Fresh Sausage

[Chuck D.]

Hi Everbody, I'm looking to make some fresh sausage I.E. Italian, Polish, Brats, Potato, ect. I want to get a feel for this with Pork&Beef
Befor I attempt with Venison. I'm new to smoking & sausage making so all the help I can get is appreciated. I have an old Hobart Grinder and a manual stuffer, so I think all I need is some recipes. Thanks

[Harry Nutczak]

When using venison, a 2-1 ratio is a good start (2-parts venison, 1 part fatty pork)

Some people will go 50/50 on the mix too, it all depends on the fattiness of the pork. Back-fat is usually the mosy used pork fat. If you use beef, the fat from around the kidneys is great (Suet) too.

Venison by itself is way too lean for sausage, 20%-25% fat is recommended by most sausage ,akers, with some recipes calling for only a 50% lean product.

Have fun with it, I know I have. I just ordered the book "Charcuterie" so I can produce our own Proscuitto, Bresalo, and dry-cured meats and sausages at home during the winter season. I am drolling just thinking about how great the house will smell this winter.
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[partapache]

Hi Chuck, I'm new at this too, in fact I'm still in the process of gathering my equipment. The best advice I could give you is read, read, read. I've read this entire forum from front to back; there is a wealth of information here. I also ordered some sausage making books from half.com. I'm going to make some suggestions, if I give you any mis-informaton hopefully some of the veterans here will jump in and correct it. Rather than looking for a recipe I would consider ordering one of the sausage seasonings from one of the vendors that you see mentioned on here, like the Sausage Maker or LEM products. It simplifies the process and keeps you from having to stock a bunch of spices and trying to keep them fresh. I started out with summer sausage, mostly because I like it, it's easy to make, simple to stuff and I smoke a lot of salmon so I'm familiar with that process. I've found that I like garlic powder and mustard seed so I just add a little more of those to whatever summer sausage seasoning mix I'm using. After you've got a few batches under your belt then you can start looking for and fine tuning that killer recipe, I've made a couple of batches so far and now I'm starting to experiment with soy protein concentrate and dextrose and a few other things. Next I plan on graduating to brats and then some breakfast sausage and slim jims. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

[Chuck D.]

Thanks for all the advise

[broncosmoker]

Before you go making a huge batch, when you have what you want mixed, let it set a couple hours in the fridge. Then take it out make small patty and fry it up. Taste it to see if you like it and adjust it before you start stuffing. Also note changes for future sausage making.

[BBQonICE]

If doing venison...we go by the following mix

30lb sausage
- 20lb venison
- 10lb (70/30) Pork Fat
for fun...add in 2 -3 pounds ground smoked bacon....

We smoke at 140 for 3-4hrs...take off...into boiling water until internal temp is 185...then ice bath then to freezer...

we broil...or bbq...just enough to heat through a melt the rest of the fat....real juicy I prefer...
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[havasteve]

Hi there Chuck, Glad to hear of your smokehouse project. Take some pics as you go, we all love pics.

Sausage, I also researched the hell out of it.

A few items youll need,

Morton TenderQuick for your Cure needs, I use it for Jerky, Sausage, Salami, Canadian Bacon and to Kipper the bass I catch out of the lake. When used in sausage it smoothes out the blend and retains the fat. It's tuff making sausage thats not dry without it.

#414 Hunters special meat binder from Butcher & Packer Supply Co.

In my opinion Chuck has the beefiest flavor and Shoulder or But is best for the Pork. For extra pork fat I use Belly.

I use natural casing from my grocery store.

Heres a link to a great recipe site. http://lpoli.50webs.com/Sausage%20recipes.htm#DRY

Steve
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My Patio Cooking Area Website http://www.arizonapitandgrill.com/

[havasteve]