# Snack Sticks, Fresh Sausage & Summer Sausage.....Mule Deer



## thoseguys26 (Dec 31, 2012)

Bambi the Mule Deer made her way to my grinder over the weekend. The meat was surprisingly sweet because it was so young and the area it was harvested was low in sage. It was better then any whitetail I've ever eaten and quite close to some elk I've had.  After making a burger and some sloppy joe's out of it, I decided it's time for sausage's and I ended up hardly adding any fat, especially pork because I wanted to keep the natural sweet game flavor of Bambi the Mule Deer.

*Summer Sausage*

For the first time, I tried A.C. Legg's Summer Sausage #114. 10lbs regular and 10lbs with the mix plus, fresh Jalapeno's, Jalapeno powder, cayenne, & high temp sharp cheddar cheese. The packet calls for 25lbs of meat but I used only 20lbs and I was very happy with the results. Especially the Jap Ched because of the flavor the pwdr brought to the table. I used twice as much as I usually do and it paid off.

*Fresh Sausage*

I used a very mild breakfast type seasoning for this sausage. I wanted to keep the sweet natural flavor of this young deer so I kept it 100% mule. I know, shake your head that it'll come out dry when cooked.. well it didn't :)  I make sure to pan boil or just boil them to keep in the juices and sure, they're dryer than your pork sausage but they're by no means 'dry'.  Some of the best venny sausage I've had and I think it's because the spices are simple and the meat is young & sweet!

*Snack Sticks*

Who doesn't like snack sticks?! Again, tried to keep the awesome flavor of this meat but I was going to smoke & cook these so I brought in some pork baby! 9lbs of mule to 1lb fatty fatty trimmings.

Eatable collagen casings. Cherry dust smoked.

Enjoy!













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Jalapeno Popper Buger

Stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, fresh chopped jal's, chopped pickled jal's plus a TB of the juice from the jar (this makes it).

Acorn squash on the side.













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Mule deer Sloppy Joe













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Another Jalapeno popper burger but this time it's on a crusted ciabatta roll.  Yum













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Time to mix the meat.













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Mixed and sitting overnight.













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MES 40 wood dowel. I just took a saw and cut a spacing for the rack holders to slide into the dowel. Seems to work well.













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Nighttime TBS













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Had a couple handfulls of summer sausage meat left over that didn't make it into casings.. made some meat ball sandwiches out of them :)













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Snack Sticks 













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Fresh Sausage

beautiful













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*Bonus***   Canadian Bacon  brined with only Salt, Pepper & Truvia (natural sweetener or something..).  Before smoking, I rubbed it with a simple syrup I made with spring water and dissolved Truvia. The Truvia didn't really dissolve like real sugar so I think it would be just as effective to just sprinkle the stuff on the meat in it's crystal form.  Cherry and Mesquite dust until IT was 158°F.

It kept a really white color because there was no cure in it and the Truvia I think helped lighten it up also.

I made this for a friend who has some sort of IBS and has a very sensitive stomach these days but can have meat, S & P & Truvia. He's going to love this!! Next is bacon! He hasn't had bacon in 3 years..

* I was very surprised in the hammy texture being I used only salt and no cure. Maybe the Truvia had something to do with it?













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## woodcutter (Dec 31, 2012)

Amazing how many different approaches to a mule deer. It all looks great! What is the dark red sausage? We made blood sausage once and it looked very similar in color.


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## daveomak (Jan 1, 2013)

Shane, morning.... You been busy..... Nice looking sausage, sticks and CB..... 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






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## lu1847 (Jan 1, 2013)

Looks amazing mister!  I wondered how you liked the LEM jalapeño and cheddar kit.  Would you smoke again or recommend that kit. Thanks


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## thoseguys26 (Jan 1, 2013)

Woodcutter said:


> Amazing how many different approaches to a mule deer. It all looks great! What is the dark red sausage? We made blood sausage once and it looked very similar in color.


The darker sausage is actually the same as the rest of the pictures. The lighting and angle of the pic made it look darker then the others. It was a little darker then I'm used to but I did use some red wine in the recipe and I didn't neccessarily drain all the blood out of the meat either.

I figured since it's all mule deer I'd keep the blood for moisture. After eating it, it seems like I made the right decision.


DaveOmak said:


> Shane, morning.... You been busy..... Nice looking sausage, sticks and CB.....
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> ...


Dave, I have been. I'm trying to get caught up starting some threads and showing off the latest products! I haven't even touched all of the elk meat in the freezer!!


lu1847 said:


> Looks amazing mister! I wondered how you liked the LEM jalapeño and cheddar kit. Would you smoke again or recommend that kit. Thanks


Thanks!   I just realized I listed the wrong spice pack I used!  
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





 I'll fix the typo above.

This is actually what I used for both batches;  A.C. Legg's Summer Sausage #114.   Sorry

For the one batch I just used that mix and for the other I added my own fresh Jalapeno's and my own Jalapeno's powder plus some high temp sharp cheddar cheese.

I am very pleased with the flavor of this mix. It's a very traditional, medium intensity flavored summer sausage. I prefer making my own spice mixes but I would be tempted to use this stuff again.


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## lu1847 (Jan 7, 2013)

Thanks 26 I think I'll give it a try.


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## smokinhusker (Jan 7, 2013)

Looks great!!!! 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





   I noticed you hung the summer sausage but not the snack sticks - I use my dowels and hang the snack sticks as well...no touching that way.


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## thoseguys26 (Jan 8, 2013)

SmokinHusker said:


> Looks great!!!!
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I seem to be able to fit more snack sticks in my smoker when I use the racks plus the great nepas once told me the wooden dowels can leave the meat touching the dowel a little less cooked then the rest.

I need to get some of the metal ones someday.


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