First Attempt at Summer Sausage! (Long)

[mrsmik]

During the deer hunting season here in WI, my son got a deer . . . unfortunately, not in the traditional way (or maybe it WAS the traditional way! LOL). He didn't shoot one, but happened upon a woman on Highway 29, just a mile from our house, who happened to hit not one, but TWO deer! We think it was a momma and her yearling buck. He stopped to help (the buck was stuck under her van), and the doe was laying on the side of the road with two broken legs. He asked if he should take it, and I told him to do whatever he thought was best.

He talked to the woman (who was shaken up, but physically OK) about taking the deer, and she was fine with that. The doe was not dead, and was in pain, with the broken legs. He didn't have his gun with him, but happened to have a knife, so he slit her throat to end her suffering. Kind of gruesome to me, but then again, he's only been out of Basic Training for a few months, so not so gruesome to him! LOL He hadn't been there five minutes when someone else showed up, asking to take the young buck! LOL They waited for the police to show up, as he needed a "special" tag to be able to take the deer. Meanwhile, the woman who hit the deer was praying, literally praying, saying "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you" and "I hope you become somebody's meal, but not mine." I thought that was very sweet!

We weren't able to get as much meat as we hoped, as there were areas that were VERY bruised, and we couldn't use.

So, this is what we had for making sausage, jerky, etc.



I had some issues grinding it, as the "sinew" wasn't removed and kept getting wrapped around the cutting blade on the grinder, and then stuck all over the grinding plate I was using. This was my FIRST EVER attempt at grinding meat, so what did I know? I had NO CLUE that that had to be trimmed off. I finally gave up, and decided that my son had to trim the meat to get rid of that. Even though he trimmed it, there were still some issues. I'm not sure if this is because I have a relatively inexpensive grinder, or because it was venison, or because the meat should have been trimmed better. Maybe someone here can help with that.

Anyway, we got it all ground, and then I ground the fat that was cut from the deer. We made a 80/20 mix of the meat and fat and added our summer sausage seasonings and extra sweet special cure, and then made five 1 lb. rolls of summer sausage! Here's a pic of them!



They're now in the fridge, waiting to be smoked tomorrow. We're also going to make some "ground meat" jerky tomorrow. It's currently in the fridge, curing. My son bought a jerky shooter tonight, so we will use that tomorrow and then smoke the jerky.

I'm so excited about doing all this! We have five pounds of ground venison left, and once my casings arrive early next week, we're going to try making hot dogs! I don't have a mix for those like I have for the summer sausage and jerky, but figure I can poke around here to find one!

Let me know what you think of our first try at summer sausage!

Julie


PS, if you've read all the way through this, THANK YOU! I have a habit of being a bit "windy," which you'll quickly discover as I post more! LOL Hope you don't mind!

 

[got14u]

Great story to bad for the lady but god will provide in many ways...lol

 

[pignit]

Shweeeeeet!

 

[nickelmore]

What is the special sweet cure?

I use a fillet knife to get as much of that pesky white stuff off of the meat.

You still have to end up cleaning the hub but its not too bad.

Please share the recipe.

Good looking stuff.

 

[rio_grande]

First off thank you son for ensuring mine dosent speak russian, or swahili or arabic in the near future.....

Secondly, Even the high end grinders have issues with that sinue, Just have to trim it.

Only thing I am concerned about is grinding the deer fat into the mix. We always try to trim away all tha fat. Not sure why,,,, we just always have. If we wanted fat in we added pork or beef fat...

Keep it up,,, My speciality is deer summer sausage. It is the one thing I seem to do right :)

If it weren't going to be so cold in the morning I would be out trying to kill another bambi,,, but 17 deg is a bit cold for me to go sitting in the woods...

 

[meat hunter]

Well luckily for the other lady, she didn't get hurt as many times the deer come thru the windshield or people simply over react and veer out of the way, only to loose control of their vehicle. You son did the right thing by putting the doe out of her misery. It's never pleasant to see an animal suffer and the fact that it can go and provide food for someone is great. I know Wis has high deer numbers like we do here in Mn. So many deer in the ditches from vehicle collisions. What a waste.

As far as the sinew clogging up the grinder, yes, trim as best you can, but a good grinder does make a world of difference. I used to use our KitchenAid then stepped up to a 1hp meat grinder. I think if I wanted to, I could run the whole deer thru it, hoof and hide LOL. One thing that may help in the future, is get that meat as COLD as you can, even semi frozen. That will help in getting a good clean cut.

I don't know if you have a dog, but when traumatized meat, like the area around a gunshot wound when hunting deer with a firearm or from a car accident, does not have to go to waste. Grind it up last, cook it and add it to dry food when you feed the dogs. Just an idea.

Sausages look great and can't wait to see the finished pics.

Tell you son, from this old vet, that I and the country are proud of his commitment to serve his country.

 

[mrsmik]

Thanks, everyone! My son and I both appreciate your thanks!

My husband was the superintendent of the smoke house operations at Klement's Sausage (in Milwaukee) for 13 years, so I relied on him a lot for answers to my questions about making our own sausage. He's used to batches involving 100's of pounds of meat, rather than 5 pounds, so it was a bit different.

He said that instead of using pork, we could simply use the fat from the deer, as much of the reason for using pork is to add fat, because venison is so "dry." We'll have to see how it works.

The seasonings we used, along with the "extra sweet special cure" are ones that we sell at our store, along with the casings I used and the ones I'm waiting for to make the hot dogs. I haven't posted any links because I don't want anyone to think that I'm "spamming" the forum or came on here just to sell stuff. If the mods or administrators tell me it's OK, I'll be happy to post links to the seasonings and casings we use that our store sells.

Julie

 

[marknb]

You don't keep deer fat because that's where a lot of the 'game-ee-ness' (sorry, don't know how to spell that) comes from. Not nearly so noticeable in moose or elk.

There's a young meat cutter at the butcher shop I buy from, he did a deer for a hunter this fall and got 5lbs of meat as part of the deal. He did some ground jerky with it, but didn't bother to clean all the fat off of it, and even with all the spices you use on jerky I could taste that wild game taste. Some people don't mind it, but my wife hates it, so I don't hunt deer.

 

[the dude abides]

Congrats, those SS look great. Hat's off to your son for his service to our country.

 

[salmonclubber]

Julie

nice job on the sausages if you get the meat ice cold before you grind it will help a lot the meat grinds so much better when cold and make sure your knife and plate are sharp it will make a huge difference in your grinding i send mine off to butcher-packer they do a great job
i cant wait to see the finished product oh and as for the fat remove all the fat from the deer and throw it out it does not freeze well nor does it taste very good its best to use pork in your sausages mix it with the venison i like 70/30 good luck and things look great so far

 

[blzafour]

I use Pork Trim with my venison summer sausage.... I am smoking some as I type this! I use 10#s of pork trim to 15#s venison.

I also partially freeze my meat when I am going to be grinding it.... It helps alot. I use a 3/4 horse power grinder to do all of my meat grinding. Not a problem at all getting the meat ground!

Tell all your kids thanks for their service!

Blza

 

[hog warden]

I liken deer fat to sheep fat. Way back when, during my livestock judging days, we had to decide if a full figured lamb looked like that because he was ripped and well muscled or simply fat. A distinction I never fully mastered. If he was deemed fat, he got buried in his class. Sheep fat is nasty stuff to eat. So is deer fat. Pork fat is what you want to added to the carefully trimmed deer meat. About 20% minimum. One local locker mixes pork fat and trimmings to 50% in their venison summer sausage. But they are trying to hide it, as they mix ALL their deer timmings together. You don't get yours.....you get so many pounds. Why we process our own.

And keep your big bucks. Give me that doe or a young'n anyday......if I'm going to eat it. Same reason one is lamb and the other is mutton.

 

[bassman]

Julie, I concur with what some others have pointed out. Deer fat is not good. Hopefully, you'll be able to eat the sausage, but I'm guessing it will have a marked "off" taste from mixing the deer fat in.

 

[travcoman45]

Great job on the sausage. I'm with the others, if ya get ta do it again use pork fat, unless a course it comes out just like ya wan't!

Wieners may be hard ta do with a low end grinder, ya really need ta emulsifiy the meat, hard ta do, but dosen't mean ya can't. Yer dogs will just have a bit more tooth to em. An hey, that's how I like mine anyway!

Tell yer boy thanks, ours is headed ta Afganistan fer his last tour. Gonna be a long year.

 

[mossymo]

MrsMik
As others have mentioned, I fully agree with removing all the deer fat you can from any venison sausage recipe. It tarnishes the taste of venison and adds an unwanted taste to the spices; while pork fat compliments both.

I hope your summer sausage turns out to your liking and I am looking forward to hearing the results from your taste test.

Thank your son from me, my family enjoys the freedom he is fighting for.....

 

[mrsmik]

Thanks, everyone! I'll be smoking the sausage today, so we'll see how it tastes. I hope it's not too awful!

 

[travcoman45]

Try not ta smoke it to hot, that way that fat won't render out. The less ya can melt that fat the better.

 

[gnubee]

I'm glad you were able to utilize the deer even if there was a lot of waste. Here in my Province you are required to leave it beside the road to be picked up by the road crew. They are not allowed to use it either. If its the start of the week end the poor thing lays there for three days. such a waste.
One polititian explained it thusly.... If we let every one take home the deer they hit everyone would hunt that way... Hmm does he think that we take a $20,000 vehicle out on the highway just to bang it all up hunting deer. I didn't vote for that clown.

Thank your son for me, I love my freedoms and the right to speak my mother tongue in my own country. God bless all the young men and women putting it on the line everyday for us.

 

[beer-b-q]

Great Looking sausage...

Tell your son thanks for his service...