Gamebird Gourmet: Pheasant 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. They are most often made from pork and beef but almost any protein will work when making a snack stick

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.

Make sure your pheasant breast is properly trimmed and all bones have been removed. Start out with mostly frozen breast, we had it frozen to the point where we had to use a serrated knife to cut it into chunks that would fit down the grinder and that worked wonderfully.

Make sure your plates and knives are sharp and lubricated with white oil. Grind all Pheasant breasts through a 3/8" plate one time. Then grind again through a 1/8’ plate and add pork fat at this point. The fact that it was still partially frozen sped up the 2nd ground significantly.