I use Ye Olde Butcher shop here in Rochester extensively for seasons and spices for my game sausage making. The company works with the customer and does an excellent job of sharing information so the final product is one to be proud of. When I stopped there for the goodies to make some simple venison hotdogs they suggested making what they call a Chicago Hotdog. Larger than a traditional hotdog stuffed in sheep casings, these are smaller than a bratwurst. They will fill a bun though. Sheep casings are expensive and they are hard to work with, having issues with splitting very easily. Collagen casings also have little nuances that make them hard to work with ad they are spendy too. So I went the route of the larger dogs. The seasonings are identical.
This batch was done using 7 pounds of pork shoulder, fat and all, and 18 pounds of lean venison. I had both meats cubed and added the seasonings and cure package, mixing very well, and then the meat was ground thru a coarse head. A quick re-mix was done and then the meat was run thru a 4mm plate into the lug holding the meat in the picture. It got covered with heavy plastic and put in the refer. 10 cups of water were blended in just prior to stuffing and back in the lug to rest a day. I spun the links this morning while the smoker was getting warmed up. The links went in and were smoked for about 4 hours with very limited heat.
The links will rest in the lug until morning when I will vacuum package them. The jerky will get sealed up too.
I fried up the meat plugs left in the grinder and stuffer when everything was a wrap and I think that this batch of meat is perhaps the best I have ever done. I don’t see much sharing of these goodies.
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