Camp Cooking and Game Processing Trade recipes and other tricks of the trade for cooking wild game.

Venison sausage help dry

Old 01-06-2012, 02:33 PM
  #1  
Spike
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Default Venison sausage help dry

Hi Everyone, I'm new to this forum and was hoping I could get some help. I got my first buck this year and been trying to make sausage. I a found a recipe online:
• 3 pounds ground venison
• 3 pounds pork butt
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tablespoons Morton Tender Quick
• 2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons mustard seed
• 2 teaspoons coarse ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoons garlic powder

I grind-ed it all and cooked a small sample patty, it tasted good and moist, so I stuffed into hog casings and vacuumed packed the links and froze them raw. I've defrosted 2 batches, first batch I simmered in beer for 3 minutes then broiled them to get the casing crisp, came out very dry. today I simmered them in beer for 2 minutes then wrapped them in bacon and grilled to 160 degrees. once again very very dry. any advise will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to reply to this post. Happy hunting.

Gabe
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Old 01-06-2012, 02:52 PM
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JW
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One thing to try - I had venison Italian sausage made. I would grill which would make them hard but then I wols simmer for 3 hrs in a tomatoe paste in a slow cooker or Nescoe.

That made them plumb back up nicely......

I had wieners made and brats made but the Italians was far better than any of them.

JW
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Old 01-06-2012, 02:58 PM
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Spike
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Thanks for the help, I agree, the links I have now i will use in chili's and substitutes for ground meats. But I have tasted grilled sausage the a friend of mine got from the deer processor and it was good and moist. Just looking for that hidden secret to do that
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Old 01-09-2012, 05:50 AM
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Gabe, you are making a fresh sausage since you are feezing it and not cooking it right away.I might be wrong but it looks like you added Morton Tender Quick to the meat.This is actually a curing salt
used in making a lot of the cooked sausages {ones thar are cooked before they freeze them}.It enables you to cook meets safely in low temp settings such as smokers. Its also used in dry cure situations to pull the moisture out of the meat , Im actually brining some dried deer in the it as we speak and its pulled most of the juices out of the meat over the last 5 days.

Used in the recipe you just gave I dont really know why it is there and if you read the back of the package it states to use one tablespoon per pound of meat, you used half that amount.So basically the recipe doesnt actually use enough to safely cure the meat, but it does call for enough to dry the sausage out as it sits and absorbs into the meat.Fresh frozen sausage doesnt usually require cure to be added.

When adding cure to sausages theres guidelines based on what your using and how much meat your curing, follow them, to little and you run the risk of making people sick, to much and its poisonous.
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Old 01-09-2012, 06:22 AM
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I agree with petasux, no need to add curing salt to fresh sausage. Also, venison is extremely dry, even if you mixed pork with the venison & added some water, if the pork was on the leaner side, the end product may still be on the dry side. I usually add a couple pounds of fatback along with the pork.
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Old 01-09-2012, 06:40 AM
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Pork butt is only about 25% fat, venison much less. So at 3lb pork and 3lb venison your fat content in your sausage is about 12%.

Good sausage runs 25-30% fat content.

HA
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Old 01-09-2012, 07:22 AM
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For a lot of my stuff I just buy the 5lb boxes of bacon end pices and gring into the venison, usually Ill add 5 lbs bacon ends to about 8 or 9 lbs venison, i like the light smoked flavor the bacon gives it.
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Old 01-09-2012, 09:11 AM
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You should cook them one way or the other,by simmering your rendering out the fat, then drying it by broiling. As others have said add more fat, I'd increase the water some also.
When I make breakfast sausage I do 50/50 pork butt and venison and add 1 cup ICE water.
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Old 01-09-2012, 04:04 PM
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ok you can cook these sausages with the cure, but you need to cook slowly. In your oven you can set lowest oven setting 175 degrees. Simply set sausage out to come to room temp then put in pre-heated oven with the door open for 40 minutes then close the door and cook until the internal temp of the sausage is 152 degrees. Remove from oven and cool with cold water. let sausages sit on a rack at room temp on the counter for 2 hours then refrigerate overnight. Slice thin on crackers mmmmmmmm (Dont cook past 152)One question for you on what you have cooked so far... Is the meat red or a grey color after you cook it?
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Old 01-11-2012, 05:43 AM
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Frisco, he only added half the amount of cure that the manaufacturer calls for.You sure its a good idea to only cook this to 152 degrees inside a casing without having the proper amount of cure in the meat?Because everything Ive ever read or done tells me this may not be a good idea.Also he froze the meat before the cure had a chance to even absorb into the meat, almost every recipe Ive ever seen calls for at least 12 hours and usually longer for the meat to sit before you stuff it with it being mixed in between times.

Being that it was only a 6 lb batch Im not to sure I wouldnt chalk it up to experience and throw it before I would take the chance of food poisioning from it.Or at least cut it outta the casings and fry it up in patties, making sure its thoroughly cooked if he doesnt wanna waste it.Just curious why you think this would be safe to eat the way you described cooking it?
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