Making smoked venison summer sausage

[cnelk]

I recently made 10lbs smoked antelope summer sausage and from the taste reports I got, it turned out pretty good.


I purchased a seasoning summer sausage  kit from LEM to do 20lbs of sausage. The kit is is made to do 5lb increments


I first ground up the antelope and froze it in 1lb packages.
This way I can make a wide assortment of meals


Ok... I thawed the antelope meat and pork fat and followed the recipe below


Mix 9lbs of ground venison per 1lb pork fat [cubed]
Follow seasoning / curing instructions on packet
Refrigerate for 24rs in covered plastic container
Next day - Stuff casings
Place / hang in smoker with plenty of space around each
First Hour ?
Set temp in smoker to 140 with damper wide open until product is dry/tacky to touch

Second Hour ?
Close damper and raise temp to 220 and smoke for 1 hr 30 min

Third Hour ?
Reduce temp to 170 ? Maintain until internal temperature of the sausage product reaches 155 degrees internally at which time the sausage is fully cooked.

Remove sausages from smoker and shower with cold water or place in ice bath to stop cooking process.

Blooming ?
Suspend sausage at room temperature for 2-3 hours. This allows sausage to dry and ?age? before storage

Refrigerate or vacuum seal and freeze for later use

 

[cnelk]

The 1 1/2" casings hold about 3/4lb of sausage

 

[cnelk]

Hang in smoker

 

[cnelk]

During the smoking process

 

[cnelk]

The blooming process

 

[cnelk]

There are many variations to make summer sausage, this one worked well.


In the pic above, you can see a 'roll' on the top shelf of the smoker.
This one has no casing as it was a test
It turned out just right too


You can also make summer sausage in your oven by using meat rolls if you dont want to use casings. But you wont get the smoky flavor


Enjoy your wild game!

 

[DTP]

I'm drooling while reading this.....

 

[cohunter14]

Thanks for sharing this Brad! I?m definitely going to have to try this with some antelope meat over the winter.

 

[Bowhunter1]

Looks tasty Brad.... Great snack while fishing the lakes this winter. :upthumb:

 

[cohunter14]

Gave this a shot over the weekend. Sausage turned out okay, but a few things I would throw out there from my experience:

First, we used Cabela's Summer Sausage kit. The kit itself is great, but a couple of things to note: first, we used 12 lbs total (10 lbs antelope grind and 2 lbs pork fat) and we measured the seasoning for the 12 lbs. To me, it was a little much on the seasoning. I would have gone a little less than what they recommend.


Second, we used the casings that came with the kit and they were 2 1/2" wide instead of 1 1/2" like Brad. Doing it this way took a LONG time to get the internal temp to where it was needed. We followed Cabelas cooking instructions and basically cooked them for 5 hours at 100-120 degrees, then cranked up the temp to 180-200. It took over 12 hours at this temp to get them to the recommended 156 degrees. I'm sure the 1 1/2" would have made the process go much faster.


Third, we did not let the seasonings sit with the meat overnight. We mixed them, ran them through the grinder again, and stuffed the sausage. Because of this, I think our mixture was a little on the wet side and made for sausage that is a little softer than normal. It's still very good, but if we would have let it sit overnight in the fridge and dried out a little bit, it would have been much better.


Finally, we only smoked the sausage for two hours instead of the recommended four that came with the package. We didn't want to over-smoke the sausage, but we definitely could have done all four hours as the sausage is not very smokey at all.


Highly recommend giving it a shot though! If we are able to knock down a few more antelope in a couple weeks, I think we are going to give the Jalapeno Cheddar sausage kit a try.

 

[cnelk]

Derek
Good to know about the 2 1/2" casings.
I cant use that size as that length they come in wont fit in my smoker

 

[cohunter14]

You can cut them in 1/2 if the length is too long and just tie the end up to essentially make two shorter sausages, but I?d probably stick with the smaller diameter if I were you.

 

[colorado russ]

Looks good Brad!  Must be that time of year as I made a batch of jalapeno/cheddar summer sausage last weekend.  I have a recipe for it so use fresh spices and buy the smaller mahogany casings.  The larger ones will fit in my bigger smoker but much easier using the 1 1/2" or 1 lb ones.


I can post the recipe if anyone is interested and doesn't want to do it the easy way with a kit!  Funny thing is I use a kit for snack sticks but not summer sausage.


I used 8 lbs of whitetail and 2 lbs of pork butt.  Everything else is same as Brad except cooking time.


1 hr at 150 degrees with hickory
1 hr at 160 degrees with hickory
1 hr at 170 degrees with hickory
2-4 hrs at 180 degrees until internal temp hits 150/155


ONLY downside with this batch is that the jalapenos aren't hot.  Good flavor and texture but no heat.  May need to make next batch in summer. 


Next is either chipotle/white cheddar summer sausage or spicy snack sticks!

 

[DTP]

I know what I'm doing with my Oklahoma doe!


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[semperfidelis97]

Tagging

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[Nicknotro1010]

has anyone used a pellet smoker like a target for this ? 

 

[Bignate]

Looks awesome.  Want to try that sometime.