Fermented Sausage
Ironwood Sticks
Dry Cured Style Snack Sticks
Ironwood Sticks is a fermented, dry-cured sausage built on a 50% lean meat / 50% pork blend, using lean wild game or lean beef. Smoke at 65-70°F / 18-21°C (cold smoke) and dry to 35-40% weight loss, stuff into 21-24 mm all natural sheep casings, grind at 3/8" then 3/16". Exact amounts scale to any batch weight in the DeepWoodz Smokehouse app for iPhone and Android.
Dry-cured snack sticks, which is a different animal from the cooked kind — there is no cooking step at all, just ferment and dry until the weight is right. The payoff is a stick that keeps at room temperature and has a tang cooked sticks never get. Make this after a couple of fermented batches are behind you.
- Internal temp
- 35-40% weight loss
- Smoker temp
- 65-70°F / 18-21°C (cold smoke)
- Casing size
- 21-24 mm
- Casing
- All Natural Sheep Casings
What goes in it
- Kosher Salt
- Cure #2
- Dextrose
- Coarse Black Pepper
- Garlic Powder
- Cayenne Pepper
- Paprika
- Starter Culture (T-SPX)
- Mustard Powder
Amounts are calculated for your batch weight in the app — including the cure, which is held at a fixed, food-safe rate.
The meat
Lean Wild Game · Lean Beef · Pork Butt · Pork Shoulder
Bear or wild hog: take it to 160°F and hold 3 minutes. Freezing, smoking and curing do not kill trichinella — only heat does.
How it's made
- Grind meat through a 3/8" plate, then regrind through a 3/16" plate for a fine, dense texture. Keep below 34°F.
- Dissolve starter culture in distilled water per package directions.
- Mix all dry seasonings and dissolved culture into ground meat until tacky.
- Stuff into 21-24mm all natural sheep casings.
- FERMENT: Hang at 85-90°F, 85-90% humidity for 18-24 hours until pH drops below 5.3.
- COLD SMOKE (optional): Smoke at 65-70°F for 4-6 hours.
- DRY: Move to 55°F, 75-80% humidity. Dry for 1-2 weeks until firm and 30% weight loss.
- These are shelf-stable when properly dried. Perfect grab-and-go snack.
- SAFETY: Cure #2 and starter culture are required. These are not the same as regular snack sticks.
Wood
Beech · Oak · Cherry
Safety
- Cure #2 and starter culture are required — do not substitute
- Maintain proper fermentation temperature and humidity
- Dry until target weight loss is achieved before consuming
Before you start
New recipes as they land.
Venison, wild game, snack sticks, summer sausage. Leave your email and we'll send the new ones over.
Only when there's a new recipe. Nothing else.
You're on the list. We'll be in touch.
Something went wrong. Please try again.