Venison summer sausage

Anyone ever mix it with pork and beef or always just one or the other?

We have 2 summer sausage recipes. Both call for 2/3 venison 1/3 pork. We only use what we call “clear meat”. What I mean by clear meat is good clean meat, no regular trimmings, mostly roast meat. This cuts down on the fat but it is not dry. Sometimes you see some that has so much fat in it that is 50% white when you cut a slice. I do not care for the fat film that’s left in your mouth after eating a piece.

I have had it done with pork and beef mixed with the venison. It was ok but it did not freeze well. When pulled from freezer and let to thaw it got mushy and slimy. It tasted fine but the texture after frozen threw me off. I did not ask for it done that way it’s just what they did only knew about it when got the bill and there were beef and pork trimming prices.

And I agree on the clean meat we are very picky about what we send for trimmings. We also always wait until after middle of January to get ours done that way they will do in a smaller batch and you are getting yours not a mixture of all venison.

I buy pork shoulders when on sale throughout the year which is usually .99/lb if you’re lucky. With venison summer sausage and snack sticks it’s always 1/3 pork as it has just enough fat. For brats, breakfast, andoulli, chorizo- or any sausage that you are use to being made straight out of pork I use a 50/50 venison pork shoulder blend so it doesn’t get so lean it changes the texture too much.

I found adding some beef gives my sausage a little firmer texture and I like the finished taste.
Summer sausage I go 60/20/20 and yes the venny is clean. It’s the venny fat that gives you the coating on your teeth. I remove every bit of fat, gristle and as much silver skin as possible. I lose a bit of venny but not much. I use pork butt or shoulders and usually chuck roasts both untrimmed.
I mix my snack stick types the same.

I don’t make much for brat type products but agree that 50/50 is needed for the usual all pork type products.

Hey I’m thinking of trying my own summer sausage this year.
Is anyone willing to share their recipe?
In the past I always had my trimmings made into ss by Edel’s meats in Montgomery. Cracked pepper and mustard seed. Now I have time, want to try my own.

Tom schmitt wrote:

Hey I’m thinking of trying my own summer sausage this year.
Is anyone willing to share their recipe?
In the past I always had my trimmings made into ss by Edel’s meats in Montgomery. Cracked pepper and mustard seed. Now I have time, want to try my own.

I make 25 to 50# of venison Summer Sausage every year. Personally I think here in Minnesota the meat markets really don’t do a very good job on Summer Sausage as I grew up with the more tangy version like they make in Wisconsin. I get all of my seasonings and additives from PS Seasoning in Iron Ridge Wisconsin. Basically I mix half clean venison and half 80% lean pork trimmings. Use a course grinding plate. Their 2.5″ x 14″ fibrous mahogany casings are just perfect and you’ll get about 2 pounds/stick. Use their preblended summer sausage seasonings as they come complete with a premeasured maple cure for a 25 pound batch, pretty easy. https://www.psseasoning.com/collections/summer-sausage You can add more mustard seed or peppercorns if you like. I enjoy the No. 744 Spicy Garlic but they are all good. For that extra special touch add encapsulated citric acid at the end, just before stuffing. This has a special coating that dissolves at around 138F and give the sausage that tangy flavor, and easy way to replicate what a starter culture would do. Do a search of their site and they sell high temperature cheese that you can add to the meat, makes for a different spin on it. I guarantee you will find your summer sausage will rival anything that could be made on the outside. Just follow the instructions and Voila!!!

You’ll get some great information if you do an IDO search on “Sausage”.
Find a post from Crappie Tom who in no longer a member under that name but is probably still around.
There are a lot of old posts that have a ton of recipes, suggestions and how to information.
I would also you to look at websites such as Waltons, sausageheavenoutdoors or others and watch some videos. Priceless information in them.

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For that extra special touch add encapsulated citric acid at the end, just before stuffing. This has a special coating that dissolves at around 138F and give the sausage that tangy flavor, and easy way to replicate what a starter culture would do. Do a search of their site and they sell high temperature cheese that you can add to the meat, makes for a different spin on it. I guarantee you will find your summer sausage will rival anything that could be made on the outside. Just follow the instructions and Voila!!!
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The citric acid adds a great “tangy” flavor to the summer sausage but make sure you DO NOT add it to the meat until you are ready to stuff. Just mix it into the prepared meat thoroughly. If you mix it into the meat before it is ground, like most people do with seasonings, you will break the capsules and your sausage will be very mushy.

I ended up using mostly beef/venison but was 1.5lbs shy. Had a pack of pork country style ribs in the fridge so ground them to get to right amount. Definitely can tell the difference from just pork/venison but turned out really good. When I cut one yesterday to try it the stick never made it back to the fridge. Guess the kids approved. Von Hansons garlic sausage seasoning with some jalapenos thrown in.

rkd-jim wrote:

<quote>
The citric acid adds a great “tangy” flavor to the summer sausage but make sure you DO NOT add it to the meat until you are ready to stuff. Just mix it into the prepared meat thoroughly. If you mix it into the meat before it is ground, like most people do with seasonings, you will break the capsules and your sausage will be very mushy.

Do NOT use encapsulated citric acid until you are ready to stuff AND smoke/finish the same day. The citric acid will release if sausage is stuffed but left to smoke the next day and the resultant sausage will have a gray color and have a funky texture, not the nice red that good sausage has. A guy has about an 8-to-12-hour window to get the sausage up to about 140 degrees which will negate the bad things from happening that come with citric acid and mishandling it. A better option is to use powdered buttermilk in summer sausage. You can mix this in with the spices into the cubed meats and grind and stuff and have no need to hurry to get it into a smoke or heat source. The dried buttermilk can be found in HyVees along with the other powdered milk products. One container goes into a 25-pound batch of meat. The powdered milk also gives the sausage some body character. The tang from the dried buttermilk is “just there” and not going to make a guy pucker when he bites into a chunk of sausage.

The citric acid has a coating that keeps it in granular form until its exposed to heat at or over 140 degrees, but that coating is also susceptible to moisture breaking it down.