Italian Sausage from venison/elk (?)

[Bean Counter]

I guess mom-in-law wants to make a soup with Italian sausage in it for the night before Thanksgiving. I thought it would be fun and a good use of some two-year old frozen deer to make the sausage ourselves. I do have some elk that is frozen from this year but I would think that since sausage takes in so many spices and fat that it makes more sense to use up the older stuff. Not exactly serving A-list celeb's so I don't feel bad about using older stuff, too. 

Any suggestions for amount of fat (and type) as well as spices? 

[dogtuk]

I would use a 60/40 mix venison and pork butt and here is a recipe for a hot italian its pretty good and not real hot and you dont have to stuff into the casings

Deejay’s Fresh Hot Italian Sausage
 
 
10 lbs ground Pork Butt 60% lean meat 40% fat
3 tablespoons Kosher or Sea Salt
2 tablespoons Black Pepper, coarsely ground
4 cloves Garlic finely minced 
5 tablespoons Fennel seed 
5 tablespoons Anise 
1 tablespoon Paprika 
2 tablespoon Crushed Red Pepper flakes 
2 tablespoons Corn Sugar
2 teaspoons Citric Acid
 
 
 
Chill meat to about 36°F.
 
Crush fennel, anise, red pepper together in a mortise and pestle. 
 
Combine all ingredients above mix together well, add water and mix well and add to meat. 
 
Stuff in 30 mm casings.

[billythekidrock]

 

[Bean Counter]

Thanks guys 

Yeah it seems like a waste of time to stuff into casings seeing as how it will need to be cut up again. While it all doesn't have to be the best quality, we do have to consider the ladies, who are less given to spicey flavors. I will have little defense if all I can say is "bill on the internet there said it wasn't too spicy." So honestly, is it not too spicy even for a bitchy woman?

[dogtuk]

Ok here is one for the Bitchy woman :-)

Italian Sausage (Mild)
10 lbs ground Pork Butt 60% lean meat 40% fat
3 tablespoons Kosher or Sea Salt
1 tablespoons Black Pepper, coarsely ground
4 cloves Garlic finely minced
5 tablespoons Fennel seed
5 tablespoons Anise
1/4 tablespoon Paprika
2 tablespoons Corn Sugar
2 teaspoons Citric Acid

[WCTaxidermy]

Huey, for us who like spicey, if the 1st recipe is not that spicey, do you recommend just adding more of the crushed red pepper flakes for a little hotter end result.  Also I know this is a stupid question, but I just want to make sure.  The Anise your recipe calls for, is that in an oil form or something else?  Thanks for sharing the recipe, it looks very good.  John

[dogtuk]

John

Yes I would add a little more pepper flakes adj to your liking and the Anise i used is a powder we really enjoy this recipe

[Bean Counter]

Italian Sausage (Mild)
10 lbs ground Pork Butt 60% lean meat 40% fat

Thanks for this one, too. But I"m a little confused about the first line. Do you mean in 10lbs, put in 6lbs of pork butt and 4 pounds of venison? the math makes sense but not the way the ingredients are described.

[7mmfan]

Hey guys i'm resurrecting this thread because i'm making italian sausage tomorrow and this recipe sounds good. I just have a couple questions. All I could find in anise seed so I was just going to grind it up to the best of my ability, that should work right? Also, in the meat breakdown it says, " pork butt 60% lean meat and 40% fat". is that just for the pork butt and then add venison on top of that? I couldn't find citric acid or corn sugar but i found a great sausage making site with alternatives that said to use reg. sugar and it also said the citric acid was to add a fermented taste to it, would you guys agree with that?

[dogtuk]

7mmfan
you do not need to add the citric acid and I use regular white sugar do a fry test and adjust to your taste it should be great no problems good luck
oh and use 60% pork butt shoulder roast and 40% venison or beef should be fine no need for any extra fat

[7mmfan]

perfect thats what I planned on doing anyhow. You know we've always butchered our own animals but turned in the scrap to be processed. After figuring out that making all this stuff isn't very hard or as time consuming as I thought, I doubt if I'll ever have another animal processed unless I just don't have the time. Thanks a lot to everyone who has added ideas and input in the past its been very helpful!

[danderson]

I add pork picnicks to my sasages, pork butt is to lean, the price is cheaper to,add any wild game 50%, 50% mix, or 60,40 for more game flavor.

[Bean Counter]

I don't add sugar to sausage. Its a protien source, not meant to be sweet IMHO. I finally put some maple syrup into a small batch of breakfast sausage to try the flavor and all I can say is 
 Wont be doing that again, plus maple is really spendy so its all good to me. 

[NRA4LIFE]

Bulk Italian Sausage (makes a great pizza sausage)

12 lbs meat (I like half venison, half pork butts, I grind through a 3/16" plate)

5 Tbsp whole fennel seed
4 Tbsp canning or kosher salt
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp garlic powder
2-4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I like it spicey and 4 does the trick)
2 tsp sugar

Mix together all ingredients.