How to Make Smoked Deer Sausage

Making smoked deer sausage at home takes a little time and effort, but you will have a hearty smoked sausage in four or five days. You will need space for hanging and a smoker or smoke house to smoke the sausages. At the end of your project, your house will smell of old-time meat markets, and you'll have about 10 lbs. of smoked deer sausage.

Things You'll Need

• Lean deer meat
• Fat pork trimmings
• Meat thermometer
• Meat grinder
• 3/16-inch grinder plate
• Plastic tub
• Cracked black pepper
• Table salt
• Granulated sugar
• Saltpeter
• Coriander
• Ground ginger
• Mustard powder
• Garlic powder
• Rose wine
• Sausage horn
• 3- by 28-inch fibrous sausage casings
• Sausage hanger

Instructions

1. Chill 8 lbs. of lean deer meat and 2 lbs. of fat pork trimmings to a temperature of approximately 38 degrees F in a refrigerator or freezer. Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature.

2. Attach a 3/16-inch grinder plate to your meat grinder. Combine the chilled deer meat and pork trimmings, and grind through the plate. Place the ground meat in a large plastic tub.

3. Add 1 tbsp. cracked black pepper, 10 tsp. table salt, 3 tbsp. granulated sugar, ½ tsp. saltpeter, 2 tbsp. coriander, 1 tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. mustard powder, 1 tbsp. garlic powder, and 2 cups of rose wine to the deer meat mixture.

4. Combine thoroughly with your hands, working all the spices and wine into the meat.

5. Chill the seasoned deer meat and pork trimming mixture in the refrigerator for two to three days.

6. Attach a sausage horn to the end of the meat grinder. Put the meat back into the grinder, and place a 3- by 28-inch fibrous sausage casing on the end of the sausage horn.

7. Turn the handle on the grinder, and the deer sausage will be stuffed into the casing. Tie the sausage casing off when each sausage reaches about 1 foot in length.

8. Hang the deer sausages on a sausage hanger or similar apparatus so they are not touching one another, and allow them to dry at room temperature for about five hours.

9. Move the sausages to a smoker, or smoke house, and smoke at 120 degrees F for six to eight hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F. Use the meat thermometer to check the temperature regularly.

10. Remove the deer sausage from the smoker or smoke house, and rinse them in cool tap water until their internal temperature reaches 120 degrees F. Hang them back up on the sausage hanger in an area free of drafts, and at room temperature, for two additional days.

11. Remove sausages from hangers, place in large freezer bags, and freeze until ready to serve. The deer sausage will last up to three months in the freezer.

Tips & Warnings

• A glass or ceramic crock can be substituted for the plastic tub if necessary. Any large container will work.

• Beef middles may be used instead of fibrous sausage casings if necessary or desired.

• If a sausage hanger is not available, any homemade hanger will work as long as the sausages can be hung so they do not touch.

• Fibrous sausage casings, sausage horns and sausage hangers can be purchased at specialty cooking stores or local butcher shops.

Resources

• Ask the Meat Man: Cooking Venison