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Homemade Beef Sticks

Prep Time 7 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 day

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 2 tsp Morton Tender Quick
  • ¼ tsp garlic salt
  • ½ Tbsp mustard seed
  • ½ Tbsp liquid smoke
  • ½ Tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp coarse black pepper

Instructions

  • Mix everything really well. I use my stand mixer.
  • Roll the meat between parchment paper until it's about 2–3 mm thick, then cut it into strips roughly 1 cm wide x 6 cm long. I recommend using a large chef's knife or bench scraper to press straight down...don't drag the knife through the meat. Slide the parchment paper onto a half sheet pan and cover.
  • Refrigerate overnight to cure.
  • 24 hours later, uncover the half sheet pan, and 're-score' the lines from the day before...again, don't drag the knife or bench scraper. Bake on the parchment at 275°F for about 1 hour. The color will change from brown to a bright pink. The internal temperature should be at least 165ºF. Let them cool enough to handle, break the sticks apart, blot well with paper towels, and refrigerate or freeze.

Notes

A few more notes from all your questions:
You absolutely CAN use a bench scraper for the initial cuts. I used a chef's knife in this video simply because I was trying to stick with tools most people already have.
You can also try a pizza cutter. I did! For me, it tended to pull the meat along with it instead of giving me a really clean cut. I had much better luck pressing straight down and straight back up with a chef's knife or bench scraper rather than dragging anything through the meat.
For freezing, you could absolutely flash freeze these on a tray first and then transfer them to a bag. I just...don't want another step. It takes up freezer space and I haven't found it necessary.
Instead, I like to lay the sticks flat in a quart-size freezer bag, layering them rather than letting them bunch up at the bottom. Freeze the bag flat and you can easily pull out however many you need.
And because they're so thin, they defrost FAST. Pull a few out in the morning and they're easily thawed by lunchtime—or definitely by soccer practice that evening.
They do need to stay refrigerated or frozen.
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American