Goose snack sticks.

[hinoon]

We are wanting to make some BBQ goose breast snack sticks. I am brand new to making snack sticks and I want to make sure I do this right. I am going to be smoking the resulting product in a Masterbilt electric smoker. I want to make sure I use all the right additives and seasoning. We have had a commercial processor do our sticks in the past and they are pretty good. It’s a pretty sweet BBQ taste and most of our crew loves them but I want to do it myself to save some money. Our bill is usually about $1000.00. I have a mixer and stuffer so could you shoot some tips my way? Thanks a lot guys. I think the biggest thing is the mix ratio and which seasoning to use.

[Jonathon]

hinoon If you are looking for a seasoning the Habanero BBQ Snack Stick or Summer Sausage is a favorite of mine and would give you some of the sweetness of the BBQ (don’t let the habanero scare you as they aren’t that hot in my mind) the Honey BBQ Snack Stick will give you the BBQ and the sweetness you are looking for and the Sweet Maple Bacon Snack Stick will give you a nice sweetness.

For the mix ratio, if you can get your hands on straight pork fat I would add around 25% of the products weight in fat. This will give you a good taste and texture to your stick. If you can’t get your hands on pork fat you can use pork butts and go 50/50 on the pork and goose. We like pork fat because it has a creaminess to it that other fats cannot seem to duplicate. If you dont want to use pork fat you can use beef fat, it just won’t have quite the same taste or “mouthfeel”. During the 2nd grind is the best time to add the pork fat to ensure that it gets well mixed in with the meat.

If you want to stay low on the fat content then you should consider adding Cold Phosphate to increase the water holding capacity of the meat and some sort of binder. Super Bind is a mix of Carrot Fiber and Potato Starch so you get the water holding capacity of the carrot fiber and the potato starch starts to gel at the same temperature meat starts to expel it’s water so it soaks it right up. If you don’t want to spend the money for Super Bind then Sure Gell or Carrot Fiber should work as well!

Also you have a stuffer and a mixer but it sounds like you are going to need a grinder. If your bill is usually around $1,000 Im not sure how much of that you are wanting to spend on this but buying a really good grinder would pay dividends for years to come. The Weston Pro #22 and the Pro-Cut #12 KG-12-FS Meat Grinder are excellent grinders. Don’t let the fact that the pro-cut is a #12 fool you, your children’s children will still be using that grinder, they build those things very well! The entire Butcher or Pro Series from Weston are good grinders though until recently I did almost all of my processing for our videos with the Weston Butcher Series #12

[biggheaddx2]

I’m making some goose sticks soon and don’t have carrot fiber. could I use nonfat milk instead. I use it in my smoked kielbasa with great results. If so how much per 100# should I use?

[processhead]

NFDM has been used as a binder in sausage for years. It serves the same purpose as carrot fiber.
1 to 1.5 cups per 10 lbs of meat is a common usage ratio.

[Dave in AZ]

I use Non Fat Dry Milk in my venison sticks always, works great. Usage rate is 1 to 3% of meat weight. Supposedly there is a significant difference between normal grocery store NFDM and the sausage specific Hi Temp NFDM you can get at suppliers. However, I have used regular most always and been very pleased.