How to Make Maple Wild Pork Breakfast Sausages

Wait a minute – that’s not venison! That’s right. This is a wild pork recipe, and we are the National Deer Association. Let me explain.

A few years ago, when I was just starting out at the NDA, I began reaching out to a lot of people to ask if they would like to mentor in our Field to Fork program. Since I didn’t grow up in a community of hunters, I was mostly cold-calling total strangers. But when it comes to getting the job done, apparently I have no shame.

One of the people I contacted was Ben Michels. He and I were in the same hunting group on Facebook. While he would normally ignore messages from people he didn’t know, he said he looked at my profile and I “seemed cool.” A few months later, Ben had a spot open up in his annual Oklahoma wild pig hunt. He said he felt like he could spend 18 hours in a car with me without going crazy. Clearly he hadn’t heard me sing yet. I took advantage of that and accepted his invitation. 

Having secured my spot as a pig-hunt regular, I’ve now participated in this hunt two years in a row, along with our friend Betsy. The hunt takes place on about a thousand acres of private land being managed for deer. In fact, one of the first things I saw when I arrived, before being handed a margarita, was an NDA jawbone aging poster hanging in the garage. It was a welcoming sight to see. Between the abundant wildlife, the generosity of the hosts, and the deep sense of relaxation, I fell in love with the place pretty quickly. But there is one major problem in that would-be deer paradise. The place is overrun with invasive wild pigs.  

Wild pigs multiply rapidly, destroying food plots and competing with deer for wild foods. To make this place better for deer, we were going to need to remove as many wild pigs as we could, especially sows. Luckily for us, the byproduct of this task was multiple coolers full of delicious wild pork. And I had the perfect recipe in mind for when we returned to Pennsylvania.

Making Sausage

I am a big fan of maple breakfast sausage. But I wanted to elevate it by using wild organic pork. Ben has a lot of experience in the kitchen, from cooking school to being a home chef and even preparing some fancy dishes at our Field to Fork events. I’m no stranger to the kitchen either, but neither of us had ever attempted to make cased sausages. This was an experiment on multiple levels and, as I would later find out, a full-body workout. 

We made four small test batches, measuring everything, taking notes, and adding only one or two ingredients at a time so that we could taste the difference between batches. What we ended up with was a flavor that was more complex and mature than any breakfast sausage I’ve ever found in a grocery store. The taste of them makes me feel like I might actually be an adult.

All that was left to do was case them, which required using all four limbs simultaneously, each limb performing a completely different task. I could actually feel my brain growing. My right foot was holding me upright while my left foot operated the on/off pedal of the sausage stuffer. My left hand was in Neanderthal mode, using a plunger to push the pork mixture into the funnel that led to the casings.  My right hand was more like a concert pianist. I had to alternate between applying a slight backward pressure to the casings and gently pulling on them to course-correct when the sausages were coming out too thin or too thick. 

We used lamb casings because we wanted the smaller diameter that is typical of breakfast sausage. After we filled and tied each length of casing, we pinched off 4-inch sections and twisted them in alternating directions to create a chain of sausages. Then we portioned out everything we weren’t going to eat right away and froze it for later use. We were really satisfied with the results, and it’s nice having something in the freezer that is handmade, fully seasoned, and ready to cook.

Ben did end up volunteering as a Field to Fork mentor – multiple times every year, actually. Go Ben! And now we look forward to “pig trip,” as we call it, all year long. It’s an adventure, a reunion, and a lot of reasons to smile. We’re helping deer and other native wildlife, and now that we’ve tried our hand at sausage-making, we have a new tradition that can extend the fun of the trip even after we get home. Have a wild pig problem in your area? Give this recipe a try and let us know what you think!

How to Make Maple Wild Pork Sausage

• Prep time: 30 minutes
• Cook time: 6 minutes
• Yield: About 6 lbs. of sausage

Ingredients:

• 5 lbs. ground wild pork 
• 1 Tbsp salt 
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder 
• 1 Tbsp onion powder 
• 2/3 cup maple syrup 
• 3 Tbsp fresh minced sage, unpacked 
• 2 tsp MSG 
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper 
• 1½ tsp paprika
• Pack of 20mm lamb casings

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Rinse the casings under cold water then soak them in warm water for 30 minutes.
2. While the casings soak, combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly. You’ll know the mixture is the right consistency when you start to see little threads form when the meat is pulled apart.
3. Assemble the sausage stuffer.
4. Tie one end of a casing and feed the open end onto the tube. Use a pin to poke a hole in the end so an air bubble doesn’t form.
5. Fill the casing, leaving a few inches at the end to tie another knot.
6. Pinch the sausage 4 or 5 inches from the end, then twist it into a link. Make the next twist in the opposite direction. Keep alternating until you reach the end. Poke any air holes in the links. Repeat for all the casings you’ve filled.
7. To cook, cut links apart and fry in oil until browned on the outside and fully cooked on the inside. 
8. Freeze the remainder or store in the fridge for up to a week.

Note: If you’d rather skip the casings and make sausage patties instead, simply mix all the ingredients together, form the meat into balls, and flatten them with your hands. Fry in a pan until brown on each side and thoroughly cooked in the middle.