The second Elk/Deer season in Colorado did not yield much this year because of work obligations from my son's employer..... unfortunately we had to leave early. We did however harvest one small buck and I decided to put the entire critter into Summer Sausage.... Venison style.
It came out WONDERFUL. Attached are some photos of the casing stuffing process.
The first grind is of course through the course plate. This is just boneless venison. Shortly it will be combined with the course ground pork butts and then the spices will be mixed and allowed to mellow for about 24 hours.
This is the course ground pork sitting next to the seasoning that will be throughly mixed soon.
My new STUFFER. This thing is awesome. Solidly built and saves a lot of wear and tear from my grinder that I usually used to stuff the casings.
The casings are stuffed and ready for the smoker. The casings are a fibrous casing so the meat really soaks up the smoke. I used a mix of apple and cherry with a hand full of hickory thrown in. Any wood might have worked but I have really started to use of lot of this mix. Sometimes I substitute mesquite for the hickory.
The casings are preprinted with "Venison Sausage" logo and a buck head. I get off on this type of thing but I also did some plain clear casings. The cost was the same..... why would anyone order them when you can get these... at least if you are doing venison.
The sausage came out INDESCRIBABLE ! ! ! I have been stuffing sausage since I was 6 years old and had to stand on a box to reach Dad's grinder in his meat shop. I still love messin' with this process.
It came out WONDERFUL. Attached are some photos of the casing stuffing process.
The first grind is of course through the course plate. This is just boneless venison. Shortly it will be combined with the course ground pork butts and then the spices will be mixed and allowed to mellow for about 24 hours.
This is the course ground pork sitting next to the seasoning that will be throughly mixed soon.
My new STUFFER. This thing is awesome. Solidly built and saves a lot of wear and tear from my grinder that I usually used to stuff the casings.
The casings are stuffed and ready for the smoker. The casings are a fibrous casing so the meat really soaks up the smoke. I used a mix of apple and cherry with a hand full of hickory thrown in. Any wood might have worked but I have really started to use of lot of this mix. Sometimes I substitute mesquite for the hickory.
The casings are preprinted with "Venison Sausage" logo and a buck head. I get off on this type of thing but I also did some plain clear casings. The cost was the same..... why would anyone order them when you can get these... at least if you are doing venison.
The sausage came out INDESCRIBABLE ! ! ! I have been stuffing sausage since I was 6 years old and had to stand on a box to reach Dad's grinder in his meat shop. I still love messin' with this process.