Snack sticks can be made with dried fruit added.  In larger salami the distinct flavor of the fruit merges into the overall taste of the meat.  In snack sticks, due to the short drying time, the fruit adds a distinct and delightful note.  Yeast, which can be present on the surface of dried fruit, is dealt with by soaking the fruit in high proof alcohol.

This recipe is based on one by Len Poli.
In a dried snack stick, the tartness and sweetness of the apricots really pair well with the paprika and cured meat. 

Ingredients:
1 Kg  Pork loin and back fat (80/20)          
100 g  Apricots soaked in brandy.                 
(Made by soaking 75 g in 75 g of brandy)

Ground through a medium plate, then mixed with:
23 g  Salt
2.4 g  Cure #1 (current EU regulations are 1.9 g)
5 g  Black pepper
3 g  Dextrose
8 g  Hungarian paprika
2.25 g  Garlic powder.                                    
2.5 g  Allspice.  

Added last:
1.1 g  SafePro F-LC

Fill the mix into either 22mm/24mm (pre-soaked) sheep’s casings or collagen casings; 19 mm or 21mm would be fine. Save the sausage mix that’s left in the stuffer, wrap it tightly in a plastic bag or and put it into plastic food wrap (UK-cling film).

Weigh the sticks and make a note of the weight.

Ferment the sticks and the mix that’s wrapped up at 75°F (24°C). Check the pH using a pH meter or pH strips after about 24 hours and (approx.) 12 hourly thereafter. Use the bit of mix that you wrapped up to do the tests.

In this case, the neat meat was found to have a pH of 5.25 after 46 hrs.

The meat was put into the fridge to dry.
Its initial weight was: 1107 g
Its weight after 7 days was: 700 g (36.8 % weight loss)
After 10 days, it was 646 g (41.6 % weight loss), and it’s ready to eat.

Further notes about making snack sticks can be found in our Introduction to snack sticks post.