Truffle and Black Garlic Venison Snack Sticks
I'm a sucker for "gourmet" food. I love all of the high end food products, and out of them a few things stand out.
Truffle is absolutely top of my list. Now I'd like to tell you I'm an expert forager and go out and find my own, but while I can find porcinis, I'm not good at finding truffles.
However, I will keep trying. This isn't the first time you will see truffles mentioned on this website and won't be the last.
The Concept
My idea was to try and make an upscale venison snack stick, and I think this might be a success.
Black garlic is pretty straightforward and can be bought almost anywhere. However, when sourcing truffles for this recipe you want to try and find black truffle in a paste.
Check the ingredients and make sure that at least 70% of the product is truffle, as many brands have little truffle and a lot of oil. You're paying good money for truffle, not olive oil with truffle flavoring.
The Process
Making snack sticks requires attention to detail, especially temperature control. Everything needs to stay cold throughout the process.
Your meat, your grinder parts, everything. Cold meat grinds properly and the fat stays distributed evenly. If things warm up, the fat smears and you end up with a greasy mess.
I'm using pork belly here for the fat content. Venison is too lean on its own for snack sticks. The pork belly brings the fat ratio up to where it needs to be and adds flavor.
After grinding, the real work is in the mixing. You need to work the meat until it gets tacky and binds together. This is what gives snack sticks their snap and texture. If you don't mix long enough, they'll be crumbly.
The black garlic needs to be mashed into a paste before adding it in. Same with getting your cure mixed properly.
Speaking of cure, this is non-negotiable. Cure #1 in the US, pickle salt in the EU. This isn't optional, it's food safety.
For casings, I'm using 19mm collagen casings. They're easy to work with and don't need soaking like natural casings. Just load them on your stuffer tube and you're ready to go.
After stuffing, the sticks need to rest in the fridge for 12 hours. This lets the cure do its work and the flavors develop.
Venison Butchering Diagram
Download my complete venison cut diagram showing every primal cut and the best cooking methods for each—from tenderloin steaks to ground shoulder.
The Smoking Process
Like all snack sticks, these are done by smoking. Truth is I haven't yet tried dehydrating snack sticks. I've done it with jerky but not yet snack sticks, so smoking is the way to go here.
The thing with smoking these is that truffle and black garlic are both delicate flavors, and will be easily overpowered by aggressive smoke.
For this reason I advise using a very mild wood. I turn to my wood collection for smoking fish. In there I have alder and beech, or even apple wood.
These won't fight with the truffle and black garlic, they'll just add a gentle background note.
Hickory or mesquite would destroy the whole point of using expensive ingredients. Keep it subtle and let the truffle and black garlic shine through.
The smoking process is all about gradual temperature increases. You start low at 130°F with no smoke for the first hour. This dries the casings and gets them ready to take on smoke.
Then you bump to 145°F and add your smoke. After a couple hours you go to 160°F, then finally up to 175-180°F until the internal temperature hits 150-152°F.
This gradual climb is critical. If you crank the heat too high too fast, the fat renders out and you're left with dry, crumbly sticks. Take your time.
When they hit temperature, immediately into an ice bath to stop the cooking. Let them dry at room temperature until the casings bloom, then into the fridge.
Truffle and Black Garlic Venison Snack Sticks
Ingredients
Instructions
- Keep everything cold: Ensure meat and grinder parts are well-chilled before starting. This is critical for proper texture and to prevent fat from smearing.
- Grind the venison and pork belly together through a coarse plate (1/4 inch).
- Mash the black garlic cloves into a smooth paste.
- Add all ingredients including the black garlic paste and truffle paste. Mix thoroughly until the mixture becomes tacky and binds together, about 5 minutes of mixing.
- Fill sausage stuffer and pipe into 19mm collagen casings. Work carefully to avoid air pockets.
- Rest in fridge for 12 hours to allow cure to work and flavors to develop.
- Start smoking: Place in smoker at 130°F with damper open, no smoke, for 1 hour (drying phase).
- Increase to 145°F, add mild wood smoke (alder, beech, or apple), damper half open, for 2 hours.
- Increase to 160°F with smoke, damper half open, for 2 hours.
- Increase to 175-180°F and continue smoking until internal temperature reaches 150-152°F.
- Once internal temperature reaches 150-152°F, immediately plunge snack sticks into ice water bath for 5-10 minutes to stop the cooking process.
- Remove from ice bath and allow to dry at room temperature until casings bloom, then refrigerate.
Temperature control: The gradual temperature increase is critical. Going too hot too fast will cause the fat to render out, leaving you with dry, crumbly sticks. Starting low allows the casings to dry and the smoke to penetrate before the cooking begins.
Wood choice: Use mild woods like alder, beech, or apple. Truffle and black garlic are delicate flavors that will be overpowered by aggressive smoke from hickory or mesquite.
Truffle paste: Check the ingredients and make sure at least 70% of the product is truffle. Many brands have little truffle and mostly oil.