Please allow me to be frank. Making sausage is fun, easy, and once you know the basics, the possibilities seem limitless. As a professional chef who became a deer hunter through NDA’s Field to Fork program, I want to share the essentials of making fresh venison sausage. You can smoke or dry sausage, but I’m going to discuss one of the best and easiest ways to turn your grind pile into delicious eats.
The reason I love fresh sausage so much is the convenience. I love to carve out time for a large cooking project that will benefit me for many days. After the initial investment of a morning or afternoon making sausages, the results become backyard grilling after cutting the lawn, quick weekday pastas, a portion of a well-curated charcuterie board, or a topping on a homemade pizza. Pre-portioned, ready-to-eat, extremely versatile, tender, juicy, seasoned meat! What could be better?
Reaching into the freezer to produce a venison meal is that much easier with sausage, and consequently I’m eating more wild game. It’s also great to share with friends and family who may not know how to properly handle cooking wild game but are familiar with cooking sausage.
Percent by Weight
We’re going to use percent by weight to portion ingredients, so it is imperative that you have a scale with grams as a unit of measurement. I use a digital scale, and I absolutely can’t cook without it now. Weight is a superior measure over volume, and once you get into the habit, you’ll be confused how you ever did without. Digital scales are inexpensive and can be purchased online or at any kitchen supply store. Grams are a very useful unit of measurement when using percent by weight. You’ll often be using 500 or 1,000 grams (about one or two pounds), so finding the two percentages you’ll need to know – 20% or 2% – becomes elementary.
20% Fat by Weight. You’ll need at least 20% of the weight of the meat in fat. In the case of the fresh venison sausage, if you have 1,000 grams of meat, you would multiply that by 0.2, or 200 grams of fat. I use pork fatback: unseasoned, unsmoked, pure chucks of local pork fatback acquired at my favorite butcher shop. Pork fat is the most neutral flavor as well as stable at the temperatures required compared to other fats. I recommend only using pork fat.
2% Salt by Weight. You’ll need 2% of the total weight (meat and fat) in salt. In our example you have 1,200 grams of sausage filling, multiplied by 0.02, or 24 grams of salt. It’s important not to use iodized salt (table salt), but you may use kosher, sea, or pickling salt. You’ll want to salt your sausage filling at least eight hours prior to beginning. You can prepare it the night before and keep it refrigerated until it’s time.
2% Seasoning by Weight. I didn’t apply additional seasoning to this particular batch, but when you’re ready to branch out into the vast sea of seasoning sausage, a good rule is not to exceed 2% of total weight (meat and fat). All I did in this batch was a little fresh ground pepper before grinding, significantly less than 2%.
Keep it Cold!
The salt and fat ratios are extremely important, but another non-negotiable is keeping your sausage ingredients cold! Food safety is obvious. We’re taking the outside, exposed portion of the muscle and blending it all throughout. The bacteria that lead to food-borne illness start to rapidly reproduce between temperatures of 40° to 140° F. That’s a good reason to keep everything cold.
The other reason is the sausage filling will behave throughout the process if kept very cold. In my work area, I have plenty of clean ice on hand, a freezer next to me to work out of, my equipment staged in the freezer prior to use (grinder, sausage stuffing cylinder, bowls or trays I’m working with – anything that the sausage will come in contact with). I’ll put my sausage filling into the freezer 15 minutes before grinding. I even setup in the basement because it’s the coolest workspace in my house! Feel free to stop and chill items you’re working with. Pack bowls or trays into larger ones packed with ice. Do all you can to keep the ingredients cold!
Grind and Combine
I use a meat grinder that’s a Kitchen Aid mixer attachment. For what I’m doing, it works great. It won’t go as fast as dedicated grinders, but for me, it works. I cut my meat and fat into chunks no bigger than 1 inch. I’m able to work out of a freezer in batches as to keep all the materials and equipment cold. I trim off all the fat and silver skin from the venison that I can (a little won’t hurt, but do your best) as well as any portions that may have been freezer burned.
If all your equipment and product is cold, it should move through your largest grind plate with ease (Always start with your largest die and move to smaller if you want a finer grind). Your grind should come out looking like ground beef you’d see in a meat counter, or close. It should not come out as a paste. If that’s happening, the contents are too warm or your die is clogged. If it’s too warm, stop and chill everything down. If it’s a clogged die, safely remove, free the die of what’s clogging it such as silver skin, reassemble and try again.
Once you have your grind the size you want it, it’s time to knead the mixture. I use a bowl and paddle attachment on the stand mixer but you could use your hands. It should have a sticky consistency. You’re looking to evenly distribute the fat among the meat but not blend it to the point you can’t tell them apart (that’s a different sausage). If you’d like, you can cook some off at this point to see if you like the seasoning. If you’re satisfied, you can stop here. You’ve made fresh sausage! You can form it into patties, keep it as bulk sausage, make meatballs or put it in casing.
Venison Sausage Stuffing
Animal casings are one of the best features of sausage to me. The natural “shrink wrap” that contracts when heat is applied makes sausage a bundle of joy for my tastebuds. There are few things better. You’ll want to start with hog casings, as they’re the size of your typical Italian sausage or brats. They’re forgiving, so they’re a great place to start.
Buy American hog casings: They’re inexpensive and high quality. I buy mine online, but you’re able to get them at butcher shops, butcher supply depots or sporting goods stores. Follow the instructions on the casing package, but basically you soak in water for 30 to 45 minutes, then find an opening on one end, open while submerged (or you can use running water) and run water through them. This preps the casing for easy application to the stuffing tube.
If you’re going to make sausage more than once in a great while, I highly recommend you get a piston sausage stuffer. I use a 5-lb. hand crank, and it works great. I have to work in batches, but it’s no trouble. In fact, it helps regulate me from having too much product outside the cold environment at a time. You can use the stuffing tube attachments that come with grinders, but it may be difficult, and this process should be fun.
You get a lot of control, and this is important to maintain size/structure of the sausage as you case. Either way, you’ll take the open end of the casing and slowly slide it over the tube, leaving about 6 inches left of the end. It’s good to have a friend help, as one of you cranks with even speed and the other guides the sausage out, trying to keep pace for an even size. I will cover the table we’re working on with plastic wrap and a light amount of oil spray to keep everything moving. I like to case all my sausage before making links.
Again, you can stop here. You don’t have to link, it’s a choice. You could coil and stick skewers through them, which works great. You could keep them long to smoke or grill. I like links. To link, you cannot have filled the casing to the max. You’ll know if you did because there will be little-to-no give when you pinch. I pinch the lengths I want, then twist.
Next, I start at my last pinch point (pun intended) and twist toward me. Repeat until done. If you want to secure by tying each pinch with butcher’s twine, you can, but I don’t and they end up just fine. Look for air pockets, or just poke a few small holes in each one to relieve pressure while cooking. Done! You can cook and eat right away or freeze for later. I do both!
Cooking Venison Sausage
When cooking sausage, target a finished internal temperature of 160° to 165° F. You can poach them slowly in beer and finish in a pan, roast them on a stick over a fire, or take them all the way on a grill (I use indirect heat to about 150° F before finishing them over direct heat to crisp up the casing.
Be aware, the pork fat you’re using is highly flammable, so in direct heat like grilling, watch for flame-ups. As with all meats, let the sausages rest about 5 to 10 minutes before eating. Enjoy!