Summer Sausage Making
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Blood
01-Dec-24
Ready to go in.
Ready to go in.
And tucked in for a few hours.
And tucked in for a few hours.
Thank you to a few of you in past who posted about making summer sausage. I think Cnelk had the directions I used for smoking - they are still smoking as I post.
I had 29lbs of deer meat I ground up and added the seasoning for jalapeño cheddar summer sausage. I’ve never attempted this before. My brother came over and spent the afternoon grinding, mixing and preparing this with me. I hope it finishes as good as I think it will. It smelled awesome when we mixed it all up.
From: midwest
01-Dec-24
Did you add pork?
From: Jasper
01-Dec-24
I love summer sausage and enjoy making it as well.
From: Blood
01-Dec-24
No pork added. Jalapeño seasoning, cure, a little water to bind the seasoning, and some dried out sharp cheddar cheese cubes I cut up.
From: Bwhnt
01-Dec-24
Looking fwd to an update! We love that stuff!
From: cnelk
01-Dec-24
After putting a bull elk, a cow moose and a WT buck in the freezer this fall, I’m about ready to make some summer sausage myself.
I give them for Christmas gifts.
From: Blood
02-Dec-24
How do you store them? I was thinking to vacuum seal them individually and either put them in the refrigerator or freezer until I want to use them. Thanks for the advice.
From: Lawdog
02-Dec-24
I vacuum seal them individually and freeze. I replaced an old freezer last weekend and found one in the bottom of the freezer from a few years ago.
From: HiMtnHnter
02-Dec-24
I cut them in half, wrap in plastic wrap and freezer paper. I generally add about 10 lb of pork shoulder to 20 lb of venison. Seemd to be a good ratio for sausage.
From: midwest
02-Dec-24
With no pork added, I imagine it's going to be pretty dry. Also, you'll want to use high temp cheese but let us know how it turns out!
From: PushCoArcher
02-Dec-24
I like a 60/40 venison pork shoulder mix for sausage. For summer sausage I also like to add hi temp cheddar cheese at a 1lb per 10lb of meat and jalapenos. I usually do about 15 jalapenos per 10lb of meat of course not all jalapenos are the same heat so I adjust accordingly.
From: Lawdog
02-Dec-24
I don't add pork to my venison sausage, just pork fat. Over the years, I've experimented with the ratio of fat to meat. I've found that 20% is about right for me. In other words, one pound of fat for 5 pounds of meat. Do the math up or down from there. That included my Summer Sausage. Less was too dry, and more was too fatty. Please let us know how yours turns out.
From: cnelk
02-Dec-24
20% is my go to also. Don’t want the fat to overpower the venison
From: midwest
02-Dec-24
"I've found that 20% is about right for me. In other words, one pound of fat for 5 pounds of meat."
20% ratio would be 1 lb. fat plus 4 pounds of meat.
I wish I could find some pork fat. The 2 lockers I checked with don't carry it. I can get beef tallow no problem and might give that a try. I have always been using 50/50 ground pork shoulder to venison.
From: JohnMC
02-Dec-24
I have had luck at local Safeway getting pork fat. They trim up pork chops and such. Especially when they’re having a sale. Typically they don’t keep it on hand, but if you ask, they’ll hold it and let you know when they have it available.
From: Bwhnt
02-Dec-24
Pork fat is hard to get. I made a deal to trade some sausage for fat back from a family I know that raises pigs. Works out good.
From: Shug
02-Dec-24
Looks great
From: cnelk
02-Dec-24
Find a small grocery store that cuts their own meat. Go in early and talk to the butcher.
It’s really not that difficult
From: sitO
02-Dec-24
I've bought the "country" style pork ribs, when I couldn't get straight fat. They're fairly cheap and already cut in strips so you can chunk them and toss into grinder easily.
From: Lawdog
02-Dec-24
I get my fat either from a local butcher shop, and they charge me for it. I made some regular sausage over the weekend. I was at Publix and asked if they had any. Publix gave it me. I assume that any grocery store that trims and packages its own meat, will have fat. I've also used pork bellies.
From: Blood
02-Dec-24
Wow!
Wow!
Here you all go. Absolutely delicious. Smoked it for about 5 hours with hickory chips until it hit 165. Cold water bath last night and into the fridge. Tried it just now with two others who aren’t hunters and don’t eat venison….and they gave it an A+ rating. Said they wouldn’t even know it was deer meat :)
I couldn’t imagine putting any fat into this mix. It’s perfect just the way it is, nice and lean. And the dehydrated cheddar cubes I made worked flawlessly.
From: swp
02-Dec-24
Looks Good! Glad it worked for you.
From: midwest
02-Dec-24
Looks delish!
From: Stoneman
02-Dec-24
Looks pretty darn good! I like lean meat.
From: Nick Muche
02-Dec-24
Looks good to me!
From: Bwhnt
02-Dec-24
Looks really good!
From: cnelk
02-Dec-24
Looks great Blood. I may try not putting any fat in a batch sometime. The 165 temp is typically for the pork so I’m not sure if it needs to go that high with lean venison
From: Lawdog
02-Dec-24
OMG. That does look terrific. Next time ....
From: arlone
02-Dec-24
My brother-in-law uses pork butt and mixes 50/50 for sausage and 70/30 for burger.
From: Cotton
03-Dec-24
I’ve been making my own Summer Sausage for several years and this year it really screwed up. Turned out kind of a Summer Sausage Jerky! I use a 50/50 mixture of venison and pork loin along with the cure seasoning. According to the instructions I then put it in my smoker at 180 degrees and waited until the core temperature of the sausage hit 160 deg. Never had a problem before but now I’m hoping “Summer Sausage Jerky” becomes popular!!!
From: Brian M.
03-Dec-24
Looks great Blood, how many times through the grinder and where did you get the casings?
From: scent
03-Dec-24
Blood, you sure know a way to a guys heart ;0)
From: Blood
03-Dec-24
Haha. Thanks. First time I tried it and I think I did ok. I got the casings from amazon.
We used the coarse grind first and then mixed all the seasoning and some water in. Then we ran it through the fine grind. Then added the cheese. I used hickory chips in the smoker. I can’t believe how good this tastes!
From: butcherboy
03-Dec-24
That’s pretty much how I make mine but I do add a little bit of pork fat. Not much though. Run it through the coarse plate then add seasoning, cure, and water. Mix and then grind through the fine plate but I do this part twice. After that is when I add any high temp cheese. I add jalepenos before the second fine grind and have found that I prefer fresh jalepenos over dehydrated.
