Scottie's Gourmet Meats, The Story

This venture began in 2006 after my grandfather passed away, prompting us to bring his smokehouse home so it would not go to waste. At that time, I knew nothing about meat smoking, and my first attempt at preparing fish was so disastrous that even the dogs wouldn’t touch it.

By 2007, I started experimenting with beef jerky and quickly discovered I had a knack for it. Before long, we were smoking cheese, and friends began bringing deer and elk for jerky. This soon led to requests for custom cutting and wrapping of their animals, an endeavor I had never tackled before. Through a lot of trial and error, with some guidance from YouTube University, I taught myself the craft and continually improved my beef jerky along the way.

Eventually, customers started asking for snack sticks. Lacking the necessary equipment and funds to purchase it, I took a batch of meat to a local butcher. When he informed me it would take three to four months to process and that he mixed everyone’s meat together, I knew I had to make a change. I brought my friends’ meat home and, despite not having the money, invested $3,500 into the right equipment to ensure proper meat smoking.

Around that same time, my buddy Ryder gifted me an old 1940s Hobart meat grinder that had been sitting untouched in his grandfather’s workshop for decades. He asked me to promise never to sell it in exchange for the gift. We wired it up, and over nearly ten years, we processed close to 100,000 pounds of burger and snack sticks through that old machine. Today, it still operates at a friend’s house, passed along with Ryder’s blessing and the same promise.

For years, we grew steadily and modestly, processing 30 to 40 animals a year. In 2022, Renee and I moved to Redding, California, where I met Gabe Kossol with New Mountain Outfitters. From that point on, everything changed. Through word of mouth alone, we have experienced remarkable growth: 28 animals in 2022, 71 in 2023, 115 in 2024, and 220 in 2025. Our goal is to reach 350 or more in 2026.

Along the way, we expanded into custom cutting for domestic beef, hogs, and sheep. We also forged partnerships with George’s Custom Meats in Quincy and Indian Valley Butchers in Taylorsville, providing custom smoking for their bacon and hams, with plans to handle even more of their smoked products during hunting season.