Deer Stik ????

[9manfan]

My wife and I got 25lb's of deer stiks (15lbs. deer, 10 lb's pork)ready on friday nite, ground up everything and added the cure and seasoning's, and then stuffed into the casing's the same nite, was planning on smoking on sunday, but the smoker died on me, how long could I leave the stuffed casing in the frig before running into problems or could I freeze them and smoke later, won't have my smoker going until this weekend, thanks for the help

[Fishawn]

No expert here, but if it were me, I would freeze them.... Just what I would do.

[Kingudaroad]

The cure should have you covered as far as spoilage. Freezing at this point would have a negative effect on the finished product. If it were me I would leave them curing in the fridge until time to smoke. If for some reason the cure did not work, they will not pass the smell test. If they smell good smoke em! If they smell bad at that point... toss em.

[Fishawn]

The cure should have you covered as far as spoilage. Freezing at this point would have a negative effect on the finished product. If it were me I would leave them curing in the fridge until time to smoke. If for some reason the cure did not work, they will not pass the smell test. If they smell good smoke em! If they smell bad at that point... toss em.

My initial thought was to avoid spoilage & the possibility of having to throw them out. I think someone on here, or the other forum, has actually been through this before also??????

[Kingudaroad]

Properly cured there will be no spoilage. If they are not properly cured, you wouldn't want to smoke them frozen or not.

[Beaver Camp Sausage Company]

I just smoked some German sausage yesterday that had been in the fridge for a week and they were fine. I agree ad long as they are cured it should last just fine.

[Fishawn]

Just out of curiosity, if frozen will it ruin the texture and make them dry and crumbly?

[GratefulDave]

I've frozen snack sticks before smoking and they came out just fine. The rest of the gang is probably right though that if they are cured properly you should have no trouble waiting til the weekend. Either way I think you'll be cool.

Dave

[curious aardvark]

Just out of curiosity, if frozen will it ruin the texture and make them dry and crumbly?

Depends on the rst of the ingredients.

If there's anything acidic in there then even while frizen the acid will be chemically cooking the meat and will result in a dry texture.

And it doesn't take much. I used pickled chillis in a batch of my baconbanger mix.
Great fresh, froze some for fatties, month of so later defrosted texture is totally different. had a helluva job getting it to stick together.

This of course goes for unfrozen product as well.
Any alcohol in the mix will have a similiar - if slower - effect.


But cured meat is good for a couple of weeks in the fridge, easy :-)