Confused by an old recipe, please help!

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bigfish98

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Oct 13, 2011
394
12
Bismarck, ND
Here's the deal.  My wife has always talked about how her grandfather made venison sausage every year and how good it was.  Unfortunately, he died in 1997 and I never knew him.  Also unfortunately, the sausage making pretty much died with him.  I am trying to bring the practice back to the family, so I asked my mother-in-law for the recipe that was used by my wife's grandfather.  She was able to find two, both with the years that they were written down.  Here they are:

1985 - 50 lb meat - 60/40 deer/pork

3/4 c salt

1 gal warm water

2 oz (10 tsp) Prague Powder

1 1/2 oz Black pepper + 2 tbsp

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1/4 oz garlic powder + 1 tbsp

8 tbsp Concentrated Sausage Seasoning + 2 tbsp

10 c bull flour or soy concentrate

2 handfulls of tallow

10 tsp liquid smoke

1992 - 50 lb meat - 60/40 deer/pork + 2 handfulls of tallow

2 tsp red pepper

1 gal warm water

2 oz (10 tsp) Prague Powder

1 tbsp coarse Black pepper

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 sack of Concentrated Sausage Seasoning (2 1/2 lb 3 1/2 oz)

(10 tbsp of Concentrated Sausage Seasoning + 3/4 c salt)

10 c bull flour or soy concentrate

10 tsp liquid smoke

According to my wife, her grandfather would hang the sausage when it was stuffed so it could dry and then smoke it. 

I am having issues with these recipes. 

First, does anyone know if there is or was actually a product called "Concentrated Sausage Seasoning"?  I am thinking that he must of bought a sausage seasoning mix and used part of it in his recipe, but without the man to ask, I don't know. 

Second, does anyone use liquid smoke in their sausage and then smoke it?  It seems a little overboard to me, but I don't know for sure. 

I am assuming the + whatever behind some of the ingredients are additions made during the sausage making process.  Kind of an after the fact, that doesn't taste quite right, lets add a little more of this kind of thing.  If anyone has any other explanation please let me know. 

The rest of the recipes I pretty much understand other than the small amounts of some spices to the proportion of the meat, but I am chalking that up to personal preference. 

Thanks for looking at these and if anyone has any info, please share!

Bigfish
 
You might ask you MIL where your FIL bought all his seasonings.  The store may still have the spices on the shelf or the butcher may be familiar with it.   No telling what went into it,  you might check the posted venison sausage recipes and see what other kinds of seasonings they are using.

Have you ever made venison sausage?  If not why not start with a know recipe, maybe make some adjustments for the extra ingrediants you FIL added and see what happens.  Your wife can always say it needs more pepper or more of something  you can adjust from there.

Good Luck,  looks like the amount of cure he is using is about right.
 
These recipes look like an old fashion Amish or Mennontite recipe with the bull flour. I have used buckwheat flour at times.

The brown sugar will give the darkness like sweet lebanon bologna. I would skip the warm water and use cold. Most of the sausage seasoning back then were made with black pepper, coriander, salt, ground onion, The + is the added Tbs or tsp to the mix after the seasoning was mixed into the meat. Probably added after a taste test which was prob eaten raw at a small bite.

The liquid smoke can overpower the mix if added to high of a concentrate. And yes white sugar is used at times in conjunction with brown when applicable.
 
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When we were making sausage and bacon in class, we add liquid smoke to both. When I asked why add liquid smoke to a product that was going to be smoked anyway, I was told that it was an industry standard and almost all of the processors do this. Some processors don’t even smoke the meat anymore, they just add liquid smoke and heat the product to temperature and it’s done…..Sad, but true….
th_crybaby2.gif
Another thing I was thinking about on your recipe, is try smaller batches until you get it a better feel and taste for it…that way you are not wasting a lot of meat on something you may not like...…just a thought….Good Luck !!!! SB
 
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Hey Bigfish,

I have a great book on charcuterie, and the only reference to venison is for jerky.  I could send you the recipe, but probably not what your looking for.  I will check a few older cookbooks to see if there is a spice mixture for sausage, most likely found in an old Fannie Farmer, or possibly an early edition of the Joy of cooking.  I will look around get back to you.

NIck
 
By the small amounts of spice in the recipe I'm guessing most of the seasoning came from the Concentrated Sausage Seasoning and anything listed would be what he added to make it more to his liking.
Like Al mentioned if you could find the original seasoning or supplier you would be miles ahead of the game, otherwise you'll have to start from scratch I'm afraid.
What has me puzzled is the tallow.
 
By the small amounts of spice in the recipe I'm guessing most of the seasoning came from the Concentrated Sausage Seasoning and anything listed would be what he added to make it more to his liking.
Like Al mentioned if you could find the original seasoning or supplier you would be miles ahead of the game, otherwise you'll have to start from scratch I'm afraid.
What has me puzzled is the tallow.
I am assuming that the tallow is beef fat. 

Bigfish
 
I'm guessing Beef also as I'm not crazy about venison tallow. But tallow is rendered fat and I don't think I've ever seen it in a recipe. I guess I'll have to study some. If I come across any mention of the Concentrated Sausage Seasoning, I give ya a holler.
 
Bigfish, morning.....  I been thinking..... dangerous I know....  I would bet there was a deli/market/butcher shop in the neighbor hood that supplied him with seasonings...
 
I did a search for Concentrated Sausage Seasoning and this popped up. If you can't find the mix from your GFIL's local butcher, this may be a good place to start then add the rest of your recipe ingredients to get what your wife likes. Hi-Country has been around since the '70s, does not contain Cure and may very well be what he used. Good luck...JJ

http://www.hicountry.com/spices-fresh-ground-sausage.html
 
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Good luck bigfish. If your wifes family is like my wifes family, no matter how good it is it will never be as good as when your GFIL made it....

I agree with several who posted here. I bet the conc. sausage seasoning was a premix that he bought somewhere local. You might be able to use a generic mix like NEPAS mentioned and go from there.

It'll be a fun journey either way, sausage is great!
 
Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added is all.  You use a combination to get the correct amount of sugars and molasses.  I use both in my Pops Brine.
 
i never did understand the use of white and brown sugar in the same recipe.


You got that right!  The worst thing you can do is make batch after batch and keep adjusting... oh wait, I said "the worst thing"... isn't that the best thing???  LOL!  Have fun and enjoy!  I would cut it down to 10 lb. total meat batches and reduce your ingredients proportionally.  That would be 1/5th the amounts, or 20%.  If you convert all your measurements to grams, then multiply by 20%, it would be a lot easier.  Then convert back to lbs and oz.  (  http://www.mphindy.com/tech/ounces-to-grams-conversion-chart.pdf   )
Good luck bigfish. If your wifes family is like my wifes family, no matter how good it is it will never be as good as when your GFIL made it....

I agree with several who posted here. I bet the conc. sausage seasoning was a premix that he bought somewhere local. You might be able to use a generic mix like NEPAS mentioned and go from there.

It'll be a fun journey either way, sausage is great!
 
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