Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Making meat sausage specifically

Tomorrow my wife and I will grind mix and stuff about 70 lbs of venison into Italian, maple breakfast, kielbasa, and summer sausage. What does your crew do with the seasons bounty?

This year’s deer meat went to Farmer, Breakfast, Chorizo, Jalapeno cheddar smokies, and jerky.

Farmer sausage?

Prolly have it down here, just called something else.

I made a lot of kielbasa this year, for the first time. Several batches, all a little different. I am narrowing down my recipe, slowly. All good but some better. I canned 16 pints of venison the other day, but have not eaten any of it yet. May do another 8 today. I have meat thawing. All of the sausage and canned meat are from previous years. This years meat is vacuum packed and frozen. miles

Dave,

I think it began as a traditional Mennonite sausage, but now it can even be found in the meat section of most grocery stores up here. It’s a mild, cold smoked sausage.

Have you guys found a good casing for stuffed smoked sausage that's not too tough?

Hog casing is a good balance between tough enough for stuffing, but not too tough for eating after being hot smoked.

We make brats, ring bolgna, german sausage, various breakfast sausages, jerky, chorizo, grind or whatever recipe strikes my fancy.

Lately have been saving the choice cuts and everything else goes into grind. I like to mix both beef and pork burger then into the freezer. The nice thing Is I can pull the pork/venison burger out and make up whatever fresh breakfast sausage I am in the mood for. I can pull out some beef/venison grind and make whatever we are in the mood for. Bacon burger, tater tot casserole, whatever flavor of jerky, etc. Gives one lots of flexibility as to what to do with the meat.

The only time I do big batches is when stuffing cases, but have gotten away from that with the exception of bratwurst and ring bologna.

Messed around with sliced jerky, snack sticks, and come to find ground jerky the best. Easy to do different flavors, consistent cooking time, and actually prefer the texture.

This past fall, 18 deer/antelope were processed through the "garage" meat locker between family and friends. Good times!

This weekend is supposed to be cold, with highs about 15 degrees, should be a great weekend to work on some different recipes.

Eileen's sausage and jerky books have given me lots of ideas and recipes to try.

New around here, where would I find Eileen’s sausage and jerky books?

https://www.riflesandrecipes.com/

Eileen is wife of writer John Barsness, our very own MuleDeer.

Thanks!