sausage help

hank2000 · Oct 18, 2015

i have made link sausage a few times from pork butts but deer seasone is here and i want to make deer smoked sausage this year but i want to do it right i question is

1 do i need to add dry milk to it

2 what does it do for the sausge

3 how much per pound do i add

4 do i need to more water with dry milk or do i use the same amount per pound i all ways use

5 do i need to add to all my sausage when i make it

hope im not

with this thread

thank you for any help

dirtsailor2003 · Oct 18, 2015

A lot of it depends on what type of sausage you are looking to make. The answer could be yes to all your questions or no. Determine what type of sausage you want and do a search here for a recipe.

You will also need to add fat as venison is too lean by itself pork butt is a good choice. I typically add 1-2 pounds of ground pork butt to 3-4 pounds of venison depending on what I am making.

tropics · Oct 18, 2015

What he said and remember to use a cure if smoking at a low temp.

Richie

hank2000 · Oct 18, 2015

Yes I use cure just want to make a deer smoked sausage with hot pepPers and cheese. Something simple

tropics · Oct 18, 2015

hank2000 said:
Yes I use cure just want to make a deer smoked sausage with hot pepPers and cheese. Something simple

Check the Wild Game forum,for recipes

Richie

cal1956 · Oct 18, 2015

a couple of things come to my mind , 1st how much are you making , also keep in mind that milk/water will diminish the seasoning

i have never added milk to any sausage ( just can't think of any reason to add it ) habenero pepper at a rate of 1 teaspoon per pound will add a nice

kick to any sausage,

but be careful habenero is some dangerous stuff

chef jimmyj · Oct 18, 2015

The Non-Fat Dry Milk is mostly Protein. It aids in moisture retention and is a great binder with lower fat sausage. So with Venison Sausage, it is a Win-Win, Add it at 1/2 Cup ( 1.25oz or 35g) for 5 Lbs meat. That is 7g or 5 teaspoons per pound of meat. No more water needed...JJ

nunantal · Oct 18, 2015

Following.... some of the same ?'s I have.

cal1956 · Oct 18, 2015

wouldn't adding a bit of pork fat accomplish the same thing without affecting the seasoning ?

doctord1955 · Oct 18, 2015

I have never used it in any sausage ive made always used about a 50-50 ratio on dear to pork butt! Dont use more than 10% on cheese

oregon smoker · Oct 18, 2015

Just my two cents, I add the cheese at 4.5 oz per 5lbs (1 cup) which seems to work everyone that has tasted/eating.

keep on smoking,

Tom

chef jimmyj · Oct 19, 2015

cal1956 said:
wouldn't adding a bit of pork fat accomplish the same thing without affecting the seasoning ?

NFDM has no flavor in sausage. So although more pork fat will help a moist mouthfeel, the sausage taste more porky and less like Venison...JJ

hank2000 · Oct 19, 2015

Thanks everyone for the help. Moister is a must I don't like dry sausage. I think I will use nfdm in my next batch and see how it comes out. I would like to stay with a 60/40 mix on my deer sausage if I can I don't want anymore Fat then what is needed but I don't want it dry ether And as far as adding more pork to make it moist u could but I want my deer to taste like deer. I'm just funny that way. But I will keep everything said in this thread in mind as I work out a sausage we all like. Thanks everyone

LanceR · Oct 19, 2015

Our family likes about 20% fat content in venison sausage and burger so before deer season I buy pork and beef fat from a local processor. We cut it in grinder size cubes and freeze them on sheet pans after which it gets vacuum bagged in 3# bags. We normally make 15 pounds batches of sausage so the three pound bag of whichever type of fat is appropriate to the recipe is added to 12 # of venison and away we go. As the fat cubes were frozen when bagged it's easy to take out what we need for smaller batches and reseal the bag.

When we use high temp cheese (mostly for regular and venison brats) we use about 5-6% cheese by weight at the very end of mixing to keep it from breaking up.

We generally use standard recipes for venison sausage and haven't seen and issues compared to pork or beef based sausage except that the venison will hold more water than pork or beef (except maybe pasture raised beef) due to the higher myoglobin content of the venison. Generally, the darker the meat, the higher the myoglobin content and the more water it can bind.

I suspect you'll do well to split your next batch and use NFDM in one part and not in the other so you have a better basis for comparison. The process of mixing the sausage releases more proteins so a longer mixing time can help with juiciness and mouth feel. For most sausage I add the ground fat late in the mixing process to reduce the chances of it getting smeared during mixing.

Good luck and let us know when you've got something on the meat pole!

Lance

hank2000 · Oct 19, 2015

I will and thanks. Gun season will open about the middle of next month and go until the end of next January

LanceR · Oct 19, 2015

Our zone's deer/bear archery season opened on 1 October and runs to 20 November, followed by three weeks of the regular season and then 9 days of late archery/muzzleloading. Then there's a three week season in January in the area around Ithaca, NY were the deer population is really high. You can take two antlerless deer a day in any open season there. I'll likely start bow hunting this week sometime and hit it pretty hard after that. Throw in goose, duck, pheasant and turkey seasons and the salmon running heavy off Lake Ontario the last week or so and fall through early winter can be a great time around here. So many critters and fish, so little time!

Lance

dward51 · Oct 19, 2015

X2 on supplementing the fat in a venison sausage. Venison is usually a very lean meat and fat contributes greatly to both flavor and mouth texture. If the sausage is too lean, it will feel/taste dry.

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