Venison Sausage Recipe - How to Make Venison Sausage (2024)

Home | How-To (DIY stuff) | Basic Venison Sausage

4.80 from 15 votes

By Hank Shaw

January 31, 2022 | Updated May 30, 2022

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This is a rich, country-style venison sausage recipe where the dominant spices are ground bay leaves and garlic. These are especially good for grilling, as bay seems to go well with the flavors that come with cooking over an open fire.

Venison Sausage Recipe - How to Make Venison Sausage (2)

I like this as a coarse sausage, but you can grind it finer if you’d like. I also prefer a mix of venison and pork — and do your best to use pork that has never been frozen. This is important, because never-frozen meat, when ground, binds to itself better than pre-frozen meat.

And you will be judged on how nice your bind is with sausages. No one likes crumbly sausage. More on this in a bit.

You will want fatty pork shoulder or pork belly, or a mix of both. You can use beef fat, too, if you prefer; use fat trimmed from steaks and roasts.

As for the venison in this venison sausage, you’ll want to use trim, mostly. No need for making a sausage from backstrap, although I do often add the “chain” off a whole backstrap. Stew meat, stuff between the ribs, neck bits, the odd and ends from squaring off roasts and steaks.

If you had your deer butchered at the processor, I would make venison sausage from roasts or stew meat.

Venison Sausage Recipe - How to Make Venison Sausage (3)

Coarse or Fine Grind?

Coarseness in a sausage is best with “cleaner” meat, so if you do make your venison sausage from gnarly stuff, grind finer. Regardless, I grind twice. This will give you a more tender sausage. I prefer to grind with a 8 or 10 mm die, then again with a 6.5 mm die.

If you prefer a fine grind, take it down to the 4.5 mm die on a second or third grind.

Venison Sausage Recipe - How to Make Venison Sausage (4)

Additives

You’ll see dry milk powder in the ingredients. It’s totally optional, but dry milk powder is used to retain moisture in smoked sausages; you can also use products like carrot fiber, which work well to help sausages retain moisture.

Skip these if you don’t plan on smoking your venison sausages — likewise with the Instacure No. 1. This is a curing salt that protects the meat from bad bacteria while you’re smoking it. No need for curing salt if you are just making sausages for the grill.

I’ve also varied things by using narrow hog casings and making large coils of sausage, which you then stab a long wooden skewer through on each axis, making a cross that you can then use to flip the coil whole. Then you just slice off as much venison sausage as your guests want.

It goes without saying that while this is a venison sausage recipe, you can make it all pork, or any mix of meats.

Other Venison Sausages

Consider this venison sausage recipe as a master, a model to play with. It can be scaled up at will, and you can play with anything in it except for salt level. The 34 grams in this recipe will give you a sausage with 1.5 percent salt by weight, which most people find pleasing; note that salami and other dry cured meats need to have a higher salt content.

If you need to watch your salt intake, you can drop the salt as low as 23 grams, which will get you closer to 1 percent. Low for most people, but not awful.

New to making sausage? You can find my detailed tutorial onhow to make sausages at home here.

Here are some other venison sausage recipes you can play with, once you get the basic technique down:

  • Venison bratwurst, done the way they make “red brats” in Wisconsin.
  • British bangers, a dense sausage that uses a little ground grain as a filler.
  • Venison sausage with sage, which is similar to this one, but with wintry seasonings.
  • Garlic sausage with basil, a summertime venison sausage.

You’ll find close to 40 other sausage recipes here.

Venison Sausage Recipe - How to Make Venison Sausage (5)

Storing and Preserving Venison Sausage

Once made, the links will keep a week in the fridge; closer to 10 days if you smoked them. Venison sausage also freezes well.

4.80 from 15 votes

Venison Sausages with Bay and Garlic

This is a basic country style venison sausage. Use it as a master to play with. Vary anything you like, but pay attention to salt. Even a little difference in salt is noticeable.

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Course: Cured Meat

Cuisine: American

Servings: 20 links

Author: Hank Shaw

Prep Time: 1 hour hour

Cook Time: 0 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds venison
  • 2 pounds fatty pork shoulder or belly
  • 34 grams salt, about2 rounded tablespoons
  • 4 grams Instacure No. 1 (optional)
  • About 10bay leaves, ground to a powder
  • 6 to 8 cloves minced fresh garlic, about 2 tablespoons
  • 10 grams ground black pepper, about 2 teaspoons
  • 3 grams celery seed, about 1/2 teaspoon
  • 1/4 cup red wine
  • 1/4 cup ice water
  • 20 grams dry milk powder (optional)
  • hog casings about 12 to 15 feet

Instructions

  • Chop meat and fat into chunks that will for into your grinder. (Optional expert step: Mix the salt and curing salt – if using – with just the meat, grind very coarsely — 10 mm or 12 mm plate — and refrigerate overnight. If you don't have such a large plate, cut the meat a little finer and do the same thing. This will give you a tighter bind in the finished sausage, which is especially important, as this is a coarsely ground sausage.)

  • Take out some hog casings and set in a bowl of warm water.

  • When you are ready to grind, mix the meat and fat with all the herbs and spices. If you are using the dry milk powder, mix that in, too. I use it when I slow-smoke sausages; it helps them retain moisture and shrink less after they come out of the smoker. Make sure the meat and fat are37°F or colderby putting the mixture in the freezer for an hour or so. Put the wine in the fridge.

  • Grind through your meat grinder (you can use a food processor in a pinch, but you will not get a very good texture) using the coarse die (6 mm or 7 mm).

  • Make sure your sausage is very cold, between 28°F and 32°F. When it’s cold enough, take it out of the freezer and add the wine and water. Mix the sausage thoroughly either using a Kitchenaid on low for 60 to 90 seconds or with your (very clean) hands for 2 minutes. This is important to get the sausage to bind properly.

  • Stuff the sausage into the casings. Twist off links by pinching the sausage down and twisting and spinning it, first in one direction, and then with the next link, in the other direction; this helps prevent them from unwinding. (Here'sa quick video on making the links) Or you could tie them off with butcher’s string. Make sure you pierce the links wherever there are air pockets; I use a needle sterilized in the flames of my stovetop. Gently squeeze the links to remove all air pockets.

  • Hang the sausages in a cool place for up to a day (ideally hanging in a fridge, but even an hour at room temperature helps a lot). Once they have dried a bit, put in the fridge until needed. They will keep for at least a week refrigerated.If you are freezing the sausages, wait a day before doing so. This will tighten up the sausages and help them keep their shape in the deep-freeze.

Notes

Pro Tip: Use carrot fiber in place of the dry milk to help retain moisture. You will only need a teaspoonful for this batch.

Nutrition

Calories: 134kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 77mg | Sodium: 721mg | Potassium: 350mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 25IU | Vitamin C: 0.9mg | Calcium: 29mg | Iron: 2.8mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @huntgathercook or tag #hankshaw!

Categorized as:
American Recipes, Charcuterie, How-To (DIY stuff), Recipe, Venison, Wild Game

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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Venison Sausage Recipe - How to Make Venison Sausage (2024)

FAQs

What is venison sausage made of? ›

Ingredients: pork, venison, water, salt, flavorings, sodium acetate, monosodium glutamate (MSG), garlic, sodium citrate, sodium nitrite and dextrose.

What is the ratio for making deer sausage? ›

Using a ratio of 75% game meat to 25% pork trimmings will give the game meat some pork flavor and bind it when cooking, without removing the venison taste. There is a difference in Pork Trimmings. They can vary from 90% fat – 10% lean to 50% fat – 50% lean.

What part of deer is used for sausage? ›

Shoulder/Chuck – Best for Burgers, Chili, Sausage

The shoulder is full of great meat for stew, soup, braising and grinding for burgers, chili and sausage. Aside from the “mock” tenders, most of the muscles on this part of a typical white-tailed deer are too small for decent steaks.

What seasonings go best with venison? ›

Ideal flavours for venison
  • Fruits: quince, cherries, prunes, blackberries, apples.
  • Herbs: thyme, rosemary, bay, sage.
  • Spices: star anise, allspice, black pepper, cloves, juniper.
  • Alcohol: red wine (e.g. Grenache, Zinfandel), cider, ale. Other: chestnuts, celeriac, red cabbage, chocolate, mushroom.
Mar 7, 2016

What are the four basic kinds of ingredients in sausage meat? ›

Sausages are made with ground meat mixed with fat, salt, and other seasonings (some also contain preservatives and/or fillers). This mixture is usually stuffed into a casing, although some fresh sausage is sold as "bulk" or formed into patties.

What is the best fat to mix with venison? ›

Pork fat trimmings is one of the cheapest and purest ways to add fat to venison, if you can find it. Most pork at the grocery store is usually well-trimmed, but if you find an extra fatty shoulder, trim off that fat, freeze it and save it for your venison.

Why are my venison sausages dry? ›

When done correctly, it holds together like an emulsion or a temporary blend of two things that don't mix—water and oil. The secret to success is keeping everything cold during each step of the process. This part is essential. Otherwise, the sausage will “break,” resulting in a dry, crumbly texture.

Can you mix ground beef and venison? ›

Sometimes I combine ground venison and ground beef 50-50 to make a better mix for any recipe that calls for ground meat. If you do this, you can buy the cheaper ground beef that is a 75-25 mix of lean to fat, and when you add the leaner ground venison, you still get a pretty lean mix.

What kind of pork do you mix with venison sausage? ›

You will want fatty pork shoulder or pork belly, or a mix of both. You can use beef fat, too, if you prefer; use fat trimmed from steaks and roasts. As for the venison in this venison sausage, you'll want to use trim, mostly.

How long does deer sausage need to be cooked? ›

Grill your sausages until they're 160 °F (71 °C) inside. Keep your sausages on the grill until they are firm to the touch and deep or golden brown. For most links, this should take between 10 and 20 minutes.

How many times do you grind venison for sausage? ›

Venison Grinding

We are going to be grinding the deer meat twice for this venison sausage recipe: Once through a 3/8” plate and then again through a 3/16” plate. We start with a coarse grind just to begin the process of breaking down the meat.

Do you have to add fat to deer sausage? ›

The 90-10 ratio will produce a lean patty, whereas an 80/20 will be richer. On the other hand, an authentic sausage should be succulent. Fat is fundamental to creating a juicy product. Twenty percent is the minimum amount that I would add, but 30% is considered standard.

How long after killing a deer is the meat good? ›

Dry age the carcass or quarters for 2-21 days at a temperature between 34 and 37 degrees. A fridge (with racks removed) or meat locker works great to maintain even temperature. Get the right deer meat processing equipment.

How do you cut deer for sausage? ›

The skin can be removed with or without cutting off the head and front feet. One method is to skin down to the head and cut it off at the neck, then skin down to the front feet and cut them off with a meat saw. Or skin down to the head and cut off the skin at the joint between the head and neck.

Are venison sausages healthy? ›

Although venison provides slightly more cholesterol than some other types of meat, the difference is negligible. Furthermore, venison contains fewer calories and less saturated fat than other varieties of red meat, including beef, pork, and lamb. Therefore, it can fit into a heart-healthy diet if enjoyed in moderation.

What is deer sausage casing made of? ›

Natural sausage casings are made from the submucosa of the small intestine, a layer of the intestine that consists of naturally occurring collagen.

Is deer sausage gamey? ›

The 'wild' flavor of venison is directly related to what the animal eats. Corn fed deer will have a milder flavor than those that eat acorns or sage. The 'gamey' flavor is more noticeable in the fat. Removing the fat, connective tissue, silver skin, bone and hair during processing lessens the 'gamey' taste.

Is venison beef or pork? ›

venison, (from Latin venatus, “to hunt”), the meat from any kind of deer; originally, the term referred to any kind of edible game. Venison resembles beef and mutton in texture, colour, and other general characteristics. It has virtually the same chemical composition as beef but is less fatty.

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