In Search of Venison Sausage Ideas

[ghostguy6]

As the title says I'm looking for some ideas on how to use up my ground venison this year. I must say I am sick of doing pepperoni! After going through my smoking logs I realized I crossed the 1000 lbs mark last year. I already have enough summer sausage, snack sticks and salami to last me into early 2025. 10 lbs of barbarian summer brats already in the freezer. 100 premade deer burger paddies already in the freezer. While I am out of honey garlic and kielbasa I think I would like to try something different. Casings are scarce around here right now unless I want to pay a fortune for collagen. I can however get the larger fibrous casings for sandwich meats. I do have a bundle of 32-36 mm hog casings to use up so I guess I am looking for sausage rings or brats. Im not set up to do fermented sausages at the moment. So what are some of the other sausages that taste good with venison?
Thanks for looking.

 

[rwilli]

Why not make a big batch of 70/30 mix (venison/pork) and from that, make some breakfast sausage, Italian sausage, chorizo, and plain ground for meatloaf, hamburgers etc---all very easy, no casings required and very useful in every day meals. Just fyi.

 

[smokerjim]

How about some ring bologna

 

[BigW.]

Keep some plain for chili also. Most folks love ground jerky and that disappears fast. I had some made into deer bacon this year and that's pretty good.

 

[KBFlyer]

I was going to suggest deer bacon also.

 

[chopsaw]

Ground formed bacon is a great use for venison . I used all pork butt , but have had it with venison . I used the mix from Owens , and have had it with the mix from Curley's . Both good .
Here's a thread I did on the all pork if you're interested .

Owen's BBQ Ground Formed Bacon

Finally got around to doing this . 12 lbs all pork . I don't fry test much anymore , but this was a new one for me , so I put a patty in the pan . Taste was good . Not like bacon but good . So I'm thinking , needs to be cured and smoked to be bacon . Should be good . Used 3 - 11 x 8 pans . About...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[tallbm]

As the title says I'm looking for some ideas on how to use up my ground venison this year. I must say I am sick of doing pepperoni! After going through my smoking logs I realized I crossed the 1000 lbs mark last year. I already have enough summer sausage, snack sticks and salami to last me into early 2025. 10 lbs of barbarian summer brats already in the freezer. 100 premade deer burger paddies already in the freezer. While I am out of honey garlic and kielbasa I think I would like to try something different. Casings are scarce around here right now unless I want to pay a fortune for collagen. I can however get the larger fibrous casings for sandwich meats. I do have a bundle of 32-36 mm hog casings to use up so I guess I am looking for sausage rings or brats. Im not set up to do fermented sausages at the moment. So what are some of the other sausages that taste good with venison?
Thanks for looking.

If you want a simple sho'nuff option, Lem's Backwoods fresh Brats are out of this world (when using my by weight calculations)!

Go 80/20 venison to pork fat, mix it up, stuff, and grill! Super simple and wow amazing flavor!

I can't believe that an off the shelf seasoning (Lems) makes the best Brats and best Franks I've had anywhere.
I never tried a recipe for Brats outside of this off the shelf seasoning because I never needed one and it destroyed all other brats I've ever tried and I tried a lot.
The Frank seasoning was almost the same story except I tried about 4 different Frank recipes and none of them could touch the Lem's Franks.

It would be an interesting experiment to try out and see if you like, plus it's super simple and easy :D

I hope this info helps :D

 

[bertman]

I'll second what Big W, KBFlyer, and chopsaw said about bacon. I made venison bacon using Curley's mix, and formed round loaves (link) to slice for breakfast sandwiches.

I also would highly recommend this breakfast sausage from meat eater. It really surprised me.

 

[Fueling Around]

Harvest less venison? Sorry, just a thought.

Fresh sausages as rwilli pointed out is the missing portion of your inventory. Vary the venison to pork ratio depending on the (pork) fat ratio. I make a killer version at roughly 50/50 venison to a clone Jimmy Dean pork sausage.
Never tried venison bacon, but ground meat jerky is my my favored for venison. Whole meat venison jerky is too chewy for me.

Next time save a couple haunches to make dried venison.

Another thought. Anyone you can trade venison for pork or beef or chicken?

 

[Brokenhandle]

Not sausage like you are asking for but maybe save some venison to eat as roasts, make jerky, some of the tougher cuts braised in the crock pot. Cut some of the deer and make chislic.
Lots of things can be made but sounds like you are about sausaged out.

Ryan

 

[indaswamp]

40% venison/40% Beef (rump, sirloin, chuck....any large cut of beef) / 20% beef fat (preferably brisket fat)

grind thru 4.5mm plate and stuff into 1# meat bags.

We do 300-350# of grind meat like this every year during our big deer processing week in February.

Last year...
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/processing-week-2023.317424/page-4#post-2411317

 

[indaswamp]

Make this with 60% venison/20% pork/20% pork fat....



Can make as is or leave the green onion out, up the garlic powder amount, drop the onion powder amount, adjust pepper to your taste....case in 32-35mm hog casing. Great venison fresh sausage...on a bun, gravy with rice, in beans...etc.....

 

[ghostguy6]

Keep some plain for chili also. Most folks love ground jerky and that disappears fast. I had some made into deer bacon this year and that's pretty good.

I already have quite a bit of plain ground venison to use like ground beef. I guess I should have mentioned that in the first post. I might have to look into the deer bacon. I usually have a good supply of Pop's back bacon in the freezer.

Harvest less venison? Sorry, just a thought.
Another thought. Anyone you can trade venison for pork or beef or chicken?

I harvested 1 dry doe and one small buck this year. Normally this is just enough to last me through the year. After the hunting was done I discovered I had 25 lbs of ground moose stored at a friends place I had completely forgotten about. Then on top of that I was gifted 2 quarters from someone who discovered they don't like wild meat. I was able to find a home for 1 of the quarters.

I am not legally allowed to trade the meat in any way. Technically I cant even donate it to a food program anymore since the carcass wasn't processed at a licensed professional butcher. (although the meat I have now looks way better than what you get from a butcher here)

Not sausage like you are asking for but maybe save some venison to eat as roasts, make jerky, some of the tougher cuts braised in the crock pot. Cut some of the deer and make chislic.
Lots of things can be made but sounds like you are about sausaged out.

Ryan

Lots of roasts and a big bag of jerky cuts already. I wouldn't say I am sausaged out, just looking for new flavour profiles rather than the traditional summer and garlic sausages.

Indaswamp, I will check out that video you posted, thanks.

 

[Timber II]

Following along here…..

 

[Flash Burn]

Rytek's book on page 283.
Venison country sausage. Excellent flavor, great breakfast sausage and really tasty with yellow mustard.
I'm not much of a hunter but my neighbors down the road from me harvest quite a few deer that are nuisance deer damaging farm crops.
I just finished 30 lbs of it. I leave out the soy protein and add 30% pork trimmings and fat.

 

[DaveyCrockett]

Following as well!
I'm doing about 15# of brats when I find the right mix. Probably doing some regular and some with a dark beer in it.
What about a summer sausage like a jalopeño cheddar?

 

[rippper]

just made a 10 lb batch of ps seasoning german ring balogna turned out real good

 

[archeryrob]

To each his own and I did not like the straight deer and pork fat. I cut the venison 50/50 with pork shoulder and pork fat. I also liked just close to a 30% fat content. IMO, they don't use beef for sausages because texture is different just like pork is not making bologna. Deer or very similar to very lean beef. But that is my opinion.

Here is a recipe I did years back for Sweet Italian sausages

Sweet Italian Sausage

I have been on a little bit of a mission lately trying to find better ways to make deer meat. I wanted more sausages and hotdog kind of easy meal stuff to use it for.

archeryrob.wordpress.com

 

[chopsaw]

archeryrob I couldn't agree more with your comments . Spot on .

 

[archeryrob]

My favorites to use ground is Bologna, I do Lebanon Bologna. I also have to submit the Vension bacon is a good choice. I am about to run a 20# batch of Honey BBQ ground jerky Maybe mix Tuesday and dehydrate/cook Wednesday. You get a good wet mixture and emulsify it good. I have a 25# mixer for the LEM #12 and run it 10 minutes at least. Squirt on the trays and it forms right up like bologna. Tender like Jack Links. I like the old school stuff, but the girls like the tender stuff. I got 4 cups of dark buckwheat honey from my buddy for this run.

My venison bacon recipe. Mine you just kind of heat as if you cook to long the syrup and sugar will burn. Its great on an egg sandwich.

Venison bacon

So, I had a bunch of extra ground deer meat in the freezer this summer and I did not need any more bologna. So I used 10 pounds and made venison bacon. People were raving about it on Facebook venis…

archeryrob.wordpress.com

IMO, Vension for making sausages is just a way to stretch pork. Venison being free, but pork is cheap. Venison should be substituted for beef meals as the fit and bite is the same.