With the Wisconsin gun deer season past and meat in the freezer, it's time to start the process of turning the venison into those goodies. After spending a small fortune year after year having sausage and other things made commercially, I decided last year to start spending some of that money on "toys" to make it myself.
Last year was a major learning session, and this year may be as well, but I am older and wiser, so the mild success of last year has me wanting for greatness this year.
My hunting group--all family, from dad to brothers to sons--have a few deer between us, so a few batches of sausage and snack sticks, jerkey and bacon, and maybe even some brats will most likely be attempted. I will post some of these in the appropriate categories over the next few days as time allows, and hope you guys enjoy, but this is the summer sausage.
We have two different batches mixed stuffed and smoked, just resting in the fridge a couple days to bloom before sealing and freezing. The first was a 30 pound batch made with a High mountain summer sausage kit where we added a little extra garlic and mixed as 21 pounds venison, 6 pounds of 73/27 beef, and 3 pounds of high fat pork loin. This mix has good fat content and doesn't seem too dry or too fatty or greasy for our tastes.
Sorry I didn't get any starter pics, but here is the first batch in the smoker.
The next batch was made with a roasted garlic kit I ordered out of Curleys sausage kitchen. This is a new flavor for me, but have read here on SMF that it is supposed to be good. This batch we mixed up straight 50/50 venison to pork. Again, sorry I missed the early shots, but after the smoke, IT to 155 and ice water bath, I hung it up to bloom for a couple hours before spending a couple days resting in the fridge before packaging.
Thanks for looking. I will be back after soon with money shots of the finished product to share with everyone once the required rest time is up.:pot:
Last year was a major learning session, and this year may be as well, but I am older and wiser, so the mild success of last year has me wanting for greatness this year.
My hunting group--all family, from dad to brothers to sons--have a few deer between us, so a few batches of sausage and snack sticks, jerkey and bacon, and maybe even some brats will most likely be attempted. I will post some of these in the appropriate categories over the next few days as time allows, and hope you guys enjoy, but this is the summer sausage.
We have two different batches mixed stuffed and smoked, just resting in the fridge a couple days to bloom before sealing and freezing. The first was a 30 pound batch made with a High mountain summer sausage kit where we added a little extra garlic and mixed as 21 pounds venison, 6 pounds of 73/27 beef, and 3 pounds of high fat pork loin. This mix has good fat content and doesn't seem too dry or too fatty or greasy for our tastes.
Sorry I didn't get any starter pics, but here is the first batch in the smoker.
The next batch was made with a roasted garlic kit I ordered out of Curleys sausage kitchen. This is a new flavor for me, but have read here on SMF that it is supposed to be good. This batch we mixed up straight 50/50 venison to pork. Again, sorry I missed the early shots, but after the smoke, IT to 155 and ice water bath, I hung it up to bloom for a couple hours before spending a couple days resting in the fridge before packaging.
Thanks for looking. I will be back after soon with money shots of the finished product to share with everyone once the required rest time is up.:pot:
