
You’re welcome, they are awesome!
Awesome informative video! Thank you for sharing you're wealth of knowledge!
You’re welcome! Appreciate the feedback. I’ll be making a few more similar videos soon.
Nice job, and great personality
Thank you.
Nice process. Great to be able to know where the food comes from. Great video
For sure. Thanks Robert!
Hello Heath! What is the ratio (in weight) of the dehydrated cherries to TOTAL weight of ground product?? Thanks in advance, Jon
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Definitely worth a sub.
Thanks Daniel! They taste amazing!
Great idea with the Traverse City Cherries!! I bet those are awesome. We process all of our own deer as well. I love to make my own snack sticks with high temp cheese. I need to get some dehydrated cherries and give it a go! Thanks for sharing Heath👍🏻👍🏻🇺🇸
Definitely Todd, you won’t be sorry!
You’ll love it Todd! They are delicious.
Backwoods seasoning is what I like I don't add pork and just use a jerky cannon on a dehydrator. Works fine beef or deer
Those meat sticks look delicious! I need to get a stuffer and a smoker to be able to do this. We already process our own deer but haven't ventured outside of just steaks and burger. Great video! Thanks for showing us!
You’re welcome and they are delicious!
Me too. Gotta get the proper gear - next up you need to get into doing shanks and shoulder roasts next 👍
I'm gonna try these snack sticks this season. Thanks for the recipe
You’re welcome.
Just made my first snack sticks recently and about to make another batch soon. May try your dried cherry recipe. Being from Michigan, I know all about the Traverse City area cherries
I've processed my own game for years, made it all from jerky to pastrami.
It’s the only way to go! 100% quality control from start to finish.
You have encouraged me to make some of these...but lilke you...I'm going to add my own twist! I thank you so much!!!
You’re welcome! They are awesome and making tweaks is what it’s all about.
Excellent job of breaking everything down! I really enjoyed it. I have the 1-HP Cabela's grinder, but not a stuffer. I'll have to do it with the grinder for now. I actually can't wait to try this process. You made me hungry for some good venison sticks.
Thank you, they are delicious! A nice grinder is key!
If you add some ice cubes to the end of your grind it will clean out your grinder and you can add bread to the end of your stuffing to clean the stuffer out as well
Thanks Mike. I like the ice idea.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors - Hi, instead of the dehydrated cherries, what about Fruit Leather? It's reasonably chewy and pretty easy to make (plenty of youtube vids to show you how). All you're doing is pureeing some fruit in the blender (can even be frozen fruit), then simmering that on the stove until it becomes very thick and no longer runny, then you spread it out as a flat layer on a tray to bake in the oven or in a dehydrator, to dry it out. You could then probably chop it up into tiny bits that you can mix into the meat along with the rest of your mixture. With Fruit Leather, you could experiment with as many flavor combinations as you like.
Great tip thanks
NO, ice is hard on things and can actually break grinders and it dulls blades which leads to fat smear. Just run some already ground meat through to get the stuff that may not have passed through, then just clean out the meat immediately to get all the meat.
I made venison jerky and meat sticks with my Cabelas home pro grinder and jerky gun. It worked PHENOMENALLY! I used about 5lb of thick cut bacon in mine, with about 35lb of venison, using the Cabelas hickory, pepper and original (split in thirds). I smoked them on my Pit Boss vertical competition series pellet smoker @180 degrees, with mesquite pellets. I could not have asked for a better outcome. The snack sticks are uncased, which actually made it easier, and harder, as when I “caulked” them onto the trays, they couldn’t be moved after that and had to be smoked immediately. But, I didn’t have any casing so I just experimented and it turned out fine.
Awesome, sounds delicious.
Never heard of putting dehydrated cherries in the snack sticks. I'm going to have to try this and bring some new flavor to northwest PA. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome.
What a great video! And I’m a Michigander too!
Thank you! Hopefully you e had a great deer season so far.
I was gifted 15 pounds of dehydrated cranberries. I think i will try them instead of cherries. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome!
I'll need several samples to be sure lol A local guy around. here made Ruben tasting snack sticks and oh my God were they good! I might be able to get out this coming week for hunting.
Good luck if you get out. These sticks are awesome. Reuben flavored sticks are definitely interesting.
Dam those look good. Grate video.
Thanks Shawn and they’re awesome.
Thank you for sharing
You’re welcome, they’re delicious!
I'm glad I found your channel, looking forward to seeing what you do next.
Awesome, thank you!
Man I never thought about adding cherries I've been making high mountain products at home for years. You have to try trail bologna, we love it especially frying it up while ice fishing
I’ll check it out. Thanks!
I’m going to make this, it looks delicious
They are amazing!
Glad I came across your channel. Nice presentation sir!!! Can't wait to try the dried cherries. We use bread to push the rest of the meat through and shut the grinder off before the bread comes out of the grinder,
Thank you, they are delicious!
Run ice cubes through at the end of grinding
You sure got that process down Heath! Great job!! They look delicious 👍💪👍
Thanks Jeremiah they are delicious.
My local shop uses beer instead of water they got a jalapeno pepper jack beer stix that are really good
That does sound good.
Really enjoyed this video, subscribed😊
Thank you! I’ll be doing some more of these types of videos soon. We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel now.
Looks good, going to try cherry pepper jack. I'm thinking of using 5% cheese but could use some help with how much cherries to use.
Rodney, I do a little less on the cherries than I do the cheese. That should give you a starting point then adjust to your flavor on the next batch. If you get some made up let me know what you think.
Hello, how did you make the long stuffing tube? Or did it come with the stuffer you got at the garage sale? Thx
It came with the stuffer.
Great job 👍🏿
Thanks!
Great video Heath and it sure reminded me of my meat cutting days at our family store. We used AC Legg quite a bit and three grinding plates that needed to be kept sharp to not heat the meat in the process. Have you ever made Goetta?
Thanks Obie, and no I’ve never made Goetta. I’ll have to look it up.
As long as you're adding water, you can clean out the grinder by adding ice cubes and running though the grinder. This will get out all if that good meat.
Thanks, definitely using ice next time.
Nice!!!! I am going to make ring bologna from bearded butchers this year.
I may try that one day.
Our boys love ring bologna! We should try that.
@@rachelpostma4505 Lilly too but she’s more excited to make snack sticks
I think this great.
Thanks we love them.
Yum
Thanks John.
Do you freeze these? If so how? Thanks
Yes I just vacuum seal them and put them in the freezer.
What brand of sausage stuffer are you using
Not sure, I picked it up at a garage sale.
I have dried tart cherries. Is this what you used or were they sweet dried cherries? Any difference?
Ive used both.
Buy yourself a meat mixer that will attach to your grinder will make mixing easier also be sure to tell everyone that cold water is best to use. I make my own summer sausage, jerky and snack sticks
I’ve seriously considered one.
My LEM #32 will out grind your #42 any day
Awsome, anyway to buy a sample pack?
Thanks John, unfortunately it is illegal to sell wild game in Michigan. The only venison that can be sold is farm raised.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors I could always make a donation to your favorite charity?
How many ounces of the cherries did you use? May have missed it. Definitely going to try this. Thanks!
I try to do about 10%.
What's the amount of cherries and are they sweeten?
We use a sweet dry cherry. I personally put a little less cherry in than I do cheese. So if I use a ratio with 5lb of cheese I’ll do about 3.5lb of cherry.
Another Good one is dehydrated cranberries
I wondered about that.
Have you done these without the cheese but with the cherries? And how many pounds of the dried cherries do you use per recipie? Is it like 1/4 bag or so?
I have not, I usually shoot for about 10%
4 pound bag he used
Can you give me the info for the cherries? Where to get them and what kind
I just used dried sweet cherries off Amazon.
How long did you smoke at the different temperatures? Thanks in advance
Remember he said, internal temperature 155
Just until you hit the right internal temp.
Thanks for sharing this. We did make these yesterday. They turned out good, but not mind blowing. It would be really cool if you would share how much cheese and cherries you used. Here is what we did: 10lb batch of meat 70/30 beef to pork butt, 1.25 lb of cheese, and 1 lb of cherries. Making food videos is great, but even better when there is a better guideline for others to follow regarding quantity of ingredients. If its a big secret then don't even post the video.
Not a big secret at all, I just make them different every time. Everyone’s taste is different. This batch was made with what cheese and cherries I had left.
Great video, I've been looking for something extra to add to my sticks. But are the cherries sweetened or natural?
Natural dried sweet cherries, no added sweeteners.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors thanks for this. I may have missed you saying so, but how much cherry by weight? I noticed your link to the cherries was 4 lbs but that seems pretty heavy?
I am sure them are delicious. Take some old cheap bread it push the rest meat out the auger won’t notice it is your your sausage. Great video
Thanks Dan, this stuff is amazing!
So what was the amount of cherries you added?
I do about 10% by weight.
Stuffing TIP*............Fill a ballon half full of water (obviouslytie it off), when plunger bottoms out retract it, drop ballon in and drive plunger back down. Balloon will clear stuffer throat and horn.
Probably not going to get it down to stick part of of horn (too small) but works great on larger horns.
Thanks for the tip!
1 word,= FING YUMMY!!! OOPS 2 WORDS😊
So good!
Having trouble finding Traverse City "Sweet" Cherries, any suggestions?
I usually find them on Amazon. Not necessarily listed as sweet cherries.
Dude! that is the best meat stick recipe I've ever seen! Thank you for sharing, new sub here. And I have a recipe for you since you shared this, but I can't put it on here. So I will need to email it to you. The if you like it, you can post a new video with it., Thank you!
Thanks! Shoot me an email at: hardworkingmanoutdoors@gmail.com
I clean out my grinder by running several pieces of bread through it. you can tell when the bread starts coming through your grinding plate because of the different color.
We used to do that. I think I’ll try ice next time.
Looks tasty. Are ya sending samples out. 🤭🤭👋👍🏻👋👍🏻🪵🪓🔥
I think we’d run out too fast sorry 😁.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors 🤭🤭 Was going to ask, never heard of high heat cheese before. Asked wife, nether did she.
Just saw this video for the first time, and it is perfect timing as our archery deer season is underway here in Pa. Looking forward to giving this a try, they sound great. My Recteq smoker will certainly do the job. I may even try bear meat sticks as well ( if my wife or I are fortunate enough to get one this year) Appreciate the detail in the video !!!
Good luck on the hunt and thank you!
We always used a couple of big raw potatoes to push the rest of the meat out. Could you add the cheese while you’re fine grinding it?
A lot of people said they use ice too.
Take a pound of meat and grind thru small plate, lay out on wax paper and place in refrigerator for a few days to get a leathery feel, then mix into sausage, that small chunk gives you a little chewable chunk that gives a little texture
Thanks!
Does anyone have a spice recipe instead of buying the kit?
Okay, so how do we get the free samples? 😁
Just ran out lol.
HWM, what is the meat to cherry ratio you use for your sticks please?
Roughly 10% if I remember correctly. I just wing it usually.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors that is usually my go to percentage for add ins like cheese, etc. however, figured I would ask.
Man you are just into a little bit of everything 😂 We posted a video of Katia chopping a tree it was interesting 😂
We’ll check it out! I haven’t had much time to watch UA-cam lately with deer season, tracking deer with our dog, kids sports, work etc. but I’ll go watch it now!
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors you’re a busy man for sure Haha
Excellent looking snack sticks!!!!! I've never seen sticks made with your secret ingredient (not giving it away - watch the video). How much of the secret ingredient did you add to that 20 pound meat batch?
I do like to doctor a commercial mix to make mine. I've been using AC Legg #116 as my base, and adding ECA (encapsulated citric acid) at the end gives it that extra twang most people love. I do add other extras, but not wanting to hijack your video, I'll leave it at that (main point was try ECA if you have not - just read up on how to use it).
Thanks David, they are great! One thing I love about having a channel is how much I learn from others! I’ll definitely check out the ECA.
A girl in my high school sampled nearly every meat stick in the school
And I bet none of them tasted like these !
Hahaha I bet they didn't.
Which was the best?
Was her name Kamala???
LoL you ain't right
Nice video! What hp is your grinder?
Hi there, it's 1.5 HP. Link to the machine is in the description!
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors thanks man! Wasn't sure if you listed the one you had or recommended. Nice video!
@@lodollar23 it is from Cabelas, the Carnivore. Honestly a size smaller would be fine.
What’s your ratio percentage on the cherries to meat?
Roughly 10% is how I like it. You could add more less depending on your preferences.
About how many cherries do you add to a 25 pound batch?
I’d say 2.5lbs or so and adjust from there to taste.
An exact amount of water per pound of meat would be nice, I would hate to add to much water and ruin the sticks after this much work but I will give it a try. I think you are really on to something with the cherries, sweet & spicy is so good.
Thanks buddy.
There’s not really a set amount. All depends on the meat. I’ve had times I’ve had to add a lot and sometimes only a little. As long as it feeds through the stiffer food you’re all set. They are delicious!
Use a ratio of 1cup per pound, , start with 2 cups, you will get to know the feel of it, then add more if needed
I have an amount of cheese in a % to the weight of the meat block. About what % of cherries do you use per pound of meat?
If you start at 10% that will give you an idea and then in future batches you can adjust to your flavor preference.
What you need next is one of those paddle meat mixers. Mix in your seasoning while it's spinning before that first grind and back in to incorporate well before second grind and back in before stuffing for a quick spin and to add extra seasoning becausei always pan fry a little patty to taste test plus any cheese peppers etc . It's a game changer. I do a 80 20 mix for everything burger fresh and smoked sausage snack sticks summer sausage etc. But when I can get it I much rather beef fat. A little more expensive but so much better...
Give it a try.
I use to just grind some of my burger once through the small die but stopped. For me even though it's small grind the texture is off and you get little chunks that looks like diced roast.
No offense just sharing my experiences.
Jimmie, I have one of them but it is a bit small and I’ve found that cleaning it is more work than it saves. I’d like to get the one that hooks to my grinder one day though.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors 👍
got that right traverse got some great cherries my buddy drives up there a brings back boxes fulla them delicious red cherries ive made him some pie an then he said he wanted a cherry pie an i told em i need fresh cheries an he said i ate em all already i says well ya better go fer another run you know where ta go
Yes they do!
If ya like a good breakfast sausage, give the AC Leggs #10 a try. Its our favorite for that application. Gonna try some snack sticks this year. Never thought to add the cherries. About how much do you think you add roughly to the 20 pounds of meat? 1 pound, 2 pounds?
Thanks, I’d start with about a 10% so yeah 2lbs per 20. Then you can adjust to your liking in future batches.
Did I miss it or at what point did you add the cheese?
You add the cheese after everything is ground and mix, right before you stuff the casings.
Is there a written recipe somewhere?
No, I just made this up. I’ll be doing another video soon with summer sausage!
For the your smoker I just took the door sensors off and bridge the wires so it thinks the door is always closed. you get greese in the sensor and it can not close the circuit.
Thanks, I ended up doing the same thing!
Throw some ice cubes right at the end and it will push the meat left in the auger/plate through no problem.
Thanks for the tip, this is exactly what I did the next time I ran it.
@hardworkingmanoutdoors - Hi, instead of the dehydrated cherries, what about Fruit Leather? It's reasonably chewy and pretty easy to make (plenty of youtube vids to show you how). All you're doing is pureeing some fruit in the blender (can even be frozen fruit), then simmering that on the stove until it becomes very thick and no longer runny, then you spread it out as a flat layer on a tray to bake in the oven or in a dehydrator, to dry it out. You could then probably chop it up into tiny bits that you can mix into the meat along with the rest of your mixture. With Fruit Leather, you could experiment with as many flavor combinations as you like.
I imagine that would work!
good video and job they really look good yes the clean up is a job that why the old people had hog killings and done all they could at once. take care, be safe and well.
They’re delicious. Thanks for checking it out.
Nice job. A few pointers.
Clean that venison better, removing all the silver skin.
Use smoked bacon in place of the pork fat.
If you must add cheese, buy quality, not low priced cheap foods from Amazonioa.
I would like to taste your sausages.
Appreciate the support. I found a local butcher who I source my cheese from now. Thanks!
Plug the hole at the end of your stuffer horn and spin the stuffer backwards and It will suck the meat right out of the tube
Hell yeah. Sneak into a slim jim. Hahahaha. I think deer snack sticks are way better for you. Lol. I wanna do jalapeños cheddar beer brats.
For sure! We have a brat recipe I plan on doing soon. You’ll love it!!!
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors awesome can’t wait
This is what the guys in the Meat department do, except their whole room is refrigerated.
The manager called the casing; 'edible plastic'... LOL Recently, I like the Maple Syrup one they did. They do a Ghost Cheese one, NO WAY! Yeah they hang and smoke them too! They give us the nubs and ends and we make beef and cheese vacuum seal bags. .5 lb, colby jack, swiss, pepper jack.
I do a maple flavored breakfast sausage that is good. I’d try the ghost pepper one if the flavor was good. A lot of times the hot stuff has bad flavor imo.
@@hardworkingmanoutdoors at any rate Heath 'bar' (don't hear the name Heath much), your video was cool. Impressive that you do that all yourselves. part of me want to say, mail me a stick, they keep. I've done them from the store! J/k. peace love and groovy colors!
20 pounds total, 2 of wich is pork belly. How does that work out to 20%? Thanks for the ingredient addition!
It doesn’t, it’s easy to mis speak when recording. They are delicious though.
I was going to say cooking skills are better than mathing skills, but looks like it's already been pointed out. Still very good video. Cool extra ingredients
@ yeah it’s easy to mis speak when recording. It’s also sort of funny to see what you say completely wrong while editing.
Venison will hold more water than beef or pork and you will have a better sausage. I've made thousands of pounds so I have some experience.
It’s so good!
Send some to Tasmania. Hit me up
Lol, they gone!!
Great video! My understanding is you use pork belly and no other source of fat in a ratio of 80:20. That being said, what would you estimate the fat content at of a typical pork belly?
Thank you, I would say the pork belly is probably around 70% fat if I had to guess.