Venison franks: need advice

[hangmanli]

over the past several days I made 25lbs of venison summer sausage, 12 1/2 lbs of venison trail Bologna, 12 1/2 lbs of venison garlic sausage and 12 1/ lbs of venison franks. They were put into edible collagen casings. I used the LEM packet seasoning with the Instacure.

I’ve got a Bradley 4 shelf digital smoker. I haven’t gotten around to upgrading it with the PID controller.

I’ve learned about the A-maze-In smoke tube here and it works great! Also about using the turkey roaster to finish the smoked sausages in a “hot bath”

I’ve never done venison franks before.

I’ve got a graduation party Sunday for my daughter. I made these franks on Saturday and they’ve been in the refrigerator. It’s half venison and half pork. Should I vacuum seal them and freeze them? Or will they last?

Should I use the hot water bath to cook them? Gas grill them? Or use the Bradley Smoker? If so should I lay them on the shelves (four)? Do they have to reach 160° before serving them?

Thanks for any helpful advice

 

[crazzycajun]

Imho they will be fine. On the cooking is a matter of preference if their is a lot of people and a short time to serve either smoke them and then poach them to 150f or so then package. Throw them on the grill for some marks and get to internal temp of 140f and serve. Or just grill them like normal dogs and serve if time allows and you don’t want smoke. I’m sure you will get other ideas shortly good luck

 

[kruizer]

Ground meats should be cooked to an IT of at least 160 as there is a chance of higher bacteria levels and 160 is needed to kill all the bacteria.

 

[tallbm]

over the past several days I made 25lbs of venison summer sausage, 12 1/2 lbs of venison trail Bologna, 12 1/2 lbs of venison garlic sausage and 12 1/ lbs of venison franks. They were put into edible collagen casings. I used the LEM packet seasoning with the Instacure.

I’ve got a Bradley 4 shelf digital smoker. I haven’t gotten around to upgrading it with the PID controller.

I’ve learned about the A-maze-In smoke tube here and it works great! Also about using the turkey roaster to finish the smoked sausages in a “hot bath”

I’ve never done venison franks before.

I’ve got a graduation party Sunday for my daughter. I made these franks on Saturday and they’ve been in the refrigerator. It’s half venison and half pork. Should I vacuum seal them and freeze them? Or will they last?

Should I use the hot water bath to cook them? Gas grill them? Or use the Bradley Smoker? If so should I lay them on the shelves (four)? Do they have to reach 160° before serving them?

Thanks for any helpful advice

After making my venison sausage (franks in the past as well as brats) I usually make links, cut, vac seal, and freeze. Later I smoke them or grill them fresh. You would have no issues sealing and freezing then dealing with them later. I would suggest this if you are pressed for time that way you can treat them with the best approach later.

I honestly would smoke them later. I LOVE the Lem's Frank mix but the venisons ones I made (80% venison, 20% store bought pork backfat) had less flavor than the feral hog ones I have made (80% feral pork, 20% store bought pork backfat). The venison ones would be more flavorful smoked.

Best of luck with it and let us know how they come out! :)

 

[browneyesvictim]

I’ve got a graduation party Sunday for my daughter. I made these franks on Saturday and they’ve been in the refrigerator. It’s half venison and half pork. Should I vacuum seal them and freeze them? Or will they last?

Should I use the hot water bath to cook them? Gas grill them? Or use the Bradley Smoker? If so should I lay them on the shelves (four)? Do they have to reach 160° before serving them?

First question: Yes. A week would generally be ok for meat that was still in the original cryovaced plastic But in this case a lot to do with how long (old) the venison meat was thawed out before you ground and stuffed them on Saturday.

Second question: You can choose to cook them in any of those methods or combination thereof. The trick is evenly cooking them so that you reach the EXACT desired temp, then there is an ice-batch to cool them off quickly. Search the term "Fat-out" on this forum and you will learn at what temp that will start to happen with sausage. (HINT: It's below 160!)

 

[hangmanli]

I defrosted the already ground venison 5 days ago. I make the links on Saturday

I decided to use the turkey roaster with the ThermPro probes.

They just hit 160° . I have lots of hot dogs in the roaster. Getting ready to do the ice bath.

I may do a quick smoke on Sunday before serving them.

 

[hangmanli]

I got the internal temp at or over 160 in the turkey roaster. I got them in the ice bath and got the temp below 100°.

They came out very wet inside. I pricked them to get the water out.

I started the oven in the Bradley and set the temp at its lowest setting of 120°. I filled up the A-Maze-N smoke tube and it’s running now.

I laid the hot dogs on the 4 trays.

Is this a good temperature? How long should I smoke them?

Thanks for any helpful advice!

 

[hangmanli]

I over did it with the first batch trying to smoke them after cooking them in the hot water bath.

They’re dried out.
This is going to be a learning experience.


I probably should have just cold smoked them to add some flavor and to help dry out the excess moisture. I just put another tray in the smoker with the oven turned off. Going to do one hour this way.

 

[tallbm]

I over did it with the first batch trying to smoke them after cooking them in the hot water bath.

They’re dried out.
This is going to be a learning experience.


I probably should have just cold smoked them to add some flavor and to help dry out the excess moisture. I just put another tray in the smoker with the oven turned off. Going to do one hour this way.

With Franks 30 min - 1 hour was the typical time period I ran across to apply smoke. They are only lightly smoked.

You have already cooked the Franks now you are just trying to apply some smoke. I would worry more about the time you plan to apply smoke rather than cooking and that time & temp shouldn't be enough to dry out your Franks.

I hope this info helps :)

 

[hangmanli]

Thanks for the tips. How do you guys normally cook venison hotdogs? I used 50% pork in mine

Do you guys normally boil them or just smoke them? Or both?

This is the first time I have used these edible collagen casings made for Hot dogs

I have used fibrous casings for summer sausage with great results. Also collagen middles for a trail bologna.

Is it advisable or OK to use natural casing for hotdogs? If so would it be the hog casings?

I would like my next try to be successful

 

[jimmyinsd]

Thanks for the tips. How do you guys normally cook venison hotdogs? I used 50% pork in mine

Do you guys normally boil them or just smoke them? Or both?

This is the first time I have used these edible collagen casings made for Hot dogs

I have used fibrous casings for summer sausage with great results. Also collagen middles for a trail bologna.

Is it advisable or OK to use natural casing for hotdogs? If so would it be the hog casings?

I would like my next try to be successful

typically I think I've seen people using sheep casing for hot dogs when they are going natural.

 

[tallbm]

Thanks for the tips. How do you guys normally cook venison hotdogs? I used 50% pork in mine

Do you guys normally boil them or just smoke them? Or both?

This is the first time I have used these edible collagen casings made for Hot dogs

I have used fibrous casings for summer sausage with great results. Also collagen middles for a trail bologna.

Is it advisable or OK to use natural casing for hotdogs? If so would it be the hog casings?

I would like my next try to be successful

I've used natural hog casings and natural sheep casings for Venison Franks, Pork Franks, and Venison sausage in general. I've never used any collagen casings so I have no input there.

Hog casings are large in diameter for Franks/hot dogs so if you want jumbo or sausage sized Franks then you are set. Flavor won't really be different and hog casings are cheaper and easier to work with than sheep casings. Once you get over the mental block that you are eating a giant hot dog rather than a skinny/normal one, all is good.

Sheep casings will make your franks/hot dogs look like franks/hot dogs. Sheep casings are a little more delicate, harder to work with, and a bit more expensive for less sausage than hog casings but get you that real deal physical frank/hot dog feel.

I say start with hog casings since they are more versatile and can be used with other sausage options as well. This way you can't loose in the end. Once you do some with hog casings feel free to try some sheep casings. This way if you hate working with sheep casings you still have hog casings to fall back on.

I do my venison franks and other sausage with 80% pure ground venison and 20% store bought pork back fat from the buthcer. This makes perfect sausage every time AND the math is simple; 5 pounds sausage = 4 pounds meat, 1 pound fat. 10 pounds sausage = 8 pounds of meat, 2 pounds of fat. Work in 5-10 pound increments from there for easily doing 10+ pounds with simple math.

I like to know that when I'm eating my venison sausage that I'm eating most of the animal I spent time hunting and processing rather than mixing in store bought pork meat. So the only store bought part I'm adding is the pork fat leaving me with as much of my animal as possible and as little store bought as possible :)

When I make sausage it is mostly just me as a 1 man operation so I just grind, stuff, twist, cut, and vac seal in about 1 pound packs.

I usually go two routes with my Venison (and other) sausage:

1. Smoke it
2. Grill it like fresh sausage on the gril

I have boiled a pack or two but the casings can get kind of chewy. Same with oven roasting or pan frying.
My last batch of Franks I used sheep casings and did about half in the smoker trying out the 3 chain link sausage rope technique and the rest I just cut and vac sealed. After I finished the ones I smoked I cut and vac sealed. Here are the smoked ones after smoked, ice bathed, cut, and resting to bloom. Dark spots are where I got lazy and didn't clean out the stuffer from the previous batch of brat meat and some of it got into the franks :)

DSC_8940[1]

• tallbm
• Nov 3, 2017

The beauty is that I don't have to smoke it all or cook it all before vac sealing. Since time is precious and being a one man shop takes a loooong time as it is I just worry about smoking them or grilling them in the future after I pull them out of the freezer and defrost.

I hope this info helps :)

 

[boykjo]

here's some tips

I recommend using fresh natural sheep casings. start with 22-24mm. buy quality casings packed in salt solution not home packs packed in salt. butcher and packer, the sausage maker and Syracuse casings sell quality casings. Smoke hotdogs to an internal temp of 140 and finish in a 180 degree hot water bath and finish at 160. I don't puree anymore as a triple grind through the fine plate is fine. smoke need to be introduced during the initial cooking process. keep fat content close to 30%. Raw uncured pork fatback is a good source of fat to use. You just remove the skin.
Dont use freezer burnt meat to make sausage. always vacuum seal your venison

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/frankfurters-yeah.155444/
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/how-to-handle-natural-casings.159729/

boykjo