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Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I hope you guys can help me out.


I make snack sticks every year, most often using seasoning and cure that I get from PS Seasonings. However, this year I've been saving the liver, heart and a lot of bruised or very bloody, traumatized venison meat I normally don't keep to make snack sticks from that I can use for dog treats. I have a few questions.

I plan to make these with small collagen casings.
I'll be using deer heart, liver and trimmings.

Should I add fat content? I've heard this is necessary to bind. I usually add pork shoulder/butt to my snacksticks, so I figured I could do this too.

What kind of cure do I need to use?

Is there any other ingredient that I should add besides the meat and cure? The venison liver should give plenty of flavors, so I don't think anything is needed for that.

Anyway, any ideas, advice, suggestions and info is welcom!

I would not use cure in a dog treat.. When I make dog treats, I make them into patties, I add oil to it and bake in oven. Let cool and freeze.

Why wouldn't I use a cure? Most dog foods, almost all dry foods, contain a cure.

I'm more interested in the binders I might need to keep the snack sticks the correct consistency.

Plus, most dog/cat treats you can buy off the shelf are already cured.
But yeah, it might be better health wise to avoid it; and not just for the dogs, for us as well!
Of course, we'll keep eating cured meat anyways because it's delicious, but it'd be better for our health not to.