Seasonings

[terry129]

****I make 5# batches of venison summer sausage and snack sticks, 4# venison, 1# pork fat ground together twice, course grind then fine grind. They turn out good though kind of bland, no zing or spice taste.
When I taste a pan fried sample with just seasoning they have flavor. I use 1 teaspoon #1 cure, 5 teaspoons carrot fiber and 2.5 teaspoons smoke meat stabilizer, 8oz high temp cheese and 1 cup cold water. Should I add more seasonings or cut back on something? what can I do to make the flavor stand out?
Terry S ****

[terry129]

I forgot to add 4.7 oz of seasoning per 5 lb batch.

[terry129]

I am wondering if I should switch from smoke meat stabilizer to citric acid stabilizer at 5 teaspoons? Would that improve spice flavor?

[Parksider]

terry129 Word of caution, I don’t know the answer to your question but I’ve learned only change one thing at a time. Get your base recipe down then start the tweeking AND keep good notes! Good luck!

[terry129]

Thanks for one item at a time tweaking. For small batches total 5#, 4# venison and 1# pork fat trimmings I think I made the right amount of adjustments as far as correct amounts for this size meat block. I find though, when seasoning 4.7oz willies snack stick seasoning is mixed in and I use a small hakka mixer, before I add cure salt, carrot fiber and smoke meat stabilizer I make a fried sample patty and I can taste the seasonings am are happy with the taste, its after I add the remaining items, stuff in 17 or 19mm, coil the casing around a dowel rods and smoke with hickory in my small but effective electric masterbuilt smoker as directed. As soon as they are 156 degrees internal I remove directly to ice bath for 10 minutes then let hang for about 45 minuets then cut into 5" pieces. Don’t get me wrong they turn out good its just the seasoning taste isn’t there. Should I add more seasoning? Switch to citric acid stabilizer? Do you think the smoke is overpowering the seasoning?

[vjbutler]

terry129 I have experienced the same result with many of the seasoning blends. There are certain flavors like TexMex, jalapeno and habanero lime that typically produce a very flavorful product. Some of the others like buffalo blue cheese need extra seasonings to suit my palate (I add more than a quart of franks red hot buffalo wing sauce for 25 lbs). The seasonings are designed for the masses not necessarily those of us looking for a more potent flavor to compliment something like venison. Someone else posted a reply to a similar topic and stated that adding seasoning to the stock mixture to enhance the desired flavor will usually give you the product you are looking for. If you like the pepper flavor in Willies snack stick recipe gradually add more to each batch until you get the desired results. As has been already stated only one change at a time and keep good notes. As for encapsulated citric acid over smoked meat stabilizer for snack stick, my advice is resounding yes if you are going right from the stuffer to the smoker and the tang will complement the seasoning you are using. Some of the flavors I make don’t seem to benefit form the tang provided by encapsulated citric acid so I hold those overnight in the cooler before going to the smoker. I don’t use smoked meat stabilizer for those seasonings either because I am using a fair amount of water to aid in stuffing and there is a warning about the possibility of producing possible an undesirable gas in this scenario. I hope this is helpful.

[terry129]

Thank you,
I think that’s how i’m going to go. I will increase seasoning to 5.3 oz and use citric acid as its stated I see to give it more of a desired taste. I’ll post the next time I make more that shouldn’t be to long.