Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Pork Sausage

You bet Jim.

We always do a test patty or two. I’ll report back. We won’t grind before the weekend at soonest.

I'm making some this week.Mostly pork and a little deer.18lbs pork / 7lbs deer.Makes a very juicy sausage and not greasy either.Pork butts are 80/20-70/30 meat to fat and that makes it perfect for sausage making.50/50 ratio pork/deer,really is a little on the dry side.60/40 ratio pork/deer is about right.You need some fat to make good sausage and really once you mix the meat and spices you really can't distinguish the pork from the deer,it's sausage. Adding a head of peeled,boiled garlic and the water it was cooked in to your spice mix really enhances the flavor.Here is my recipe.

This is for 25lbs of meat. 4oz sea salt,2oz fresh ground black pepper,3 tablespoons of garlic powder,2 tablespoons of ground mustard,3/4 oz of whole mustard seed,3 tablespoons of marjoram leaves,1 oz of cure.Next peel one head of garlic and cook in a cup or so of water until the garlic is soft enough to mash(about 15 min).Let it cool or add a little ice to cool it and add to the spices with any additional water needed to dissolve the spices.Add it to the meat,mix well and run it back through the grinder.I usually run all my meat through a 1/4" or 5/16" plate first.Add spice slurry,mix and run it back through my grinder through a large plate.The one I use has only four pie shaped holes.I don't want to grind my meat any finer,just want to get my meat and spices mixed well on this second run.I made a batch 1/2 deer and pork, I also made a batch with 19lbs. of pork and 6lbs. of deer and it was very good too.I like to use pecan chips for smoking.They come out nice and red.The secret is in the smoking.It takes only four hours.130 degrees for the first hour,150 degrees for the second hour and 160-165 degrees for the next two hours.Then spray it with cool water and then let it cool while still on the sticks for one hour.After that I let it cool in the fridge overnight and then vacuum pack after that

I've always assumed butts to be about 20+% based on some quick research and visual observation of the finished product. I typically grind as is, no added fat, and have been very satisfied with the results. 25# batches with Leggs seasoning mix.

I generally agree with targeting 30% fat ratio. The last batch of moose summer sausage I made was around 30% added pork fat and turned out about right. The moose bratwurst we made a couple years ago were 20% and were a bit too dry. Next time will bump the fat up to 30%.

I assume you are making breakfast sausage? Using premixed seasoning or rolling your own?

Don't know what percentage it was, but some of the old time sausage makers around here used a lot of fat. When we killed hogs, we used the trimmings for sausage. Never cut up a whole shoulder for sausage. On the other hand, I've seen people kill a big sow, and make nothing but sausage out of it, and I know there was a lot of fat on them. One of the commercial sausage companies used to advertise that their product was "whole hog" sausage.

Baldhunter, that looks good. I am actually getting ready to make my first stuffed sausage later this week, and will try this. My question for you, or others is that if you are using Morton tender quick instead of cure, is the amount of that and salt the same, or does it need to be altered? miles

We eat a lot of meat balls or meat sauce with our pasta. Next time you grind try equal amounts of ground pork butt and venison mixed together. Add fat at the rate of 20-25% of the venison weight. When people eat it they always remark about how good it is but just cant quite put their finger on the fact its 50% pork. Definitely kicks up the flavor.

I have used Tenderquick for jerky and ham before,but I never have used it for my sausage.Personally,I'd rather use kosher or sea salt and the #1 cure instead,that way I know what I'm putting in my sausage.I have a ham recipe that works really good with wild hogs too.

This is my recipe.I used this for the pork loin too.
I made some pecan smoked boneless wild boar ham and some pecan smoked whitetail tenderloin and backstrap.I used Morton's Tenderquick Curing Salt and let me tell you they came out awesome.I used 1/2 oz. per lb. of meat.Dissolved the salt cure in a cup of water,used an injection needle and injected the meat,this helps get the curing process started on the inside.I then put the meat in a large plastic bag and poured the cure solution on the meat.Make sure the meat gets mixed around good so the cure can go to work on the outside.I keep the meat iced down in the bags for 2-3 days,then I rinse the meat and let it soak for several hours in fresh water to help remove the excess salt.I repeat the fresh water rinse and soak three times and it's OK to let it soak overnight.I've found that soaking the meat three times gives me a light salt taste where soaking the meat twice will give you a fairly salty taste.So it's really a matter of how you like yours.When I get ready to smoke it,I take the meat out of the bags,run some butcher twine through the meat so I can hang it in the smoker,then sprinkle the outside of the meat with med. ground black pepper.I set my smoker temp at 130-140 degrees,hang the meat and smoke for two hours at this temp.After two hours I quit the smoke,but kick the temp up to around 160 degrees for two hours.Then after the two hours at 160 degrees,I kick the heat up to 180-185 degrees for around eight hours,depending on how thick your meat is(I use boneless meat around a couple of inches thick).Anyway,just keep it at this temp till you reach your desired dryness.After your drying is complete,take meat out of the smoker and let it cool.Wrap the cooled meat in butcher paper and store in the refridgerator for a day or two if you have room,if not just go ahead and freeze what your not going to eat now.

Good looking links.

Yes, breakfast sausage, bulk pack. IGA sells Mylar packages of seasoning for a few types of sausage. We’ve used these before and like the result.

Go by color.


If it looks a bit redder than normal....it might be a bit lean.



If you cant find any color.....its a bit rich.

If making brats, Italian, breakfast sausage, or basically any sausage your cooking to appropriate internal temp you shouldn’t need a cure at all. If smoking and bringing up to temp slowly you will. C botulism spores can survive very low oxygen environments, but not lethality temperature. I wouldn’t add it to things I didn’t need too though

I have made it with shoulders and butts. If there is a decent fat cap and meat has decent marbling you shouldn’t need to add extra fat. Will be close to 25% that’s way. Of course it’s not really going to hurt anything except how much grease you end up with in the cast iron. I’d say run a couple small grinds both ways and see what you like best.

When making bratwurst from ready made spice mixes in my experience, it helps to add 1 egg per 5lbs. I also substitute half the water or more for whole milk or heavy cream. And the rest of the water is substituted with beer. This is what is traditionally used in bratwurst. Gives a better product in my experience.

Venison I add 20-25% pork fat. I typically don’t buy shoulders or butts for this, but rather my butcher will collect fat for me over a week. Most will if you ask, and I have never been charged for it either!!

If I knew how to post pics I would throw some pics of the hot Italian and breakfast sausages I made last couple weeks.

People are often confused by the term "pork butt"...pork butt is the shoulder...don't scream at me, that is a USDA labeling/marketing term. When we think of "butt"...never mind.