Homemade venison summer sausage

[svalli]

We have not used all moose roasts from the freezer and hunting season started, so I have to make room for fresh meat, while DH went hunting. I have made summer sausage from venison before, but not enough often that I would get consistent results. We do not have a smoker, so I am cold smoking the sausages and then cooking them with the sous vide circulator after cooking.

On Saturday morning I ground about 2.5 kg of moose roasts and 700g or pork loin. Since the pork was low fat I added 300g of bacon. I had ordered salt which has 0.6% nitrite and using it was in my opinion easier that the pink cure, because I could measure it with my digital scale to get correct amount. Naturally I had to take into account that the bacon already had salt in it. As spices I used a lot of black pepper, hot Hungarian paprika, a bit dried garlic, mustard seeds, a bit ground allspice and Provence herb mixture. I also added a bit self made apple syrup, which I have made by evaporating homemade apple cider.

I used an old pastry decorator to stuff the casings. The fibrous casings fit snuggly on that tube and I stuffed it with about 250g of the meat mixture.

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For smoking I had to improvise a bit by removing grates from our old gas grill and using bricks to be able to hang the sausages on skewers. I smoked them 6 hours with the outdoor temperature hovering around 5°C, so this was real cold smoking.

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I vacuum packed the sausages and had them about 3 hours in the sous vide at 66°C. Just before bedtime I poked a thermometer into one of the sausages and it was at the same temperature as the water. I put them to cold water to cool and then out to the balcony overnight for more cooling. So far we have tasted only the one, which I pierced with the temperature probe and taste is good, but I may have overcooked them, because texture is a bit crumbly. I hope the ones intact will hold better when slicing. Real sausage enthusiasts and makers would not approve end result like this, but for us it is OK and will (or have to) get eaten after all that work.

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[worth1]

It looks good.
But coming from someone with many failed sausage attempts the amount of fat isn't enough and depending on what you're making it needs to be mixed a lot.

I've actually seen some pretty bad summer sausage coming from reputable retail sausage makers where they messed up and over cooked it.

This was an ongoing battle with my wife about making sausage.
She wanted extra lean sausage and it just really isn't possible and get the results you want.

One option is mix up fat and the meat really well then add chunks of fat mix it in but not let it warm up then stuff.
The meat needs to be sticky and tacky if it's mixed enough.
It's really hard to explain.

[svalli]

Thanks Worth

I have same issue as your wife had about wanting lean and low fat and should believe that without any additional fillers, which I do not want either, I need to add more fat.

I should have also mixed the stuff better. For some strange reason I thought that I should avoid mixing too much. I should do this more often and smaller batches to learn how to get good results.

I cut an other one and it is not as crumbly as the first one, but still the consistency is more like with the canned moose, which we had made than a summer sausage.

[worth1]

I had oat grouts at one time but never used them.
They were for a fat replacement.
My first sausage was a bratwurst when I was in my 20s.
My wife made me cut out all the fat from the butt roast and it was a big mistake.
I've made so many mistakes and will make more mistakes I'm sure.
Sometimes I get it right.

[worth1]

From memory I figured 30% fat to 70% venison.
But I looked up on line and saw everything from 20% fat to 40% fat.
Others say pork is best others say beef .
I would actually like to use beef fat if the right part of the beef for venison.


Since the weather is permitting now I'm going to get back into meat phase again.

The raw cured dried stuff is what I like most, like Soppressata with big crunchy fat cubes in it.

I am also going to dry some cheese out to make high temperature cheese for sausage.
I already have the cheese to do it with and everything else.

[worth1]

The weather is going to be just about right for some dry salami this weekend and longer.
Can't make my mind up what I want to do.
Possibly pepperoni and or soppressata.
This is hung up to dry and not cooked.

[AKgardener]

@svalli Its nice to see others eat moose and deer. And hunt for there food as well we go every year for moose or carabou. And if we’re lucky we get to take a trip to get deer when all else fails we go to our local shop and buy buffalo.. I’ve always wanted to make sausage but we make a ton of Moosejerky it’s the best.got 1 moose steak left

[karstopography]

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We have got some venison stashed away in the freezer. Waiting on acquiring the pork or beef fat and possibly more venison (season continues for another few weeks, at least for bucks) before making any sausage.

Daughter is making jerky with some of her deer. Her doe was shot about 1/2 mile as the crow flies from our house. Son took his six point out in Kimble County.

I’ve got some tenderloins in my freezer, but those won’t be made into sausage.

[worth1]

@karstopography
I remember the time I had a guy close his eyes and eat some really rare venison tenderloin and back strap hot out of a wood fire.
Salt and black pepper was all I put on it.
He thought it was amazing.

Not summer sausage but I have 7 pounds of hand cut pork butt I'm turning into sopressata.
Not ran through a grinder.
Right now it's resting in the garage and will get a final mix before hand stuffing.
Ingredients are.
7 teaspoons canning Salt.
5 tablespoons coarse black pepper.
4 teaspoons of that crazy hot Indian hot pepper.
Burgundy wine.
5 teaspoon Paprika.
2 teaspoons of insta cure #2.
1 teaspoon of citric acid.
4 teaspoons white sugar.

Ended up with a 5.5 pound medium diameter and a 1.6 pound small diameter salami.
They will hang until they've lost about 30% of their weight.

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[worth1]

Here they are in the garage.
I need to tag the weight goal so I won't forget it.
Temperature is at around 55F and the humidity is really low.
But temperature and humidity will be great for this for the next 10 days.
Humidity can't be too low or it will case harden meaning the outside will get hard and the inside won't dry out.
I don't have one of those fancy chambers so I've got to do it old school.
You can do this with venison along with your favorite fat as well.
The crunchy nutty flavor of the fat is to die for.

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[svalli]

@svalli Its nice to see others eat moose and deer. And hunt for there food as well we go every year for moose or carabou. And if we’re lucky we get to take a trip to get deer when all else fails we go to our local shop and buy buffalo.. I’ve always wanted to make sausage but we make a ton of Moosejerky it’s the best.got 1 moose steak left

Moose here are hunted as groups and usually you need to belong to a hunting club who has "rented" the area from local landowners to be able to join the group. We belong to hunting club which has the hunting rights in the area where we own some land, but it is quite far away, so participating in the moose hunt there would require too long drives early in the morning, so few years ago my husband joined an other club which is closer to home and he knows some guys who hunt there. I do also have hunting license, but I hunt just small game like hares. I have shot a deer in Wisconsin in my last hunt there before our son was born. My part of the moose hunting is just preparing the meat for freezing and later cooking it. Luckily this group has most of the time the cutting done by a guy who works at the local meat processing plant, so the pieces we get are easy to process further. They divide the meat evenly with the guys who participated in the hunt.
I grind most of the meat and vacuum pack to 300g portions. I noticed that when frying, the meat does not shrink like ground meat from grocery store, so I can make the packages smaller than the standard 400g and the use moose in the recipes for beef. Since DH started again to hunt moose, the only ground meat I have purchased has been some organic beef for burgers. I feed our two cats raw meat daily and they get quite good share of the moose. They get all parts trimmed from roasts and all parts with tendons which I grind with the coarse setting. Cats love the moose hearts and this year we got quite many of them, because it belongs to the shooter, but many do not use those. I have heard that the heart is excellent as smoked and used as sandwich meat, but I have never tried that. We have gotten some of the roasts smoked by a local smoke house and we also got some of the meat canned by them. When our son visits us, we always dig a good roast piece from the freezer and make jerky for him. For Christmas I'll make moose sirloin for our son and my mom, because they do not eat ham.

This year my husband shot an eleven point buck, which had almost ran over him and he had to shoot with the scope caps still on from few yards away. We got the rack mounted and now it is on the wall at our stairwell. Moose here do not usually grow as large racks as in North America and are now found to be separate species.

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[worth1]

Believe it or not folks Sako of Finland makes some of the best bolt action hunting rifles in the world.
It's pronounced socko not seiko like the Japanese watch.
3 locking lugs for a 60° bolt turn as smooth as can be.
Unlike other brands with a 90° bolt turn.
The closest I have to one is a Browning A bolt ll 30-06 of which they don't make anymore.
It's made in Japan and is smooth as glass and shoots 3/8ths groups at 100 yards.

I almost shot a doe with it but her late baby stepped out of the woods.

[karstopography]

My dad has had a Finnish made Sako .308 for decades, at least since the 1960s. One of my first memories was of him shooting that rifle at Greenwood Gun Club. I was real young and got so excited that I started to run out onto the range to look at the target where live firing was going on and got yelled at to “stop” . Good thing I listened or I might not be here. There were a lot of people shooting that day, must have been just prior to deer season.

I pulled the 600 yard targets there at Greenwood GC as a teenager. We were in the pit and ran the targets up and down to mark them for the shooters. The bullets were passing directly overhead just a few feet away, but we were perfectly safe because these were marksmen and because the earth in between stops the bullets.

My dad decades ago shot a young bull moose in the Canadian Shield area of Ontario, probably with that Sako .308 even though that’s kind of light for a Moose. He shot the moose right at the water’s edge and it dropped there which made it convenient to process and haul away since they had power boats to get around.

I should try to make my own venison summer sausage. I have a meat grinder from my grandmother’s restaurant. That grinder might be older than me. My Dad has a tall pyramidal shaped smoker to hang the sausage in.

[AKgardener]

I have a hunting fishing license up this way Moose season is in September same a boo as I call it. Where I live if a moose walks in my yard I can take it as long as it’s has a least 3 tines or spike or fork .but there are house to close to be careless. My husband use to be able hunt muskox where he was last stationed at site ans we would switch it up now that they don’t allow it we go for moose as long as weather is good . Haven’t hunted in 2 years so to a lot rain and rut coming to late.

[JRinPA]

I finishing up some tenderloin and eye round right now. Marinated in my pear sauce marinade and broiled, it was a touch long at 20 minutes in the convection oven tonight.

I'd love to try some of that summer sausage, looks good to me. Usually when I make summer sausage I use 10%-20% pork loin. It has a lot of spices.

For ring bologna, which I prefer, I use all deer but add oil for the fat. A lot of fresh garlic. Also I add cubed and frozen cheese right before stuffing and smoking. It always seems to have a good break/snap to it. I usually finish it to 150F in the smoker.

I've been thinking about stuffing some italian sausage soon and am considering adding deer tallow back in for the fat. I jarred a dozen pints last week. I don't need that much to fry steaks with. Since sausage will be heated to cook, it might work as the tallow melts.

I had to load ammo for a widow last week - well, didn't have to, I guess, but I offered to. Her husband died last January and she only had two shots left for her 7mm08 Tikka. T3? She had 16 of the bullets and about the same in empty cases. I got it loaded and zeroed it on 6 shots leaving her 10 for hunting. That was the first Finnish rifle I have shot. It shot pretty good. But the magazine is very short and the bullets needed to be seated pretty deeply. Usually I will load a bolt action out to the lands, but not that one.

We'll probably get back on some deer after Christmas but we had good success this past two weeks. I was more than happy with that guy. I should do the mount this week, but I do dread the process...

success2.jpg

[worth1]

My sopressata has lost weight.
I'm going to the metric system to calculate the weight I need to get to
It seems easier.
So the 1.5 pound salami is now.
680.389 grams−30%=476.2723 grams of what the final weight needs to be I think.
I need to look at the stupid scales again.

[worth1]

Believe it or not this 99% humidity and cooler weather is just what the doctor ordered for the drying of the sopressata.
The humidity will go back down around 20 % or so after the rain comes through.
Basically a dark cave in my garage.

[worth1]

@svalli
I went back and checked your meat to fat ratio and it's way under the amount of fat needed in the summer sausage.
You had a total of 3200 grams of lean meat and only put in 300 grams of bacon which isn't all fat.
You need at least 30% fat which would mean you needed 960 grams of fat.
Basically 1/3 the weight of the lean meat.

Next you can add powdered milk as a binder to help hold the sausage together.
Somewhere around 3.5 to 4 percent of total weight of the meat.
I always add powdered milk to Weisswurst and other sausage.
Plus you're perfectly safe to start the sous vide at a lower temperature and slowly work your way up to the target temperature.
Probably at around 148C since it's cured.
I've experimented with all types of ways to do this.
I've sort of repeated myself but I figured I would bring it up again and used what you made as a reference.

If I didn't know better I would say my small sopressata is developing a white mold on the outside because it's getting a white haze on it.
The small one is drying rapidly as well.

[ddsack]

@worth1 I'm sure you are right about the need for more fat for a perfect summer sausage, fat makes everything taste better and improves the texture. However, if I were to make venison sausage at home, I would cut back on fat as Svalli did. When you can use your own processed game meat, that's a lot of potential pounds of sausage to eat up before the next season if you go through the trouble of making a big enough batch to smoke. Many of us are trying to cut back on calories and fat for health reasons, so adding extra beef or pork fat to lean game sort of defeats the purpose of eating wild game. We eat a lot of ground venison in various forms, and when I have to eat beef burger it tastes too fatty to both me and hubby. If I were to just go and buy a nice sausage at the store, I would not worry about the fat content, and just enjoy it as it should be. But if I were to make my own, then I would reduce the fat knowing I would be eating it more frequently.

[worth1]

Growing up the purpose of eating wild game was to have food to eat.
Health had nothing to do with it nor was it even thought about.


Looking at ingredients for commercial summer sausage I've seen everything from 18% to 45% fat.
20% would be good for a less fat summer sausage and the use of a binder like powdered milk and mixing well helps a lot.
Too much fat and it will bleed out.
45% is way high in fat.
The stuff I make I have no idea what the percentage is but it isn't 45%
I've also seen so called fat free sausage recipes where they use vegetable oil instead.
Oil is fat and most isn't any good.

My wife used to make us eat extra lean ground beef for everything including hamburgers and it sucked.
Also fake fat free cheese.
Fake butter.
All manner of soy products.
Fat free ice cream.
Fake sugar.
Some sort of soy pasta.
And so on.
Now they are finding out all this stuff is bad for you but I knew it all along.
She died from cancer that I think her diet helped bring about.

I'm not here to preach about what food people need to eat just help someone make a good summer sausage with their wild game that has a good mouth feel and won't fall apart.

Trust me I've tossed a lot of failed sausage and stuff.
Sometimes I accidentally get it right.