Walton's Blog

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own beef sticks, snack sticks, or beef snack sticks at home, the process is easier than you might think once you understand the basics. Snack sticks are a type of cured sausage that are stuffed into small-diameter collagen casings, smoked low and slow, then cooled and bloomed for the best color, texture, and flavor. Whether you’re making classic beef snack sticks, venison snack sticks, pork snack sticks, or wild game snack sticks, the process comes …

Dry snack sticks usually come down to five core issues, not enough fat, too much heat during cooking, not adding enough water, under-mixing the meat, and leaving out a binder. If your fat is too low, you lose that juicy texture. Too much heat during cooking pushes out moisture and fat instead of keeping them in. Without enough water and proper mixing, the proteins can't form a stable bind to hold everything together. Leaving out a binder takes away another safeguard against drying out. If you ge …

If you’ve ever demolished a heroic ribeye and then, twenty minutes later, felt like your body quietly switched into sauna mode, congratulations. You’ve experienced the meat sweats.     { "__shgImageV3Elements": { "uuid": "s-1c2a93da-c93d-41a0-b3b3-7a9e671127b2" } } If you’ve ever demolished a heroic ribeye and then, twenty minutes later, felt like your body quietly switched into sauna mode, congratulations. You& …

The new year is a great time to set some goals to "meat" for the upcoming year. If you are a deer hunter you probably just finished processing your deer meat into snack sticks, jerky or whatever you like to make, and it is a good time to look at the year ahead. We can look back at any mistakes or challenges we faced in the previous year and come up with ways to improve. So, without further ado here are some goals to work toward in the coming year!   It's easy to chase big up …

There is a world of difference between "safe" and "good" when it comes to frozen meat.  If your meat has been properly vacuum-packed and kept at a steady frozen temperature, there really isn't a true safety limit.  We have eaten products here from the bottom of our freezer that were going on 7 years old!  Were they safe?  Yes, they were.  Were they good? No, no, they were NOT, but they didn't make anyone sick because they hadn't spoiled in the traditional sense of the word.  …