Best Venison Sausage Process/Recipe?

[MD Piney]

Last year was my first attempt at butchering a deer on my own. Enjoyed the process so much I would like to go one step further this year by trying to make venison sausage. Any recommendations regarding a decent "how to" book? Care to share some lessons learned? How about some good recipes that are hard to mess up?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

MD Piney

[jerseyhunter]

Here's a good place to start. http://www.sausagemaker.com/ Get the catalog and let your purse strings be the guide. The book " Great Sausage Recipes" is a must have. It contains all the ingrediants for various reciepes or you can buy most premixed. Though more expensive that way, it gives you an easy start. Thats what I did. A hint toward any sausge making ,weather from farm raised animals or wild, Don't cut back on the fat portion. It will come out dry. Follow the instructions and you should come out pallatabe. When in doubt just throw in a little extra fat or ask for advice here. You don't have to smoke all sausage. And as a start I would recommend starting with Venison Breakfast or Sweet Italian Sausage. No neeed to buy a stuffer and casings ,just roll into a log and cut patties. Good luck , and by the way it is very addicting. I now own their Grinder, Stuffing machine ,Tenderizer, Smoker, a closet full of ingrediants, casings in the fridge, "they stay forever if kept cold and salted" and about 4 more inches on my waist than I started with. Just got finished day before yesterday making a batch of Gyros. and the week before 10 lbs of Bratwurst. "Meat", It's whats for dinner

[skeeter 7MM]

MD if you have access to a smoker then making sausage is very easy and best is to fry little patties with small test amounts and decide for yourself. My absolute favorite is 20/80(pork/venison) with just salt, pepper, dash of cayenne and loads of garlic. If your not into hot spice then drop the Cayenne, I know sounds plain but the smoke is what gives it the flavour (I prefer hickory wood chips).

If no smoker than you'll be relegated to farmer uncooked style, which is easy but the flavoring and receipe is a little more difficult to nail down. Again make small test patties to try your receipe. I have never used a written receipe as my final but it does give you starting or veering points dependant on your own tastebuds!! I don't own sausage specific books so can't reccomend a book persay but many sausage receipes can be found in wild game cook books or you might try the net!

If you are the type who will want to make a big batch or all your sausage at once, then please learn from my past experiences.
A) Garlic (a must and staple in sausage making) should be cut back on the sausage you plan to keep for extended periods(it will only heighten as it sits) In this case I use to make 2 batches - the now batch(with my desired garlic flavor) and the later batch (garlic cut back).
B) if your not going to eat it within 6months use beef trim instead of pork
C) make a few styles or flavour(to rid the sick of it feeling)
D) Package in eating portions and make sure it is air tight

I now personally make small batches and usually make either farmer/pioneer style and summer sausage rolls. I have made different types but found these ones are the favorite amongest my crew and offer a bit of change. I will always make 2 types of farmer/pioneer style(Plain and hot) each batch and find 20-30% pork trim is the best complement to venison. Beef trim can be sub upto 30% but I prefer 20-25% as well.

Good luck and enjoy...best thing about making your own sausage is finding taste testers is very easily done (plus they'll bring the refreshments)!

[MD Piney]

Jerseyhunter/Skeeter 7mm,

Thanks for the feedback on sausage. Received my Sausagemaker catalog in the mail today. Actually quite surprised how quickly it made it to the house. Appears there is alot more options to the process then I thought. Plan on conducting some more research/prep prior to this fall and then give it a shot. I'll keep you posted on the results of my first attempt.

Thanks again for your posts.

MD Piney

[Carpicon]

I've been making sausage for years, I usually make around 100 lbs of traditional pork italian sausage every year, I've tried a number of different venison recipies over the last few years.

I always use the coarse disk when grinding venison, otherwise if you grind it too fine, it can come out a little mushy. The trick that I've found is to use spices that complement venison, not overpower it. It can be a bit tricky, but well worth it when you find the right recipe. Here's two of my favorites...scale as you see fit.

Country Sausage - This can either be stuffed into casings or made into patties or even meatballs.
5 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons kosher or coarse salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper (medium grind)
2 teaspoons dried sage
2 teaspoons dried thyme
4 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup dry white wine

Herb Sausage - This is one of my favorites, and you must use fresh herbs, otherwise the measurements are all off. That and it's not as good.

1.5 lbs venison
1 lb pork shoulder
1/2 lb pork fat
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (I use basil, chives, marjoram, sage, savory and thyme; but you can also use cilantro, tarragon, oregano, just about anything) in any combination you want.
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry red wine

Enjoy!

[Carpicon]

Here's some pictures I have of last years sausage. I used a recipe that turned out pretty bad. Who knew that I hated juniper berries?

[Carpicon]

One more

[polack]

I've been making different types of sausage for the last 15 yrs or so. First of all you can learn quite a bit from old Rytek Kutec's sausage making book, but for the best way is to try to find someone that's been doing it for awhile and not only get some pointers off them but maybe a recipe. Living in an area where Kielbasi and Italion sausage rules the sausage type of recipes it was quite easy for me to get some good recipes and pointers. I do know when I make venison kiebasi I keep it about 60% pork and 40% venison, I might even go higher if the pork is real lean. Not putting enough pork in the recipe has a tendacy to make it too dry.
Polack

[jerseyhunter]

Not putting enough pork in the recipe has a tendacy to make it too dry.

I learned that the hard way, I used Pork loin and it was naturaly very lean. Never made that mistake again. I would rather have to much fat than not enough.

[polack]

Pork butt makes the best sausage, not only does it have the flavor but it has the fat content.
polack