Wild Game Summer Sausage Recipes

WILD GAME SUMMER SAUSAGE RECIPE

Steps:

• While keeping everything ice cold (see methods for fresh sausage), combine the game meat, pork fat, and all of the other ingredients except for the Fermento, water, and casings in a large bowl.
• Mix to combine with your hands. Work in small batches if you need to, and don't be afraid to throw the meat back in the fridge or freezer, or into a cooler with ice, to get chilled again.
• Using the 1/4-inch plate on your grinder, grind the meat mixture into the bowl set over ice.
• Change out the grinder plate to the 3/16-inch plate and pass the mixture through the grinder again.
• Meanwhile, dissolve the Fermento in the water and stir with a spoon.
• Add to the ground meat mixture and again mix with your hands, or throw the meat mixture in the bowl of a standing mixer and mix on low, until it's all incorporated.
• Press a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the meat, making sure there are no air bubbles. Then wrap the bowl with a second layer of plastic wrap and set it in the fridge for 2 days to ferment.
• Make a little test patty and cook it up in a sauté pan to be sure you got the seasonings right. Adjust them if you didn't. Then, using a sausage stuffer, stuff the sausage into the casings.
• Let the stuffed casings rest in the fridge to dry out for 1-2 hours.
• While the stuffed sausages are resting, soak a panful of applewood chips for 20 minutes.
• Preheat the smoker to 112°-130°.
• Set the pan of chips in the smoker. Lay or hang the sausages in the smoker.
• Smoke for about 60 minutes at this temperature, then raise the temperature to 180°.
• Smoke until the internal temperature reaches 150°, which will probably take 2-3 hours, depending on your particular smoker and the ambient temperature.
• Keep refilling the pan of apple wood chips as they get low.
• When the sausages are done, let them hang at room temperature for 1 hour to cool, then wrap well and refrigerate. They can be frozen for several months.

GRAMPS' VENISON SUMMER SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Place the venison in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with the curing mixture, mustard seed, garlic salt, pepper, and liquid smoke. Mix well with your hands until the mixture is evenly blended and begins to stick together, about 2 minutes.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 days, mixing well each day.
• Preheat an oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C).
• Divide the mixture into 5 one-pound logs, place onto a broiler pan, and place a sheet of aluminum foil on top to cover.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the logs are no longer pink in the center, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 160 degrees F (70 degrees C), 6 to 8 hours. Turn the meat once or twice during cooking. Allow to cool before slicing thinly and serving.