I make a jimmy dean style as follows (sort of)
2lbs ground venison
1lb hot italian sausage
1/2-3/4 lb bacon (good bacon, or ends etc)
I use my own spices, cummin, sage, thyme, paprika, pepper, garlic (whatever you like, smoked paprika is good also),
Freeze the bacon and then grind it up, i use a small food proccesor type choppy thingy, holds like 2 cups or less.
Get a big bowl and put the venison, italian sausage, ground up bacon and the spices/seasonings you are using all together and dive in with both hands to mix it up real well (you could get all fancy buy a hand crank meat mixer).
I then cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 1-2 days, seperate out into 1lb blocks and put in sealameal type bags, suck and freeze.
For LB she uses just regular italian sauage in hers as she does not like spicey/hot, she then can use hers for stuff like meatloaf or stuffed peppers etc.
I put hot pepper flakes in mine for even more kick over the hot italian sausage.
I just make little silver dollar patties when ready to use, fryem up yum yum.
I usually fry one up right after i make it to see if it needs more spice etc...
