Deer Camp Pepper Sticks (25 lb Batch)

The product page describes black and red pepper with garlic and onion, and lists corn syrup solids and dextrose to round off the heat. Sodium erythorbate works with the cure to set the red color, and the bag is built around a 25 lb meat block, which is just about what a deer's worth of trim and some beef fat gives you.

Made with

• Frisco Brand Pepper Stick Seasoning

Ingredients and steps

Makes: 25 lb of raw meat block, several hundred sticks depending on length

Amounts: one bag and its cure pack are sized for a full 25 lb batch of 85 to 90% lean beef, or venison and beef. Follow the package directions for the mixing water.

Ingredients

• 25 lb meat at 85 to 90% lean, well chilled (for example, 15 lb trimmed venison and 10 lb 80/20 beef chuck, which comes out around 89% lean)
• 1 bag Frisco Pepper Stick Seasoning and its entire cure pack (don't split or adjust the cure)
• Distilled water for mixing: the amount on the bag
• Additional distilled water to work in before stuffing, as the package directs
• Snack-stick casings (collagen, about 19-21mm), a stuffer, smoker racks or dowels, and a thin-probe thermometer

Steps

1. Grind the chilled meat. Keep everything as cold as you can.
2. Whisk the whole seasoning bag and the whole cure pack into the mixing water the bag calls for (distilled). Pour it over the 25 lb of meat.
3. Mix 5-7 minutes, until tacky. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
4. The next day, work in the additional distilled water the package calls for, then stuff into the snack-stick casings. Hang or lay them on racks with air space between the sticks.
5. Smoke on the product page's schedule: 100F with the vents wide open for 1 hour or until the casings are dry. Then set the upper damper 1/8 open and the lower 2/3 open and run 110F for 2 hours, then 130F for 2 hours. Remove the smoke pan and run 150F for 1 hour. Then set it to 170F.
6. Finish: Keep the smoker at 170F until the thickest sticks read 160F inside.
7. Spray with cold water until the inside is below 100F. Pat dry and refrigerate uncovered 24 hours, then cut and package.
8. These are cooked, not dried shelf-stable sticks. Keep them in the refrigerator and freeze what you won't eat in a couple of weeks.

Safety note: 160F is the USDA safe minimum for ground beef and venison, so this recipe takes the sticks to 160F. Use the whole cure pack with the full 25 lb batch, as the package directs.

Pair it with

The Locker Pack. For the hunter on your list, the box holds Pepper Stick, Mild Jerky, Hot Jerky, and Hickory Bacon Cure. Per its product page, the sticks and both jerkies are sized for a 25 lb meat block with their cure packs.