Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Any experts or experienced sausage makers?

All jokes aside, I’m looking for some folks who have experience making wild game sausage. Looking for recipes, tips and techniques for making sausage. What casings make the best sausage, best ratio of fat to add, best cut of meat to add for fat, etc.

No expert, but I made some pretty good Kielbasa last year using 60% pork shoulder and 40% venison. Used the standard Kielbasa recipe off of the internet, and added some diced Jalapeno peppers out of a jar. I found it that fresh garlic instead of minced, jared was a whole lot better. I tried a couple of different sizes and styles of casings with much difference in the product. I did find that a size smaller than the standard summer sausage casing made getting the up to the final temp much easier than the larger size. Still experimenting. I was trying to match what the person that taught me to butcher made. He used pork shoulder and trimmings from beef heads.
miles

Pork butt or shoulder is good for fat. If you are trimming a beef brisket, that could be a good source.
Always add water to make stuffing easier.
Stuff after adding salt, because it will make the meat stiff.
Let the sausages sit a day or 2 to let the spices/salt diffuse.
Milk powder or soy is expensive, but it holds moisture.
Dont use iodine salt or table salt. Use canning salt.
Spices only last a year or so, dont use old stuff.
Dunk sausages in cold water after cooking, to keep in moisture.
Make sure sausages are dry when you smoke.
Flush inside of natural casings, makes them much easier to stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Sausage-Recipes-Meat-Curing/dp/0025668609

Mother of glob....dont trim any fat off a shoulder.


Todays shoulders are so lean....I dont think they add enough fat to the venison mix.


Best to keep some pork bellies around.

Thanks fellas. I have been using what is called a Boston shoulder butt. Seems good so far. I think I just need to add more. I’m trying to get by with an 80/20 mixture but it’s a wee bit dry. I’m going to try some natural casings this season vs colligan. Still figuring out how much water to add exactly so stuffing is easy. Last time I added a little too much. It worked but it was a little messy.

Are you speaking of uncured bacon basically.

Yes.

I find shoulders too lean.....bellies are fattier.


I like at least 50 percent venison in my sausages though. 60 percent is good too.

Have gone to 75 percent...because I like venison.

AC Legg make some pretty great spice mixes. I have used their country pork, spicy and mild Italian, and premium bratwurst with great success with a 50/50 pork butt/shoulder to venison. If it looks a little lean I will add in some more pork or beef fat.

I use the LEM trail bologna spice mix for summer sausage chubs and they turn out fantastic. This is more of a beefy sausage so for a 25# batch I use 16.5# venison, 3.5# beef fat and 5# pork shoulder.

If you like boudin, AC Legg make a great mix for this too.

Butts (shoulders) are roughly 70/30. Perfect for us when we make sausage just from a butt. A butt isn’t a good source of fat. One pound contains about 11 ounces of lean and 5 ounces of fat. Our local supermarket will give us all the pork or beef fat we want for free. We just give them a call and pick it up in a day or two

Go to Rifles and Recipes and get Eileen's book on the subject.

I see once in awhile some beef suet or pork suet in the cooler at the local Meijer. It looks like a chunk of fat and would probably work well enough. I’ve read that most big chains don’t like selling fat for whatever reason. I imagine they lack a real butcher that would know their ass from a hole in the ground for starters. What ratio would you recommend using pure fat/suet ?

The “Slice of the Wild” book. I have it bookmarked and in the cart.

I think the amount of fat to add depends on where you were raised. Just like sweat tea. We add a lot of pork fat to our deer for breakfast sausage. We us the Legg’s seasoning too and really like it.

Ugh.

There are some sausage recipes in Slice, but she published SAUSAGE SEASON in 2013, which is entirely about wild game sausage. (www.riflesand recipes.com)

Give us a little taste, John.


Thats how drug dealers and pharmaceutical companies get people to buy their products.

Local processor told me he throws all his lamb and pig fat into offal pile. I asked him to set some aside for me. Got 40# in freezer waiting for sausage this fall. Hope it doesn't go bad.

Be careful with fat from a butcher.
Especially around hunting season.
They may stockpile it, and it will get rancid.
Will ruin everything it's in.

Ruined 2 deer worth of burger once.

I have been gathering kidney fat from our fat beeves to render into tallow.

Oh momma.

I've seen some interesting videos on the use of tallow to wet down briskets as they're wrapped to finish smoking. Have you done something like that?

Following

I have never made a decent brisket....let alone a tallow infused brisket!

When you get serious, this is the book you want:


Rytek Kutas
Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing

We make 150-200lbs of different types of venison sausage a year. Been lots of trial and error over the past 5 years, but we have finally got it dialed in

Natural casings. I personally think collagen are disgusting taste and texture wise

Fat percentage is very subjective. We use 25-30% pork fat to venison for most of our sausages. You will need to try it out and find what you like best. I have used up to 45% fat. Was just too greasy for my family

We get our pork fat trimmings from a local butcher. We don’t buy butts or shoulder unless we cannot get the trimmings for free.

If using butts or shoulders your fat percentage will be much harder to accurately gauge vs fat trimmings.

AC legg makes some very good mixes, we have also enjoyed some of the LEM flavors as well.

Btw. Get a sausage stuffer vs using a grinder to stuff

Even the cheap stuffers work better than the grinder does at stuffing casings.

This is the meat "bible"

Thanks for the redirect

Thanks for that. On the list.

The misses bought me a Haaka manual stuffer for Christmas. It works rather nicely. I need to clamp it down on the counter top but it works nice

If you get this, be aware s one editions have the amounts of spices screwed up. Mine is one. Everything requires substantially more than the recipes.

I think it was Terryk who said it went wonky when they reduced the batch sizes. The spice one to another seems good. Just not enough.

I am no expert by any stretch but when I have made breakfast sausage, we always double ground it, and seasoned it. We would then stop and fry up a couple of patties to try. We would then add more sage or pepper or whatever to it, mix it again and repeat until we got it tasting the way we wanted it.
Some like it hotter, some more sage, some less of this or more of that. It is very much a season to taste effort.

Here is my recipe.This is for 25lbs of meat. 4oz sea salt,2oz fresh ground black pepper,Heaping tablespoon on the following,3 tablespoons of garlic powder,3 tablespoons of ground mustard,3 tablespoons of whole mustard seed,3 tablespoons of marjoram leaves,1 oz of cure.Next peel one head of garlic and simmer in a cup or so of water until the garlic is soft enough to mash with a fork(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,usually around three cups total.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 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.

Summer sausage


20 lbs elk/venison
5lbs pork fat
8 oz salt
2 oz powdered dextrose
1 oz insta-cure
1/4 oz ground coriander
1/4 oz ground ginger
1/4 oz ground mustard
3 tsp granulated garlic
3 oz corn syrup solids
9 oz fermento

mixed/double grind, stuff one evening. Then into the cooler until the next evening. Hang at room temp overnight, next morning to 160 degree smoker about 6hrs, them "steamed" at 165 until internal temp of 145, out and cold showered until internal at 120 hang at room temp 1 1/2 hrs to "bloom" then off to the cooler

Breakfast sausage

10 lbs. pork
3tbsp salt
1 tbsp. white pepper
2 tbsp. rubbed sage
1 tsp. ginger
1 tbsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. thyme
3/4 tbsp. ground hot red pepper
1 pint ice water

keep it very cold for grinding and for stuffing. I cut into chunks mix in seasonings, grind mix some grind again

And when I really want to impress I substitute 2 lbs. of bacon for 2 lbs. of the pork

tag

That looks about as good as it gets !

Polish sausage

8 lbs elk
2 lbs pork fat
5 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cure (pink salt)
1 tbsp black pepper
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp marjoram
1 cup ice water
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup powdered milk

hang room temp couple hours
130 smoker 1 hour
increase to 160 - 165 heavy smoke about three hours
apply steam at 165 intil internal temp of 152
cold shower until 110
room temp for an hour
then into the fridge

i've made a lot of various sausages. i used to try recipes that i had mixed results with. the past 10 or more years i have used Con Yeager mixes with consistent excellent results. as for ratio, i aim for around 60/40 ven/pork. i buy the cheapest pork shoulders i can find on sale and freeze them and when i'm ready, i debone and grind. i also save all pork scraps from tenderloins, etc for sausage. Con Yeager also makes excellent jerky mixes. i have never found any of their mixes to be less than excellent.

as for casings, some con yeager kits come with the celluose ones and any that don't i use natural salt packed casings. i have a pretty crappy grinder and stuffer though and need to upgrade those one of these days.

Doing some goose/duck sausags this afternoon. Need to crack open a few beers and get the prep started.

No schit....you would have to be drunk to eat that crap.

Wrong. We ate two pounds. Froze another 3 lbs.

Have done a bunch of goose jerky, everybody likes it

Hahahaha!

Thats unhealthy.

Every thing we do is unhealthy

Says who?

I prefer natural casings that are packed in liquid. Those packed in salt are a pain in the but to work with, but those packed in liquid are much more pliable and easy to get on the stuffing tube.

Thank you all for the input. Please continue to add as this is one that I’ll continue to watch. And Timberrunner if you don’t mind add or PM your duck/goose sausage recipes. I had some a few years back and figure it’s about the best way to prepare them.

Just got done watching an episode of uncharted with Gordon Ramsey. He was in my old stomping grounds, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and visited Cap’n Ron’s in Munising. He made fish sausage out of lake trout. Who’d think fish sausage? I guess it’s really good according to his reviews.

*Casings from Syracuse Casings (I go pig and 35-38mm or 38-42mm)
*Cube the meet and coat with a salt, pepper, garlic mixture (I also add ground, dried red chili I get from NM for a little kick). Coat the meat before grinding and grind twice to mix spices.
*Course grind and then run through the grinder a second time at medium.
*I would go 70/30 pork to deer (I buy pork butts at Costco for pork). Leave the fat cap on the pork butts.

I have an easy to disassemble smoke box I made of plywood that's about 4'x4' to cold smoke. I roll this over a small Weber grill with mesquite logs burning inside and lid closed. I use the vents on the Weber to regulate smoke. I also have vents on the smoke box. The plywood is too short on one side--I use this as a vent in conjunction with a 1x6 that I can move around to adjust flow. I also sit a log on the ground and place the smoke box on the log under the opposite corner of the vent to allow air to flow from the bottom. My grandfather used his well house as a smoke box.

ou could probably use whatever hardwood logs you want within reason. I think my grandfather used whatever limbs he trimmed from random hard wood trees around the farm.

I do not use cure in that it changes the taste so prepare at your own risk in that you can run into a botulism and other problems without cure. To limit this risk, I only smoke on cooler days. Ideally in the 30s or low 40s Fahrenheit or colder. I only cold smoke for three hours or so and watch the temperature in my smoke box trying to keep it cool in there.

This basic method goes back to at least the time of the Civil War in German and German speaking Moravian communities in South Texas and for all I know may have come from Europe before that.

You need Atleast 20% fat in any sausage or bologna. Fat carries the flavor. I have made breakfast sausage for over 20 years. Lots of places sell good mixes. We do deer bologna a few times a year. Brats once in a while. Get a good grinder, keep your meat really cold. Buy atleast a 10 lb stuffer. It’s easy and fun

I buy 50-50 pork trimmings from our local butcher shop and grind it 50-50 with venison. You need to drop back to a 60% venison 40% pork trimmings mix for summer sausage.
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