Wild Game: Walton's Tender Venison Jerky Wild Game Banner Wild Game: Walton's Tender Venison Jerky

Learn how to make Walton's Tender Venison Jerky with Walton's and Meatgistics. Watch the video, read the guide, and then post your questions or comments below.

2 Grinds Stuffing into Casing Hang in Oven Sandwich Sandwich What is Walton’s Tender Jerky

Walton’s Tender Jerky is a formula that we came up with to try to mimic the tender, shelf-stable jerky you buy in stores. Jerky is usually shelf-stable as it is so low in water activity, but that can make it fairly dry. So, how can we make jerky that is both tender and shelf-stable at home? The answer lies in binding the extra water in your jerky up with sugar. This makes it still tender but the water is occupied with the sugar so it is not available for microbial growth. The addition of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and lemon juice concentrate will all work to tenderize the meat when we hold it overnight.

Meat Block

Whole venison
Walton’s Bold Jerky Seasoning
Sure Cure
18% of products weight in brown sugar
18% products weight in low sodium soy sauce
1.2% products weight in rice wine vinegar
0.6%products weight in lemon juice concentrate

Slicing

Freeze your venison whole muscle cuts untill just before it is frozen solid. You want these to have some good resistance to them as this will make it easier to slice. Setup your slicer so it will cut pieces slightly less than 1/4" thick and then slice all of the meat you will be using across the grain.

Mixing

Mix all of your non-meat ingredients until as much of the sugar and seasoning is suspended as possible. We don’t want to see sludge at the bottom of the container when we are done mixing. With this level of brown sugar, it probably won’t suspend fully but we want to make sure we get as much of it as possible. We would recommend mixing for at least 5 minutes and then when you think you are done, mix for 2 more minutes.

Vacuum Tumbling (if you have one)

Add your meat and mixed ingredients to your canister and pull as much of a vacuum as possible with your tumbler. Place it in a cool location and vacuum tumble for 30 minutes or until most of the solution has been picked up in the meat. Set in a cooler overnight to let the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and lemon juice concentrate continue to break down the meat. The next morning vacuum tumble it again for 20 minutes or until there appears to be no remaining free liquid in your tumbler.

If you do not have a tumbler

Without a tumbler a very important step is to run all your meat through a tenderizer first. The interlocking blades of a tenderizer will work to breakdown the meat and make it easier for the solution to penetrate. Vacuum seal your meat and the solution in as many bags as necessary, being careful to keep the correct amount of solution with the correct amount of meat. Every few hours take the bag out of the cooler and massage the meat through the bag, this will help loosen the muscle fibers. Leave it in the cooler for at least 24 hours.

Smoke Schedule

20 minutes @ 140 drying phase (no humidity and open vents)
30 minutes @ 150 (add smoke and humidity)
30 minutes @ 155 (add smoke and humidity)
Smoke @ 165 until internal temp is 155 and make sure it stays there for 5 minutes (add smoke and humidity)
15 minutes @ 160 with no humidity and vents wide open.

Wrap Up

We achieved a .643 water activity which is 100% shelf stable with this process. Meaning we could leave this outside of a cooler or fridge indefinitely and it would not grow mold or bacteria. Now, at home, you don’t have a water activity meter so you will need to treat this as you would normal jerky.

Other notes

After being in a vacuum bag you might notice that the outside of the jerky has gotten sticky. Simply lay it out for a few hours and that will absorb back into the meat for the most part. The sugar has been pressed out of the jerky from the force of the vacuum but it should be able to be reabsorbed by the meat.

Shop waltonsinc.com for Marinade Express Vacuum Tumbler Shop waltonsinc.com for Jerky Seasonings Watch WaltonsTV: Wild Game: Walton’s Tender Venison Jerky

Wild Game Banner Wild Game Venison Snack Sticks

Attend this entry-level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

Breaking Down Venison Second Grind With Fat Protein Extraction Stuffing Snack Sticks Finished Venison Snack Sticks What Is A Snack Sticks?

Snack Sticks are a meat snack and semi-dried sausage that is stuffed into a smoked collagen casing and then hung in a smokehouse for cooking. Many Snack Stick will have a pH between 4.5 and 5.2 to give it some shelf stability and the classic tangy flavor

Meat Block

10 lb of Venison
2.5 lb of pork straight pork fat or 10 lb of untrimmed pork butts
1 Bag of Taco Snack Sticks 10.75 oz for 12.5 lb
1 oz of Sure Cure (Included with purchase) 14.1 grams for 12.5 lb
Water (2 lb per 25 lb batch of meat) 16 oz of water for a 12.5 lb batch

OPTIONAL Additives
1 Bag of Sure Gel 3 oz for 12.5 lb
Encapsulated Citric Acid 2 oz for 12.5 lb

Equipment

Walton’s 50 lb Meat Mixer
Walton’s 11 lb Sausage Stuffer
Walton’s #12 Meat Grinder

Casing Preparation

We are using 19mm Smoke Collagen Casings which will fit easily over our 12mm stuffing tube. These casings require no preparation, simply take them out of the package and put them on the stuffing tube.

Process

This meat was already ground once through a 3/8 plate and frozen. We defrosted it and ground it again through a 1/8 plate. The fact that it was still partially frozen sped up the 2nd ground significantly. What would normally be a process of 10 minutes was finished in under 3.

Pork Fat -

If you are adding just pork fat to your meat block you should add somewhere between 20-25% of the weight of your venison meat in fat. In this case that meant we added 2.5 lb and we added that while we were grinding, this allows it to start mixing in with the venison as it grinds. We also made sure the pork was almost frozen to help it grind faster and better.

Pork Butts -

If you are adding pork butts make sure that they are untrimmed, meaning that they have a good fat cap on them and that the skin is removed off of the pork butt. You will be able to tell if the skin is still on by looking for small hair follicles if you see that then the skin is still on and you will need to trim that off while leaving as much fat as possible on the meat.

Meat Mixing

Next, you need to mix the seasoning and cure into your meat. To do this you can either use a meat mixer or do it by hand. Because this is a product that we are going to cure and smoke we need to achieve a high level of protein extraction so doing this with your hands is difficult but can be done. When using a mixer add the meat to the mixer, then the seasoning and cure and finally the water, you will want to mix in both directions until all seasoning and cure have been mixed in and you have good protein extraction. You will know that a good level of protein extraction has been achieved when the meat is sticky and tacky if you can pull a handful of it apart and it stretches that is a good sign.

Sausage Stuffing

Next, choose the largest stuffing tube that your casings will fit over and begin stuffing. Stuff until the casings are full and smooth but leave yourself enough room on the end to close with a hog ring.

If you can just faintly see a swirl pattern running down the casing that means you have stuffed them correctly if that pattern is obvious then they are understuffed which will lead to excessively wrinkled casings and an odd texture.

If you cannot see that pattern at all then you have overstuffed the casings and you run a risk of the casings popping when you hang them in the smokehouse.

Note

If you added Encapsulated Citric Acid or other cure accelerators you need to go directly from stuffing to smoking. If you did not use a cure accelerator of some sort then after you’ve stuffed everything the product has to be held in the refrigerator overnight to allow the cure time to work.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

Set up your smoker and hang your sausage on smoke sticks or lay on racks and smoke at
125F for 1 hour
140F for 1 hour
155F for 2 hours
175F until internal meat temp of 160F

When they have reached 160° internal temperature remove from the smoker and put them in an ice bath to bring the heat down and help set the casing.

A water bath is not sufficient for this, the water needs to be ice water or shower them with a fan pointed at the hanging sticks.

Cooling

Lastly, leave them out at room temperature for about an hour before vacuum packing them, this will ensure you don’t get additional moisture in the vacuum bag which would affect the shelf life of your meats.

Wrap up

Adding pork fat instead of pork butts will give them a more distinct taste and color. The intensity of the difference will depend on the protein you are using, deer works well with pork fat so the 50/50 mix of venison and untrimmed pork butts will work well but with something like goose you really want to find straight pork fat.

Other Notes

Depending on your pH and your Water Activity your sticks might be shelf-stable but without a way to test this you should vacuum pack and refrigerate these and since these are wild game they wouldn’t be considered “shelf-stable” technically.

Watch WaltonsTV: Wild Game - Venison Snack Sticks Shop waltonsinc.com for Bratwurst Seasoning Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives

Wild Game Banner Wild Game: Venison Summer Sausage

Learn how to make Venison Summer Sausage with Walton's and Meatgistics. Watch the video, read the guide, and then post your questions or comments below.

2 Grinds Stuffing into Casing Hang in Oven Sandwich What is Venison Summer Sausage

Venison Summer Sausage is a semi-dried sausage that is typically stuffed into a larger diameter fibrous casing and made from venison and pork or pork fat. It can be made from beef, pork, wild game or some combination of meat. Some people are intimidated by making it but the most basic steps can be done by almost any home processor.

Meat Block

6 lb venison
1.5 lb pork fat

Ingredients

H Summer Sausage Seasoning
Sure Gel
Encapuslated Citric Acid

Grinding

Grind all meat twice, first through a 3/8 plate and second through a 1/8 plate. Make sure your meat is very cold before you begin grinding, not only is this going to keep you away from the “danger zone” (40°-140°F) but it is also going to speed up the grinding process. Putting your meat back in the freezer between the first and second grind can actually save you time depending on the sharpness of your plate and knife and the power of your grinder.

Mixing

Before mixing you are going to want to determine how much seasoning and additives you need. We have breakdown charts for seasonings, cures and additives HERE But a simple way to do it is to take the weight of your seasoning and divide that by the batch size (in most cases 25 lb of meat) and that will give you the lb of seasoning you need per lb of meat, then multiply that by the number of pounds of meat you are making. Then, multiply that by 16 to get it in ounces and then multiply that by 28.2 if you want to figure out the grams from the ounces.

Add meat, seasoning, water and cure to the mixer and begin mixing. You want to get protein extraction here so you will be mixing for around 8 minutes. During the last 60 seconds add your encapsulated citric acid and cheese, this will prevent the citric acids encapsulation from rupturing and being released too soon and it will prevent the cheese from smearing.

Stuffing

Choose the largest stuffing tube that your casings will fit over and stuff until the fibrous or collagen casing is full, smooth and firm. Then clip the open end closed with a Hog Ring or a Bag and Casing Clipper.

Smoke Schedule

120° for 30 minutes with dampers wide open and no water pan
135° for 60 minutes, add smoke and humidity
150° for 60 minutes
175° until internal temperature is 160°

Wrap Up

If you aren’t going to add pork fat or pork to your venison then you can add Carrot Fiber and Cold phosphate to increase the water holding capacity of the meat. However, this is going to increase the pH of the meat, meaning A) the shelf life will be shortened and B) you cannot use a cure accelerator such as Encapsulated Citric Acid as it will be counteracted by the Cold Phosphate.

Other notes

If your meat had already been ground once at a processors, you only need to grind it one more time through the 1/8" plate.

Shop waltonsinc.com for Camo Fibrous Summer Sausage Casing Shop waltonsinc.com for Summer Sausage Seasoning Watch WaltonsTV: Wild Game: Venison Summer Sausage

Wild Game Banner Meatgistics University: Deer Processing at Home

Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

Hang you deer Remove the rib muscles Processing Back Straps

At Meatgistics we know that there are a lot of first-time deer processors this year. Whether that is by choice or because you cannot find a meat locker that is willing to take it this year really doesn’t matter. You’ve got your deer gutted, you have let it hang overnight and you’ve skinned. What comes next? Well, we had Kurt Ratslaff from Back Country Hunter’s & Anglers(BHA) come in and show us how he does it. BHA is a top-notch organization that specializes in doing the “dirty” work of conservation, cleaning things up themselves! Check them out at https://www.backcountryhunters.org/kansas

List of recommended supplies: Deer Lopper (for legs and neck) Lamb Skinning Knife Gambrel Boning Knives Meat Lugs Process If at all possible find a place to hang your deer from. Locate the back strap, they are long muscles running along the spine. Right next to and below that are the ribs, alongside the ribs is a good number of smaller muscles that can easily be cut off and set aside for grinding. Once you have removed that muscle swing the carcass so the animal’s chest is pointed to you. Grab a hold of the leg and locate the seem in between the chest and leg. Begin slicing away the connective tissue in that crease. The connective tissue and muscle is the only thing keeping these together, you do not need to cut through any joint to separate it. Make sure you have a place to store this and be careful not to drop it! For beginning home processors we would recommend that you salvage the Backstrap and set aside, there are plenty of amazing ways to prepare backstrap. All other cuts can be ground up to make snack sticks or summer sausage but take out your backstraps and do we did with Our Venison Backstrap, trust us, it is worth it. You are doing this to get as much meat as you can, spend some time removing the smaller cuts that can be ground up later. Slide your knife along the rib bones and just separate small amounts as you go. Move down and continue removing the meat from the neck Repeat the process on the opposite side. Pay special attention to trimming the wound area to get all the clotted blood cut out. Beginning around the hamstring continue to separate muscles by finding creases between them and using your knife to cut the connective tissue, right now you should really just be separating, you don’t want to cut through muscles here. Work your way around to the base of the spine and then up around the hip bone. Take the muscle that has been separated and flip it up over the legs. Then follow the lines of the bone up the leg towards the hip and remove the large muscle from the hamstring to the hip. The football roast is Kurt’s favorite part and he wouldn’t grind this either. It is a simple muscle to remove, it is on the front of the leg and runs from the knee to the hip. Continue cutting off small pieces that can be ground up and used for some sort of venison sausage. Don’t forget the tenderloins Shop waltonsinc.com for Walton’s Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Seasonings Shop waltonsinc.com for Jerky Seasonings

Wild Game Banner Wild Game: Cajun Goose Sausage

Attend this entry-level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

Frozen Goose Cutting Goose Adding Fat to Grind Grinding Stuffing Goose Why Goose Sausage?

Goose Sausage is simply sausage that is made from a combination of Goose meat and pork fat. If you cannot get just pork fat you can use a 50/50 mix of goose to untrimmed pork butts but you will be happier with the finished product if you use 80% goose and 20% pork fat.

Meat Block

10 lb Goose
2.5 lb Pork Fat (or 10 lb untrimmed pork butts)

Ingredients:
1 bag Cajun Sausage Seasonings 11 oz for 12.5 lb batch
Sure Cure 1/2 oz for 12.5 lb batch
3/4 quart of water

Optional Ingredients:
Sure Gel Meat Binder - 3 oz per 12.5 lb
High-Temp Cheese - 1 lb
Either Encapsulated Citric Acid - 2 oz per 12.5 lb
OR
Sodium Erythorbate - 3 GRAMS for 12.5 lb batch

Equipment

Meat Grinder
Meat Mixer
Sausage Stuffer
Walton’s Sausage Tier (Optional)

Casing Preparation

We will be using 30mm Clear Collagen Casings and they don’t require any preparation, simply remove then from the package and load onto a stuffing tube. We chose the clear because we are going to hang these in our smokehouse, you can use smoked collagen if you want the mahogany appearance or even fresh collagen if you are going to coil the sausage on a rack in your smoker. If you try to hang fresh collagen in a smokehouse you are going to open your smoker and see all your product on the floor. It might not happen the first time you try it or the second but it will eventually happen, so don’t hang fresh collagen.

Process Clean your goose and soak for 24 hours in salt water in a cooler. This will bleed the meat and give you better taste and consistency. Pack your goose meat into an 8-inch wide vac bag roll (or use multiple 8" diameter bags if you don’t have a roll) and freeze it almost solid. Cut the goose meat into chunks small enough to fit down the throat of your grinder. Grind the goose meat through a 3/8" plate. Grind the goose, and pork fat through a 1/8" plate (Yes, yes I know I said 1/16th" plate again, no such plate exists outside the crazy place that is my mind) Try to mix the pork fat in sporadically throughout the second grind to help disperse it evenly. Pork Fat

With goose being as dark as it is and having a lighter consistency we really think it helped to go with straight pork fat, instead of a 50/50 mix of Goose to untrimmed Pork Butts. You want to go for either 20 or 25% fat content with these.

Pork Butts

If you cannot find any pork fat, you can use a 50/50 mix of goose and untrimmed pork butts

Meat Mixing

Mix seasoning, cure, sure gel, and a cure accelerator(unless it is encapsulated citric acid) with the meat. You want to mix this until you have very good protein extraction, you will know you have reached this when your meat starts getting very sticky and tacky and it pulls when you try to stretch it instead of breaking into smaller clumps. With a meat mixer, you usually want to mix around 8 minutes, being careful to change directions of the paddles every minute or so. If you used encapsulated citric acid you should add it, along with the cheese, during the last 60 seconds of mixing. This will prevent the encapsulation from splitting or the cheese smearing.

Sausage Stuffing

Choose the largest tube that your casing will fit over. We did both the 30mm clear collagen. With the collagen casings, you want to stuff until you can faintly see a swirling line down the casing. Then cut them to the longes length that you can hang in your smoker.

Note

The Walton’s Sausage Linker can be a big-time saver here. With just a little practice you can tie off your casings in a fraction of the time it takes to hand-tie them.

Thermal Processing & Smoking:

120° for 30 Minutes (With No Smoke Or Humidity and Vents Wide Open)
140° For 60 Minutes (Add Smoke & Humidity and close vents 3/4)
160° For 60 Minutes (Continue Smoke & Humidity)
185° Until Internal Temperature is 165° Remove smoke & continue adding humidity, also close vents

Cooling

Run a 5-minute shower cycle with fans on
OR
Place in an ice bath for 10 minutes to stop the cooking process & help set the casing for the collagen and helps separate it from the cellulose.

Wrap up

With Goose, I think using pork fat made a big difference vs a 50/50 mix with untrimmed pork butts, this allowed the goose color, flavor and consistency to stand out. The cellulose casings worked wonderfully here, the skinless products appearance and consistency was a big hit

Other Notes 24-hour soak in saltwater will help bleed the meat Remember to freeze your meat almost solid Without a cure accelerator of some kind, you need to hold this for 12 hours after stu8ffing before going to the smoker. Watch WaltonsTV: Wild Game: Cajun Goose Sausage Shop waltonsinc.com for Sausage Seasonings Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives

Wild Game Banner Wild Game: Goose Pepperoni Sticks

Attend this entry-level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

Frozen Goose Second Grind With Fat Manual Linker Butchers Link Finished Goose Pepperoni What is Pepperoni?

Pepperoni is a cured style of Salami that is traditionally made from Pork and Beef, but it can be made from 100% of either one or other meats like Turkey or Wild Game. If you are going to slow cure it then using 100% pork is recommended. In America, you can basically break down Pepperoni into Pizza Pepperoni and Sandwich Pepperoni, the Pizza Pepperoni is usually smaller in diameter and Sandwich Pepperoni is larger in diameter. Both can either be smoked in a similar fashion as a Summer Sausage or cold cured.

Meat Block

10 lb Goose
2.5 lb Pork Fat (or 10 lb untrimmed pork butts)

Ingredients:
1 bag Pepperoni Unit 11.2 oz for 12.5 lb batch
Sure Cure 1/2 oz for 12.5 lb batch
3/4 Gallon of water

Optional Ingredients:
Sure Gel Meat Binder - 3 oz per 12.5 lb
High-Temp Cheese - 1 lb
Either Encapsulated Citric Acid - 2 oz per 12.5 lb
OR
Sodium Erythorbate - 3 GRAMS for 12.5 lb batch

Equipment

Meat Grinder
Meat Mixer
Sausage Stuffer
Walton’s Sausage Tier (Optional)

Casing Preparation

We will be making some in 19mm Smoked Collagen Casings and some in 26mm Cellulose Casings. Neither of these casings requires any preparation but the cellulose casing is NOT edible so you must peel it before eating.

Process Clean your goose and soak for 24 hours in saltwater in a cooler. This will bleed the meat and give you better taste and consistency. Pack your goose meat into an 8-inch wide vac bag roll (or use multiple 8" diameter bags if you don’t have a roll) and freeze it almost solid. Cut the goose meat into chunks small enough to fit down the throat of your grinder. Grind the goose meat through a 3/8" plate. Grind the goose, and pork fat through a 1/8" plate. Try to mix the pork fat in sporadically throughout the second grind to help disperse it evenly. Pork Fat -

With goose being as dark as it is and having a lighter consistency we really think it helped to go with straight pork fat, instead of a 50/50 mix of Goose to untrimmed Pork Butts. You want to go for either 20 or 25% fat content with these.

Pork Butts -

If you cannot find any pork fat, you can use a 50/50 mix of goose and untrimmed pork butts

Meat Mixing

Mix seasoning, cure, sure gel, and a cure accelerator(unless it is encapsulated citric acid) with the meat. You want to mix this until you have very good protein extraction, you will know you have reached this when your meat starts getting very sticky and tacky and it pulls when you try to stretch it instead of breaking into smaller clumps. With a meat mixer, you usually want to mix around 8 minutes, being careful to change directions of the paddles every minute or so. If you used encapsulated citric acid you should add it, along with the cheese, during the last 60 seconds of mixing. This will prevent the encapsulation from splitting or the cheese smearing.

Sausage Stuffing

Choose the largest tube that your casing will fit over. We did both the 19mm smoke collagen and the 26mm cellulose casing so we did have to switch tubes. With the collagen casings, you want to stuff until you can faintly see a swirling line down the casing. Then cut them to the longes length that you can hang in your smoker.

For the cellulose casings just stuff until they are full and smooth. These are very strong casings and you shouldn’t have to worry about blowouts too much. Once they have been stuffed you can twist them into links but then you have to tie off between every link. Or, you can go with a butcher twist that will give you bundles of 3 sausages.

Note

The Walton’s Sausage Linker can be a big-time saver here. With just a little practice you can tie off your casings in a fraction of the time it takes to hand-tie them.

Thermal Processing & Smoking:

120° for 30 Minutes (With No Smoke Or Humidity and Vents Wide Open)
130° For 60 Minutes (Add Smoke & Humidity and close vents 3/4)
140° For 30 Minutes (Continue Smoke & Humidity)
160° For 60 Minutes Continue Smoke & Humidity
180° Until Internal Temperature is 165° Add Smoke & Humidity and Close Vents

Cooling

Run a 10-minute shower cycle with fans on
OR
Place in an ice bath for 10 minutes to stop the cooking process & help set the casing for the collagen and helps separate it from the cellulose.

Wrap up

With Goose, I think using pork fat made a big difference vs a 50/50 mix with untrimmed pork butts, this allowed the goose color, flavor and consistency to stand out. The cellulose casings worked wonderfully here, the skinless products appearance and consistency was a big hit

Other Notes 24-hour soak in saltwater will help bleed the meat Remember to freeze your meat almost solid Without a cure accelerator of some kind, you need to hold this for 12 hours after stu8ffing before going to the smoker. Watch WaltonsTV: Wild Game - Goose Pepperoni Sticks Shop waltonsinc.com for Pepperoni Seasoning Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives