Hey Guys, I am looking for a really good smoked venison summer sausage recipe ! I like making my own< So am not looking for a preblended seasoning mix, oh almost forgot, garlic is mandatory, Thanks in advance

I know you said you weren't looking for a prepackaged mix. We go to the local meat market and buy there summer sausage mix and add the extra garlic and other flavors that we like. They have it mixed for 25 pound batches that is a nice size for us to use. Unless you are making a lot it is cost efficient because you don't need to buy a of bunch different spices that you may only use for summer sausage.

I have an AWESOME summer sausage recipe. In fact, I have a YouTube Channel with how to do a lot of different sausages. I would post the link, but apparently I don't have enough posts on this forum to share links....yet. I'm fairly new here.
I'm going to love this forum for many reasons.... especially the game processing part.
I will suggest finding a "sausage festival" to go visit. i went to one a few years ago and got a ton of great info, tips, and recipes from the pros.

Let's see if this works now
My FAVORITE summer sausage - How to / DIY

Thanks Captain

Great vid. Thx for sharing. So almost 50/50 on the Pork/venison mixture. What's the least you could go on the pork side of the mixture and still have it not crumble?

Crumbling occurs when the fat reaches 165 and turns to grease, you can smoke at 165 but pull when the meat reaches 145.

Are you cooking or smoking? Play with your smoker or cooker and use temperature probes and see if you have any heat zones. Some places could be hotter than others.

I like to heat to 145 also and don't like cooking to 155 or 160 as many recommend BUT when cooking to 145 you have to make sure all get there and hold it for 3 minutes but I aim for 10 at least. Longer even is better as long as staying under 150 and you should stay very moist.

I don't use pork but use ground beef and you can use what you prefer. I use the 73% which is 27% fat. once mixed 50/50 with deer you drop to 13.5% fat and that is good. you can go higher, but I did 80% which leaves a 10% fat mixture and that is too dry.

Recipe is for 10 pounds of summer sausage.

8lbs venison
2lbs pork trim
6 Tbsp kosher salt
2.5 tsp curing salt (aka pink salt)
3.25 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp mustard seed
1 Tbsp dry mustard
4 tsp garlic powder (add more for really garlicky)
2 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 c powdered buttermilk - divided
1 c water - divided
8 - 2.5-3lb casings soaked in water

With the venison and pork slightly frozen, grind.
Combine 1/2 water and 1/2 powdered buttermilk.
Mix in seasoning and buttermilk mixture into ground meat.
Put meat in freezer for a bit if it's thawed too much.
Run meat mixture through grinder again.
Mix meat so seasoning is thoroughly distributed.
Remove casings from water and shake off excess water.
Stuff casings either by hand or (preferrably) with a stuffer.

Allow sausages to cure in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Smoke at 150 degrees for 1 hour
Increase to 180 degrees and smoke until internal temp reaches 155.
Put sausages in an ice bath until completely cooled

This is a very mild one I got a while back off smoking meat.com and is a good base line for expanding from. Using pink salt and salt rather than 1 Tbsp per pound makes it less saltly