How do you make sausage?

[tikkalover]

So, beings 2400 asked me in the Deal Alert thread how to make sausage lets help him out.

Here's how I do my sausage. If making with venison I do a 50/50 blend of venison and pork. I weigh out the venison to see how much pork I need. The tricky part is getting the right fat content to your sausage so it isn't to dry or to fatty. You can either buy pork butts like I just did or they have pork trimmings, if I use those I get the 80/20 ones. My grinder came with 3 grinding plates and I use the medium sized one. Go to the local meat shop or grocery store (or order them from Mossymo)and buy the seasonings for the appropriate amount of meat you have and fallow the directions on the package. I grind all my meat into a plastic tote that is big enough that I can also mix the seasoning into the ground up meat. My kids say I'm an over achiever when it comes to mixing the meat with the seasonings. Then I stuff into medium sized casings. I typically make 50 pound at a time. I then cold smoke it for 2 1/2 hours in my Bradley biscuit shooter, then vacuum seal and freeze it, beings I cold smoke mine, we just have to cook it longer when eating it.
If I don't have venison I substitute 85% ground beef, if I make it this way I usually just do a 25lb batch at a time.

 

[mikef]

we started making 25#at a time. roughly 55-60% pork, rest 90% lean beef (usually hb). i mostly use a local country style store bought blend of seasonings with some pepper and garlic added. I smoke 1 hour at 165ish. i wrap in seran, then freezer wrap. At 25lbs, it doesnt last long enough to freezer burn

 

[Retired Educator]

Pretty much the same as above. I do use exclusively pork butts. It seems that unless the butts are really fatty I can use the whole thing with venison or waterfowl and the sausage comes out with the right amount of fat. Also use prepared sausage seasonings and usually add pepper and garlic water. Not big on trying various seasoning as over the years the family has pretty much let me know what the favorites are and what they don't like. Do accept suggestions from time to time that sound good and usually it's just adding to an existing seasoning mix.

Examples of additions would be: mustard seeds in summer sausage, one head of garlic boiled in a quart of water and then ran through the blender, (this is used in place of water that is usually called for in any sausage recipe), extra pepper is good in most sausages, taco seasoning can change a batch quite nicely sometimes, don't be afraid to change a little if it sounds good.

 

[ItemB]

Yep pretty much the same as tikkalover. Depending upon how deer season goes and how much Venison I end up with is how I decide my ratios. And use pork butts and just cut them up to fit in the grinder. A couple years ago didn't have much Venison left so made a batch of sausage of 80% pork butt with 20% deer. Turned out pretty good little fatty but wasn't too bad.