Dry Sausage

[Five Seasons]

On Saturday I did round 2 of sausage making. Last year I made 5 pounds of snack sticks and 5 pounds of breakfast sausage using the LEM seasoning kits and collagen casings. This year I did the same 5 pounds of breakfast sausage, but opted for 5 pounds of kielbasa instead. I also used my pellet smoker instead of my wood chip smoker as the temps are much easier to control. Finally I added the ice bath I've read about so that they don't overcook after removal.

Everything online says 225 till an internal temp of 165. I cooked both products to high 150's and while they're both really good tasting they're still drier than I'd like. I should note I did a 50/50 mixture of pork and venison. I'm not expecting to ever replicate costanzas, but I'd like to get close. I have all the right tools I think. 

What can I do for safe, but moister sausage? The stuff from constanzas is like melt in your mouth juicy lol. 

[Robhuntandfish]

On Saturday I did round 2 of sausage making. Last year I made 5 pounds of snack sticks and 5 pounds of breakfast sausage using the LEM seasoning kits and collagen casings. This year I did the same 5 pounds of breakfast sausage, but opted for 5 pounds of kielbasa instead. I also used my pellet smoker instead of my wood chip smoker as the temps are much easier to control. Finally I added the ice bath I've read about so that they don't overcook after removal.
Everything online says 225 till an internal temp of 165. I cooked both products to high 150's and while they're both really good tasting they're still drier than I'd like. I should note I did a 50/50 mixture of pork and venison. I'm not expecting to ever replicate costanzas, but I'd like to get close. I have all the right tools I think. 
What can I do for safe, but moister sausage? The stuff from constanzas is like melt in your mouth juicy lol. 

I looked into some of the ingredients in constanzas and they are using more pork than venison in their sausage. Often 60/70%. Looked at the ratio of he ow many pounds of venison to give them and how many #s of sausage you get back.

They def make great stuff. But I actually stopped making venison sausage last year and only use my venison grind for bacon burgers and snack sticks. But Ive been making homemade pork sausage and enjoy it more than I did the venison.

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[BizCT]

@Chef and @crappyice have a lot of experience. I'm guessing like Rob that you need more Pork and less Venison?

[Moho81]

Sounds like you are doing everything right. Only way to get it moister is to add more pork than venison. I also do a 50/50 mix but I am ok with it like that. 

[Chef]

On Saturday I did round 2 of sausage making. Last year I made 5 pounds of snack sticks and 5 pounds of breakfast sausage using the LEM seasoning kits and collagen casings. This year I did the same 5 pounds of breakfast sausage, but opted for 5 pounds of kielbasa instead. I also used my pellet smoker instead of my wood chip smoker as the temps are much easier to control. Finally I added the ice bath I've read about so that they don't overcook after removal.
Everything online says 225 till an internal temp of 165. I cooked both products to high 150's and while they're both really good tasting they're still drier than I'd like. I should note I did a 50/50 mixture of pork and venison. I'm not expecting to ever replicate costanzas, but I'd like to get close. I have all the right tools I think. 
What can I do for safe, but moister sausage? The stuff from constanzas is like melt in your mouth juicy lol. 

Buy pork fat not just pork… do 50% venny, 35% pork and 15% straight up pork fat.

You just aren’t getting enough pork fat in the mix. Also maybe add a little water into the mix or water mixed with powdered milk


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[Robhuntandfish]

Like Chef said sausage needs a lot of fat for the right consistancy - When i mix up plain pork sausage i even add extra fat content to the ground pork itself by adding in 1lb of ground bacon with every 10lbs of ground pork.   Starting doing this and made the best sausage ive ever made this winter.  But i gave up calling mine venison sausage and just using the ground for burgers.  Which i add 1lb of ground bacon to 10lbs of ground venison for. 

[Five Seasons]

1 hour ago, Moho81 said:

Sounds like you are doing everything right. Only way to get it moister is to add more pork than venison. I also do a 50/50 mix but I am ok with it like that. 

 

1 hour ago, Chef said:

Buy pork fat not just pork… do 50% venny, 35% pork and 15% straight up pork fat.

You just aren’t getting enough pork fat in the mix. Also maybe add a little water into the mix or water mixed with powdered milk


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thanks, yeah i've just done the traditional pork butt or shoulder. My grind is all 80/20, which I know isn't even as lean as some do it. 

I will add that it's not bad. My wife and kids gave it all rave reviews, especially the kielbasa. But I'm always looking to do do better and figured I'd ask some of you pros. Anything more than 50/50 seems like it's not even wild game lol. Even 50/50 was tough for me... but I looked at it like "more sausage" haha. 

[Robhuntandfish]

24 minutes ago, Belo said:

 

thanks, yeah i've just done the traditional pork butt or shoulder. My grind is all 80/20, which I know isn't even as lean as some do it. 

I will add that it's not bad. My wife and kids gave it all rave reviews, especially the kielbasa. But I'm always looking to do do better and figured I'd ask some of you pros. Anything more than 50/50 seems like it's not even wild game lol. Even 50/50 was tough for me... but I looked at it like "more sausage" haha. 

I stopped making sausage with venison for that reason...if its less than 50% its not venison sausage, its sausage with venison.  lol  Plus i found i just like the regular pork better and im forcing it to be what its not.  IMHO.  Plus vension burgers on a the grill are one of my favorites so grind goes there. 

Here are the yield #'s for Constanzas.  Nothing really  50%.  3 #s of venison for 7 #s of sausage.  5 for 13 etc.  Dont get me wrong its great stuff!  But....is it really "venison" sausage......eh....  But what really matters is that it gets enjoyed and shared with family and friends.  

http://costanzasausage.com/wildgameprocessing/

Edited May 31, 2022 by Robhuntandfish

[Five Seasons]

43 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

I stopped making sausage with venison for that reason...if its less than 50% its not venison sausage, its sausage with venison.  lol  Plus i found i just like the regular pork better and im forcing it to be what its not.  IMHO.  Plus vension burgers on a the grill are one of my favorites so grind goes there. 

Here are the yield #'s for Constanzas.  Nothing really  50%.  3 #s of venison for 7 #s of sausage.  5 for 13 etc.  Dont get me wrong its great stuff!  But....is it really "venison" sausage......eh....  But what really matters is that it gets enjoyed and shared with family and friends.  

http://costanzasausage.com/wildgameprocessing/

yeah we eat the hell out of our ground, meatballs, tacos, burgers, lasagna, etc etc. But for years when I kill a bunch I like to do sausage to mix it up. I think I'll probably still make it in the future too but not if it's a lean year. 

I see what you mean on their ratios now. Although their bfast sausage is pretty close to 50:50. Snack sticks even less than 50, which is a little odd

Edited May 31, 2022 by Belo

[Hunter1]

Add a cap full of liquid smoke to the mix boil it for internal  temp then smoke it. I USE A 60/40 MIX little beef fat holds a lot more flavor

[crappyice]

I too struggle with not liking (but desperately wanting to) venison sausage.

This recipe came great and I will make this again

https://www.gameandfishmag.com/editorial/venison-bratwurst-recipe-from-scratch/366256

Regarding the snack stick type sausage, you can keep it 50/50 but the pork 50 needs to be super fatty to the point were I will exchange some of the pork shoulder for fat back as chef and others suggested.

225 seems high - I try to stay at 170 as long as I can stand it. You may be cooking out your fat
I follow this process

https://griffinsgrub.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/venison-jalapeno-cheese-sausage/

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[Robhuntandfish]

saw this on the meatgistics page of waltons. It says if using venison use a ratio of 18lbs of venison to 7lbs of fat.  And thats straight fat not just ground pork.  Which makes sense that if the ground pork is 80/20 or 70/30 its not enough to cover the lean of the venison.  So if adding ground pork you will still need to add extra fat for the right consistancy for sausage.  And if you did this ratio with just pork fat  you can still call it "venison" sausage. 

 

https://meatgistics.waltons.com/topic/181/how-to-make-homemade-sausage-brats-recipe

Edited June 6, 2022 by Robhuntandfish

[Five Seasons]

yeah i for sure think next year will be adding legit fat and not just fork. Some kind of ratio like a few of you posted about. 

 

thanks all

[Five Seasons]

On 5/31/2022 at 4:22 PM, crappyice said:

I too struggle with not liking (but desperately wanting to) venison sausage.

This recipe came great and I will make this again

https://www.gameandfishmag.com/editorial/venison-bratwurst-recipe-from-scratch/366256

Regarding the snack stick type sausage, you can keep it 50/50 but the pork 50 needs to be super fatty to the point were I will exchange some of the pork shoulder for fat back as chef and others suggested.

225 seems high - I try to stay at 170 as long as I can stand it. You may be cooking out your fat
I follow this process

https://griffinsgrub.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/venison-jalapeno-cheese-sausage/

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it's interesting because a lot, and i mean a lot say 225. As is this took me a good 3 to 4 hours to smoke 10 pounds, which I guess isn't bad. But starting that low seems like it could take a while... I wonder too if lower heat is important when cheese is added or for thicker sausages.

I didn't let mine sit overnight in seasoning either, but my recipe didn't have any cure. I have some summer sausage I still haven't done that has cure and a 24hr wait time. next year!