Freezing/Storing Venison Sausage

[osage]

I plan to smoke some venison sausage this coming weekend. I hate to make too much at one time. It doesn't seem to keep well long-term in the freezer. I may just grind all the venison and pork trimmings/jowl, smoke a couple pounds and keep the excess meat in the freezer. Does anyone have a good way to store or freeze sausage that keeps it fresh?

 

[goat]

vacuum seal it and it will keep forever. I make enough this time of the year to last me a year and it is just as good a year from now as it is the day I make it.

 

[ds7662]

What they said. Vacum sealer. Its worth the money.

 

[mossymo]

I am in the same boat as goat; make enough for a years worth. Vacuum seal and freeze. Actually better in my opinion with a little freezer time than before, when it was fresh out of the smoker.

 

[osage]

Been thinking of getting one for butchering. Do you use the regular garden-variety kind you find in the canning isle at the grocery store?

 

[kookie]

Get a FoodSaver brand. They are dependable and you can find reasonable deals on them. I got mine last year at Kolhs for like 80 buck and that came with three canisters. The canisters work great for coffee and spices. I also have one for marinating, cuts down the soak times. The best money I ever spend. I use it to store meat before and after a smoke. There are many uses for the vac sealers.

Kookie

 

[rodbuilder]

Being a woodworker, I also use mine to seal my mixed finishes to keep them from forming a skin on top. Works great for that too...

 

[funh2o]

Yes, I agree with all the replies. I use a food saver for vacume sealing my fresh fish fillets and breasts of game birds. They also are nice for left over foods that you don't want to throw out. Well worth the money.

Steve

 

[smokingrookie]

Osage, With my venison sausage I seem to have good luck wrapping in plastic and then in freezer paper seems to last at least a year, just another suggestion although the foodsaver would be the best bet,
Good Luck Travis

 

[seaham358]

Like smokingrookie my Dad for years wrapped all meats in plastic wrap tight to protect it from any trapped air then wrapped in a good freezer paper with the wax? shinny stuff on the inside. Then he used masking tape to seal all the folds closed.. I mean all the seams got 1-2 layers of tape and I have used this same method and it works great. I have meat 3 years old and its just as good as the day it wen in. I also have a Foodsaver and love it..

 

[~kev~]

My sausage is made by the local butcher. I just bring him the deer and tell him what I want.

Recently the butcher started vacuum sealing the sausage. But I can not tell the difference between the vacuum sealed and the wrapped in paper sausage. The butcher wraps or seals the sausage after its smoked. 2 deer usually give my family enough sausage to last a full year. A year after the deer has been processed, and its still good either way its packaged.

The vacuum sealed might be a little better. A year after the deer was packaged in paper, I have seen frost develop around the sausage. But around here, we cook deer sausage almost every time we grill. So by the start of the next hunting season, we are almost out and time for a refill. If I had to pick between the two, go with vacuum sealed. This also saves room in the freezer.


One of the two, 8 points I took during the 2006 - 2007 hunting season.

 

[jerseyhunter]

I don't know what kind your making, but if your making breakfast, then omit the sage as it will bitter in time. Then vacum seal and you'll be go to go.

 

[buddyboy]

I have for many years used the plastic wrap and then freezer paper for my venison sausage. I also have a Food Saver food saver bag can it expensive, so from a cost point of view the freezer paper is the way to go if not storing for a long period of time. With five grown and married kids my sausage is gone in a few months. I use the Food Saver of long time storage.