Appreciate the comments. I just posted this on the black bear forum so it might be a repeat for some. I'm new at this but I find that it keeps me amused between seasons & puts game meat to good use. When I cut up the bear, I made sure to get rid of all its fat as it isn't good for flavor. I made up 10 4.5# vacuum sealed packets of coarse ground meat. At a custom butcher I got some free pork fat (beef works great too). I made up some sealed packets of course ground fat; .5# ea. That way when I want to make up a batch of sausage I combine the ground meat & fat to make a 5# batch. The picture I posted shows what 5# in hog casings looks like.
I really don't have any personal recipes. I got a starter seasoning kit from Eldon's Sausage in ID (
www.eldonsausage.com). The starter kit was for 5 different flavors; 5# batches each. The particular kit I got was for fresh sausage that requires cooking before eating. I hot smoked those brats in the picture which fully cooks them & only heating is required before eating. The two cautions w/smoked bear sausage are: 1. smoking requires the use of a cure to prevent the possibility of botulism formation (if I had bought smoked sausage seasoning then the cure would have been included) & 2. since bears are distant cousins of the pig, the same cooking precautions are required to kill any trichina that might be present. I finished my smoking w/10 min soak in 175 deg water to ensure high enough internal temp for this. I then did a cold water shower cool down. When I was kneading the cure, seasoning, ground fat, ground meat, milk (brats-instead of the usual water) together, I also added a teaspoon of paprika to give it a reddish color w/o changing the taste. Let it sit in the frig overnight to blend flavors.
My actual smoking procedure (I was lucky to get a good price on a Bradley smoker) was as Eldon suggested on his CD for sausage making newbies like me. I used apple wood bisquettes. Sun my wife diced up some red potatoes & mixed them w/scrambled eggs, melted cheese, & diced smoked bear brats. Pretty good. It will probably also go down real good w/some Pacific Northwest micro brew too. Having only 15% fat as compared to 40% usually w/store bought sausage it does seem a little dry but whatever you use to accompany the sausage can remedy that, eh?
