How to Make Venison Sausage -an Easy Guide for both Taste and Safety

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Making Venison Sausage

Venison, meat from deer, is an important food source for many families in America and Canada, and with tough economic times, and often such an overpopulation of deer in many areas that disease and starvation threatens the herds, hunting deer and preserving the venison is becoming a necessity for many. When handled properly it can make an excellent meat. It can be refrigerated or frozen as meat cuts or sausage. It can also be preserved by canning, curing, or drying.

While these facts may be upsetting to vegans and vegetarians, this information may be useful to others. I will not reply to emails attempting to engage me in a discussion of the morality of hunting or eating meat. This page is about food preservation, not dogma.

Now, with THAT out of the way, here's how to preserve venison, based on information from the National Center for Home Food Preservation (see references at the bottom of the page)

Field-to-Refrigerator

Use care when field dressing the deer. Contaminating the carcass is one of the most common errors hunters make. Refrigerate the carcass as soon as possible for best quality; usually within 3-4 hours after killing if the air temperature is above 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Aging Venison

Aging will help dissipate the game taste and permit natural occurring enzymes to tenderize the tissues. Proper aging also firms the meat, giving it better cutting quality. Aging should be conducted between 32 - 35° F for 7 - 10 days. Never age at room temperature. Venison may be cut within 24 hours after the kill and still be acceptable for aging. Improper storage facilities increases risk for spoilage.

Making Sausage from Venison

If making a sausage, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper, you may want to avoid sage which can cause a bitter off-flavor.

Venison summer sausage recipe

Note: This sausage is quite spicy. If you like less spice, cut down proportions of spices.

Ingredients:

• 15 pounds venison
• 10 pounds pork trimmings (5 pounds lean trimmings, 5 pounds fat trimmings)
• 7 ounces (2/3 cup) salt
• 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) commercial cure
• 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) mustard seed
• 3 ounces (1/2 cup) pepper
• 3 ounces (1/2 cup) sugar
• 1/2 ounce (3 tablespoons) marjoram

Directions:

1. Mix salt and cure with coarsely ground venison and pork trimmings.
2. Pack in shallow pan and place in refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
3. Then add rest of ingredients and mix well.
4. Smoke sausage until internal temperature reaches 160 F as measured by a food thermometer.

Venison Garlic Sausage

Ingredients

• 12 pounds pork trim 60/40
• 10 pounds venison trim
• 2 pounds beef trim
• 1 pint water
• 1½ tablespoons cure
• 2/3 cup salt
• 4 tablespoons black pepper
• 2 teaspoons marjoram
• 5½ teaspoons mustard seed
• 2 cloves garlic or ½ teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

1. Coarse-grind meat trimmings.
2. Add salt, water, cure and spices; mix thoroughly.
3. Regrind through 1/4-inch diameter plate and stuff into pork casings.
4. Smoke the venison sausages to the desired color and heat to an internal temperature of 141 F.
5. The sausages must be cooked before serving.

Venison Polish Sausage

Ingredients

• 25 pounds 50/50 pork trimmings
• (50 percent lean and 50 percent
  fat)
• 20 pounds wild game (lean meat)
• 1 quart water
• 14 ounces (1⅓ cups) salt
• 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) cure
• 1/2 ounce (6 teaspoons) marjoram
• 1½ ounces (3 tablespoons) mustard
  seed
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 ounces (¼ cup) pepper

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Grind through a coarse plate, followed by a fine grind.
3.  Stuff in hog casing and stuff prepared sausage into 3-inch diameter fibrous casings
4. Smoke at 140°F for 1 hour, at 160°F for 1 hour, and at l80°F until internal temperature reaches 160°F (insert a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the sausage).
5. Remove from smokehouse and spray with hot water for 15–30 seconds.
6. Follow with cold spray or place in ice water to cool down rapidly.
7. Store in cooler at 40°F or colder.
   

Venison Bologna

Ingredients

• 10 pounds ground venison
• 1 pound hamburger
• 1/2 cup Morton’s Tender Quick Salt
• 2.5 cups vegetable oil
• 5 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons hickory smoke salt
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 4 teaspoons black pepper
• 5 teaspoons Liquid Smoke
• 1 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
• 2 envelopes Lipton beefy onion soup mix

Directions

1. Use casings or shape into logs approximately 1.5 inches in diameter.
2. Wrap in foil.
3. Bake in 350°F oven for approximately 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 160°F.
4. Yields six servings

Generic homemade venison smoked sausage process

1. Stuff prepared sausage into 3-inch diameter fibrous casings.
2. Smoke at 140 F for 1 hour, then at 160 F for one hour and then 180 F until internal temperature reaches 152 F (insert a food thermometer in the thickest part of the sausage to check internal temperature).
3. Remove from smoker/smokehouse and spray with hot water for 15 to 30 seconds.
4. Follow with a cold spray or place in ice water to cool down rapidly until the internal temperature is lowered to 100 F.
5. Air dry sausages for 1-2 hours.
6. Refrigerate at 40 F for up to 3 weeks.

 

Other sausage recipes

1. Guide to Home Sausage Making from the University of Connecticut
2. Fresh Game Sausage by University of Minnesota
3. North Dakota University - making sausage
4. North Dakota State University has a nice PDF guide of tips about making and preserving sausage and jerky

References and Cooperative Extension Game processing resources

1. Handling wild game meats, Clemson University
2. Penn State has a complete guide to processing wild game and fish PDF
3. The Hunt is On: Know the Basics of Venison Preservation UGa
4. Wild side of the menu No. 3 preservation of game meats. (Marchello M, Beck P. 2001. Wild Side of the Menu No. 3. Preservation of Game Meats. Fargo, ND: North Dakota State University.
5. Preserving Game Meats. Clemson, SC: Clemson University Preserving game meats (Hoyle EH. 1999.
6. National Center for Home Food Preservation,
   September 2002- Brian A. Nummer is Project Coordinator with the National Center for Home Food Preservation, Department of Foods and Nutrition, College of Family and Consumer Sciences and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science and Technology, The University of Georgia, Athens. This material is based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 00-51110-9762.
   National Center for Home Food Preservation
   208 Hoke Smith Annex
   The University of Georgia
   Athens, GA 30602-4356
   
   Tel: (706) 542-3773
   Fax: (706) 542-1979