How to Process Deer Sausage

Smoking your own sausage can be a fun and delicious project.

Making deer sausage is a lot like making bread or wine -- there are many recipes and flavors. But the basic practice can be broken down into four parts -- grinding, mixing, stuffing and curing or smoking. Smoking can finished in a few hours on your backyard grill, smoker or in the kitchen oven. Curing takes a cool environment for a long time and is not recommended for the home sausage-maker. The important thing to remember when making deer sausage is that venison is much leaner than store-bought meat. You will need to add pork for fat and flavor.

Things You'll Need

• Deer meat
• Pork meat (Boston butt or pork shoulder)
• Spice mix (salami style)
• Meat grinder
• Meat mixer
• Sausage casings -- 3-inch diameter
• Sausage stuffer
• Meat smoker, oven or outdoor grill
• Twine

Instructions

1. Chill the meat prior to grinding. Keep chilled throughout the process by working in small batches, always returning the ground mixture to the refrigerator.

2. Grind a mixture of 60 percent deer meat and 40 percent pork. Keep whatever fat is on your deer and pork. Fat is necessary to bind the sausage together and add flavor. Use the meat grinding accessory for your home mixer or a hand-cranked model that can be found in any kitchen accessory store.

3. Combine the ground deer, pork and spices in the meat mixer and blend.

4. Rinse sausage casings and place in a bowl of water near the stuffer's horn (the opening from which the ground meat is extruded).

5. Slip an entire length of casing unto the horn and tie off the end.

6. Fill the casing with the meat mixture to about a foot in length. Twist or tie the links off. This will make an excellent sandwich-style sausage. Do not overstuff as this may cause the casing to burst. Keep the casing damp during the filling. This is where the bowl of water comes into play.

7. Smoke the sausage in the smoker or oven until its internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep the smoker at about 200 -- 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Higher temperatures will cook the sausage rather than cure it.

References

• Basic Sausage Making Process
• "The Encyclopedia of Country Living"; Carla Emery; 2003; Sasquatch Books

Resources

• "The Art and Practice of Sausage Making"; Martin Marchello et al; North Dakota State University