20 lbs Venison Summer Sausage

TentHunter

Moderator
My mechanic had some venison he asked me to turn into Summer Sausage. Perfect timing, because I also had some venison in the freezer which I was wanting to turn into Summer sausage as well.

After trimming all the venison, I ended up with just under 16 lbs.
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I needed 4 lbs or so of fat trimmings, so I got from three hog jowls (7 1/2 lbs in total) from the butcher and separated them into meaty & fatty trimmings. The meaty trimmings will get used for something else.
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The venison was ground through a medium plate (about 1/4" grind) adding the fatty trimmings as I went along. This gave me 20 lbs total of ground meat.
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Cure & Seasonings mixed and ready to go. 3 lbs also got some red pepper flakes and chipotle powder.
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Mixed, covered and ready to spend the night in the fridge.
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Stuffed and on the MAK running in smoke mode (about 180° today) with a hickory/oak pellet blend.
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Already getting some nice color after about 3 hours.
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When the I.T. reached about 152° they were plunged into a cold water bath, then put on some racks to dry and bloom for a few hours.
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After chilling in the fridge overnight, here is one of the chubs sliced.
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Two changes I made for this batch:

1) This is the first time using pork fat with venison (instead of beef fat trimmings I normally use). I like the texture better.

2) I also thought I'd try adding just a bit more powdered buttermilk to get a little more tang. The tang is just right now!

Both changes are keepers!

Thanks for looking. :)
 

TrickyDick

New member
FANTASTIC!!!!!!

Fibrous casings??

Thanks for sharing! Did you chill or freeze the meat and fat first? I had read recently that when adding fat to lean meat, that the resulting product tastes like the type fat that was used, meaning that the meat itself lends far less to flavor. So this begs the question, which version do you prefer? Beef fat or pork fat?

TD
 

TentHunter

Moderator
FANTASTIC!!!!!!

Fibrous casings??

Yep. Believe it or not I do like to use them once in a while. :rolleyes:


Did you chill or freeze the meat and fat first?

I always keep the meat chilled, but not frozen, until it's time to grind it. Fat and stringy fat trimmings definitely grind a whole lot better if they're chilled and firm.



I had read recently that when adding fat to lean meat, that the resulting product tastes like the type fat that was used, meaning that the meat itself lends far less to flavor. So this begs the question, which version do you prefer? Beef fat or pork fat?

I've always used beef fat with venison in the past, but my butcher didnt have any beef trimmings yet and actually recommended the hog jowl over beef trimmings for mixing with venison.

Since this was my first time trying pork fat, I wondered how it would affect the flavor too. But in all honesty, I think it influenced the texture more so than the flavor. I actually like the texture better. Instead of being really firm when chilled, it has a springier texture with a more tender bite through, but it still tastes like Venison Summer Sausage. I know my mechanic was very happy with it when he sampled some.

Now, keep in mind that I also took the time to trim the jowl meat and use mainly the fat. That may have made a difference.

Hope this makes sense!



I've known others who prefer using pork belly for mixing with ground venison for burgers and sausage.
 
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TrickyDick

New member
Looks great! I need to use my gear more often. Its intimidating to begin, but is actually quite easy once you know what to do. The stuffing has a learning curve, but using fibrous casings or even collagen casings is about as easy as it can be. Anyone on the fence I encourage you to jump in and get started! Smaller batches are easily done with smaller grinders such as stand mixers, and stuffers such as the Jerky "cannon" type stuffers.

TD
 
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