I got a half of a deer from a friend and I want to know if I can use the half for deer sausage?
Oh yeah I think the guys are getting you well covered with their answers.
I just got back from my yearly hunting trip. 4 deer, 1 feral hog. I do and will be making sausage myself in the near future :D
I 70/30 venison to fat will work. I do 80/20 and I use trimmed pork back fat I buy from the butcher or restaurant supply store. 80/20 always comes out perfect for me and my types of sausage AND the math is simple. 5 pounds sausage = 1 pound fat, 4 pounds meat. 10 pounds of sausage = 2 pounds fat, 8 pounds sausage. Do 5 and 10 pound batches and math keeps simple :D
NOW, you will hear a lot of people who mix pork butt with venison to make sausage which is not bad but know that a pork butt is about 80/20 meat to fat so if you add more meat you will skew the ratio to more meat, less fat AND you added a ton more weight while diluting your deer meat out of the mix (as
indaswamp
is educating you on).
Also
indaswamp
is 100% correct about cleaning your deer meat super well. You want ZERO deer fat. It doesn't taste well and is basically like eating candle wax hahahaha!
Clean ALL, yes ALL of the silver skin, sinew (clear slimey skin), and fat from your meat.
This means a lot of cleaning AND you will lose more meat than you think due to not being able to seperate the meat from this unwanted tissue.
IMPORANT: Rule of thumb is that if there is tissue you would NOT throw it in a skillet and eat it, then it should NOT be part of your grind/sausage, or steaks.
Here are some pro tips no how to clean your deer to save you time, sanity, and get you the best meat.
Unless you have giant deer here is the Bad and the Ugly:
- Deer Neck - Not worth the time to try and pull grind meat out of the neck.
Too much silver skin and other stuff that will have you carving for hours for little meat. You CAN roast/braise this as a whole if the deer/neck is big enough. I meat hunt and the bigger 90-105 pound does don't have necks worth messing with. So it can become dog food carvings or left on for the coyotes, buzzards, and feral hogs to live off of. Nature has to eat as well :D
- Deer Ribs - unless you somehow have a massive massive deer, not worth any effort in my book. This is even worse than the neck if you try to remove silver skin and sinew and get any usable meat. Also the amount of waxy tallow that comes out of ribs makes them pretty much inedible to most people with the exception of my father, who is rare maniac lol.
These are also great for dogs if you can get a clean cut on the bone (no jagged sharp bits) for each rib, leaving the meat on the bone. Dogs will love it!
- Deer Belly/Flaps/Flanks - this will fool you very well. It seems meaty but when you try to pull the silver skin and sinew off both sides you wind up with very little usable meat lol. It's not even good for braising in my experience. HOWEVER, this is like the holy grail of dog food. It's flat, pretty meaty, and can be easily cut into chunks. Your dogs will love you for it.
- Deer Shank (best kept secret) - you will hear people say to grind these or to make jerky out of them. I firmly disagree with how full of heavy silver skin they are, even amongst all that good meat in there. Again "the rule" if you wouldn't throw it in a skillet and eat, don't grind it.
These however make the most AMAZING braised dishes you may ever eat!!!! It brings a tear to my eye when people throw out the shanks, it might be my favorite part of the deer.
I cut the meat off the front and back shanks, leaving the heavy tendon pieces out. For back legs I ALSO include the big baseball size muscle called the Heel that is connected to that big tendon (cut away the big tendon).
Braise this meat with wine, tomatoes, onions, garlic, etc. and all that internal tendon and tissue will melt into amazing flavorful goodness!!!
The Good:
- Front Shoulders - you can good grind out of this. Front shoulders are PURELY grind in my book.
- Back Legs - this is where you will get the majority of your grind meat. There is a top round, bottom round, and a "sirloin" football hunk, and if lucky you can get a tri-tip and it's good meat near the top of the back leg where it would have connected to the pelvis. All great grind and the top round and bottom round are great for steaking. I just grind em all up and might save a big top and bottom round for steaking (I like bottom round for venison fajitas, top round is good too but thicker).
- Tenderloin - this is from the inside body cavity of the pelvis and spine area of your deer. Clean it, cook em however you like or grind it. It won't be munch meat so do what you will with it, I grind mine all the time.
- Back Strap (loin) - this is the primo cut of the deer. Clean it and know it will shrink DRASTICALLY in size by the time you clear all the silver skin off it. Steak it (cook rare/med rare) or grind it. I grind mine and people think I'm nuts for doing so, BUT I often keep my backstraps and tenderloins separate to grind and bag them separate from all the other grind meat. Make a venison burger patty or some dish from that meat and it's sooooo good.
You will come to find out that the time you spend trying to get good meat out of on the bad/ugly cuts is futile but hey, it's a learning experience we all go through. Don't feel bad to abandon the effort and deftault to some of the things I mention.
The good cuts... they are self explanatory.
Finally, venison tastes like a lean beef. So if you want to make something that is more traditionally beefy, then use beef fat in your sausage (ground pastrami, beef franks/hotdogs, beef breakfast sausage).
If you want something more traditionally pork then use the pork fat and the flavor will easily adapt (pork breakfast sausage, brats, franks/hot dogs, polish sausage, etc.).
In TX, sausage is always a BBQ smokehouse option. So plenty of beef/pork combo sausage we grew up loving. I put together a TX style Hot Link sausage that is full of flavor and a healthy bit of spicy kick. So if interested let me know.
Ask any questions you got, and enjoy your deer!