Venison brats with Hi Mountain Seasonings

[hoekma]

I bought a bratwurst kit at Cabela's -- Hi Mountain Seasoning's Bratwurst.  The instructions say to put in 19 lbs of  ground pork for 5 lbs of venison.  It seems like a lot of units of pork per venison (80%).  

Most recipes I've seen on the internet call for 50-60% pork butt , pork shoulder and/or pork fatback.  

I'm trying to decide whether to use the kit or not   Has anyone used this kit and followed their instructions?  Is there a difference between the amount of pork butt, pork shoulder, etc. versus the ground pork called for in Hi Mountain's instructions that would account for the difference?  I want to taste the venison and not just the pork.

Just don't want to mess up my hard-earned mulie buck.  

Thanks in advance for the help!!

 

[dirtsailor2003]

That's a bit high. I usually shoot for a 75-25 or 70-30 venison to pork butt ratio. You could even go 80-20.

As for High Mountains kits, they are okay flavor wise. There are better recipes here. Buy some cure #1 and search here for recipes.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Actually if you plan on using the brats fresh you don't need cure #1.

 

[hoekma]

Yeah, I was planning on them fresh -- either way I won't use the cure.   Maybe I'll just return the kit..

 

[murraysmokin]

That percentage seems crazy. I have been trying to get info from local smokehouses in regards to their ratios in order to still be called "venison" sausage or sticks. They claim 70:30 game to pork but most of their game sticks etc taste the same regardless of the game so I have a hard time believing them. There are some great brat recipes here you would just need to adjust that ratio to match your tastes.

 

[hoekma]

Yeah, I agree....I double checked the directions...here they are.. I wonder if they are trying to make it just taste like Pork brat. 

hi mtn sausage.jpg

• hoekma
• Nov 18, 2016

 

[klutzyspuds]

Hoekma,

I hope I'm not too late to the party here, but I used this same kit last year with venison and pork. I said the same thing that if I made them per the recipe, I might as well just make pork brats. I made them using a 50/50 mix with pork butt as my pork. That mixture was decent and not too dry, but a little higher fat content would have been a little better. Also, the flavor from the kit brats was somewhat bland. I would add a little more of a couple things like garlic and some heat. All in all ok, but needs some personal doctoring. Just remember to do a fry test before stuffing after adding anything and start slow. It's a lot easier to give it a little more flavor, but a lot harder to tame it down. Good luck.

Mark

 

[hoekma]

Nope! Not too late....diverted my attentions to brining and smoking the Thangsgiving turkey. Thank you for the feedback and good advice on doing a fry test. I hadn't thought to do that.

Thanks!!

 

[muddydogs]

Funny I found this post this morning. A buddy shot an elk a couple days ago and showed up at the house yesterday to process it. He purchased one of these kits and as we looked at the directions we said the same thing many here said about the lack of game meat and we might as well just use all pork. We adjusted the mix to about 70/30 game to pork and will see how that turns out today when we go to stuffing it. He wanted fresh sausage so we left the cure out of the mix as well.

 

[hoekma]

How did the elk turn out?  I just mixed up my meat tonight and set the casings to soak overnight.  I'll be stuffing  the brats tomorrow. 

I wound up returning the High Mountain kit and making a recipe I found online.   Haven't done the fry test yet,  but will before I commit the meat to links.  I've been crazy busy so will just use the pork butt I bought in about a 50-50 mix.  I also added a cup nonfat dry milk to see if that helps with moisture retention. 

 

[muddydogs]

Mine turned out great, taste like brawts with elk meat. I'm done with the kits thought, the Hi Mountain kit had a bunch of short chopped up holly cases in it. I could put 4 of there cases on my stuffer tube and about everyone had a hole in it somewhere. Just did an elk link sausage recipe off the net and used hog cases I purchased in a hank, one of the hank cases filled up my stuffer tube. Went from how many cases can I get on the tube to will this one case fit or am I going to have to trim the extra off.