Hello, I'm in need of some advice. My processor told me this is the last year he's processing deer. I want to start making my own sausage next season, and need help in regards to equipment. I've been to the sausage maker website, and found everything I could possibly imagine. I'm only doing breakfast sausage and smoked sausage. I know I'll need a smoker, and probably will get one that can do about 20 lbs at a time What goes into the process of doing it though? After grinding the meat down, do I need a meat mixer for putting in the sausage spices? What about curing? Is that necessary? Do you add pork sausage or pork fat to give it extra moistness? Need a lot of help here.
First you need a good grinder, I would suggest to start get a Stainless steel hand grinder either size 22 or the bigger 32. Later you can convert them to electric power by putting a pulley where the hand crank goes and using an electric motor. I would stay away from the small electric grinders, they are too slow and don't stand up in the long run. Meat grinds better in a semi frozen state. When I process a deer I remove all fat,membrane and sinew then I take the best cuts and wrap and freeze. The rest gets cut into chunks and frozen for processing into sausage later. I weigh each package so I know how much fat to add. I semi thaw then grind.
Next you can get by with stuffing tubes that fit on the end of the grinder, buta stuffing machine gives you more control and can do smaller size casings. The stuffing tubes on the end of a grinder can be maddening to try and stuff smaller casings such as snack sticks. If you buy a stuffer get one of at least 10# capacity and stay away from plastic gears. That will cost a little extra but pay off in the long run.
Smoker if you want to smoke sausage you need a large smoker as you want to hang the sausage rather than put it on racks. You should have at least 24" of hanging room . Depending on how your weather is you should go to a propane powerd style, the electric one just don't have the snot to work in cold weather, on the other hand if you are in the south its hard to cold smoke (temp less than 100F) during the summer.
sausages it depends on what type of sausage you are trying to make, Most fresh sausage should have 25%-35% fat, Yes fatnot just added pork. A pork shoulder is around 25% fat so if you mix it 50/50 with say venison your resultant sausage is only 12.5% fat it eill be too dry.
dried or semi dried sausage can be a little leaner 15-20 %
Most store bought sausage are in the 40-60% fat range
mixing you need to mix sausage almost the same as making bread, you need to kneed the meat /spice/water into a sticky blend, and this must be done at very low temps to get the sausage to bind. Hand mixing is very tough on the hands, mix semi frozen meat for 10 minutes is painfull. I have a 20# size of mixer.
if a recipe calls for cure use it, it is used for control of botulism and gives the meat a nice color when cooked /smoked or dried.
depending on the type of sausage made you will change the cure, #1 is for cooked sausages,#2 is for dried( raw meat dried)and semi dried sausages ( raw meat smoked at low temp then dried).
I would recommend that you try fresh sausage and master stuffing, and mixing before you go on to smoked sausages.
As said you don't need a smoker to start. But when you do consider getting the best you can if you can afford it. I have the 20lb elec. from the sausagemaker. I have it set up in my shed vented through the roof. I've had it for over 7 years and still going strong, but if I had to do it over I would have bought the stainless steel one. You can get some directions off of you tube also.
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THE FOUR SEASONS- ALMOST SUMMER, SUMMER, STILL SUMMER & DEER SEASON
Those that make their own sausage
