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If
you’re a hunter, or you know one, chances are you have the good fortune to
have access to deer meat each year. There are many ways to prepare deer, but
one of my favorites is to make venison sausage. It may seem intimidating to make
sausage at home, but with the right equipment and knowledge, it’s actually one of
the simplest and most sustainable things you can do in your kitchen.
Sausage is simply ground meat mixed with salt, fat, and seasonings. Although
you can make sausage with beef, veal, lamb, chicken, or game animals, most
sausages are made with pork, or pork combined with another meat. Commercial
sausage is prepared with preservatives and fillers, but by making your own, you
can leave out these unhealthy additives, and also control the amount of salt and fat
that goes in.
A meat grinder makes the process easier, but if you don’t have one, you can cut
the meat into small, uniform pieces and grind them in a food processor or blender.
This works best if you grind a small amount at a time.BREAKFAST VENISON SAUSAGE
Because partially thawed meat is
easier to slice, and is also less likely
to muck up your grinder, you should
partially freeze both the venison
and pork fat for this recipe before
beginning. The recipe can easily be
doubled or quadrupled. Yields about
11 ⁄ 2 pounds.1 pound venison (large muscle)(^1) ⁄ 2 to (^3) ⁄ 4 pound solid pork fat (pork
shoulder, ground pork, or pork fat
scraps you’ve saved in the freezer
throughout the year)
1 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Sausage seasoning (see recipes on
Pages 58-59)
- Remove the silverskin (connec-
tive tissue) from the venison. Cut
the meat from the bone into man-
ageable-sized strips that’ll easily fit
through the meat grinder. - Cut the pork fat into small pieces.
- Process the venison and pork fat
through the meat grinder. - Place the ground mixture into
a large bowl, and mix it with your
hands until it’s thoroughly combined.
Add the salt and sausage seasoning,
and mix again. - Form a small patty, and cook it on
the stovetop to test the flavor. Unlike
with pure pork sausage, you’ll need