Homemade Sausage Making

Back in the summer of 2008, a friend asked if I would make up some venison sausage for a party, if he provided the venison. He gave me enough venison and pork to make sausage for 35 for his backyard party. After that, I was out on the west coast for most of a year on a contract. It must have been memorable sausage, because the first thing some of the people who attended asked, after I got back a year later, was when I was going to make some more.

This is the recipe for a 6-pound batch. 4 pounds of venison, 2 pounds of fatty pork shoulder, and fat trimmings to bring the batch up to 20% fat. I used a little red wine to dissolve the salt and infuse the seasonings. I don't remember what I used, now. I would have used about 6 fluid ounces (about 177.5 ml or about 60 ml/kg) for 6 pounds of meat.

Seasoning for 6 pounds:
6 teaspoons kosher salt (Morton's, about 24 gm)
6 3/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper (about 14 gm)
4 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin (about 9 gm)
3 1/4 teaspoons garlic powder (about 9 gm)
3 1/4 teaspoons ginger (about 6 gm)
2 1/4 teaspoons dried rosemary, finely chopped (about 2.7 gm)
2 1/4 teaspoons dried thyme (about 1.5 gm)
1 1/8 teaspoons mustard (about 2.6 gm)
1 1/8 teaspoons dried oregano (about 1.7 gm)

Prepare medium hog casing. Dissolve the salt in the wine and stir in the seasonings to infuse. Chill and cube the meat and fat in 1" cubes. Mince the meat and fat separately through the primary grind plate (I use a 1/2" plate). Combine the meat and fat in a large bowl, add the wine and seasonings and fold to distribute the seasonings. Chill and run through the final grind plate (I use 3/16" or 1/4" or even 3/8" depending on the sausage I want). Stuff into casing.

Note: Although I am an absolute amateur, my friends often request that I make sausage for them. When I am making a 'request' sausage, I have more to consider than my own tastes. I happen to enjoy the flavor of well-prepared game and don't like to mask it; however, I didn't have control over the game I was using for this sausage, and I wasn't making it for someone whose tastes I know. Instead, I was making a sausage from somewhat strong tasting venison, for a group of people with unknown varied tastes, some of whom might not even like venison. So, I tried to design a sausage that would be acceptable to most of those attending the party. For myself, I'd cut back a little on the seasoning, but clearly, the party attendees enjoyed what I prepared for them. I have since prepared this sausage several times and find it very good using bacon ends and tips to bring the fat content up to the desired 20-30%.

That looks like a great recipe. I mix my venison with 20% chuck roast when I process it. I'm going to give it a try with maybe a little more pork fat with my venison just to keep it moist.
Thanks for sharing!

I just made ten pounds of Tom's Venison Sausage. It's seasoning now. ...will stuff tomorrow. Man, it smells great! Will post results tomorrow, hopefully.

It's 24% fat, largely from pork fat back. I rinse well in water, then soak in running water for about two hours. Salt computes to 1% so there's room to spare (Marianskis advise <3%) in case the fat back doesn't give up as much salt as expected. That's probably the case- - I did the same treatment on salted cod not long ago and it was still a bit salty when cooked Brazilian style.

I added cure at 150 ppm nitrite level. (I may smoke a portion of it. Some believe I should cure it whether I do or not. Why fool around?)

This looks like a great recipe. Has anyone else recorded any results with it? Please share.

Great recipe thanks for sharing! I am always looking for venison recipes!

Blackriver, check out this site-free-venison-recipes.com.

Stuffed 10 lbs worth this morning. Fried up some of the leftovers. Wife, daughter, and grand-kids thought it was great!

I believe I'll add a little cayenne or red pepper flakes next time. At any rate, "Tom's Venison Sausage" recipe gets the Duck Stomp of Approval.

Hi guys,
VENISON SNACK STICKS SPICE PROBLEM:

I just finished a ten pound test batch of snack sticks. Going to cold smoke tomorrow.
Our hunting group took a vote and said that the next batch should have more kick SOOO I will try to kick it up a notch or two. I added some cracked pepper and a bit of cayenne.I am trying a small batch to see if this does the trick. If this works out I'll post the recipe. Also one of our group brought some wild pig. He was hoping that we would be able to use it in place of some of the pork butts that we have been using thus keeping our cost per pound down.I have never used wild pig before and don't know what to expect.He said one of his friends used a mix of 50/50 wild and domestic pork. any advice?

John

Hi Tom,
Defiantly will be showing your recipe to the guys. Sure looks great and has great reviews.

John

If you want a lot of kick try habaneros. If you handle a split dried one and lick your fingers you will know that you have faced authority. I can use the Thai chilis but the habaneros are just too much for me

Partycook, you ol' SALTY DOG! Where have you been?
You wrote:

any advice?

Yup. I have some advice:
1. Check in more often
2. Freeze the pork below zero for a couple of weeks!
3. Grin quite a bit!

Your ol' pal,
Chuckwagon

Good advice on the freezing bit, Chuckwagon. That sort of cold kills "what lurks within" wild game meat. (...and javelina can be some of the gamiest meat there is.)

Ross, may I suggest chipotle peppers? There's still some of the kick of jalapeño, but it's more mellow and there's a nice smoky flavor. It's best to remove stems and seeds, even from the canned kind. You can usually find them, canned, at grocery stores or your friendly local tienda Hispanica. (Don't worry about the language. They want to make a sale, just like anyone else.) You can often find the dried variety there too. They taste better, in my humble opinion.

Oh, yeah- - this is a perfect application for disposable gloves.

On this last batch (100 pounds-4 25 pound batches) I allowed the crew(nine of us) to mix the spice. Usually I mix the spice and have it ready to go but they wanted to do a hands on. I told them to put a little bit of each spice on there finger and taste it in that way maybe they would understand just how simple or complex a recipe could be.Hey Ross as for the use of habanero the only way I could see use it would to cook one in a little water and add that to the mix. Yes if you didn't mix it in properly you could have the next chapter of blazing saddles.I like el Ducko's idea of using chipotle peppers. I'll have to try this. As for the pork and venison we freeze and follow the guidelines as if we were making certified pork butts. Do you use wild pork as you use domestic pork?are there any strong flavors that I should be aware of?

Well CW This is the time of the year that I do the interior maintenance on my rental units. I also took a course in cheese making. I'm hoping to have homemade sausage,cheese and beer ready for our next sausage making session.Also want to take another crack at projects A and P.

John

There is always a basket of chipotles in the produce section of the local Safeway. I will try some.

Partycook, wish I lived closer. I've been a homebrewer for over 40 years. (Yikes!) Sausage is an almost perfect way to round out my skills. Cheese making would make it complete! (Well... Beloved Spouse may beg to differ.)

They have an active bunch of cheese makers in Austin associated with the homebrew supply store I go to, and sell cheesy supplies there. I'll have to bug 'em about a course, or at least get 'em to let me hang out there, some evening.

Maybe that would give me the boost I need to build a temperature/humidity controlled setup for curing/fermenting sausages. I keep my kegs at 50 deg F, but can't control the humidity. ...lots of good reference material to work from, but I haven't taken the leap yet. Cheese making would require it.

partycook wrote:...Do you use wild pork as you use domestic pork?are there any strong flavors that I should be aware of?...

Boar taint is stronger in wild boar than in domestic boar. Flesh tends to be tougher with less intramuscular fat. Flavor is stronger - more concentrated, I think. Off flavors depend on how the meat was handled after slaughter, of course, and on the pig's diet. Wild pig is often marinated. I think a red wine marinade with onion, juniper berries, and spices, as you might use for venison, moderates the gaminess.

You should assume that the wild pork carries trichina cysts and other parasites in its parasite load. Freezing to certify deals with T. spiralis, but does not deal with two other freeze-resistant species of trichina found in northern climes. You are in Wisconsin. If the wild pork is local, from a northern tier state, or from Canada, then you should assume it carries freeze-resistant trichina, and cannot be certified by freezing, and can only be made safe by cooking. In that case, it should not be used as cured, uncooked meat. It should always be thoroughly cooked. That wild game should always be thoroughly cooked is sound, conservative advice for any wild game, regardless of origin, due to the unknown parasite burden, but especially for omnivore and carnivore game.