snowangel

Venison Sausages Inspired by this book -- Charcuterie, the art of smoking, salting and curing, a whole bunch of us have become obsessed with home smoked bacon, homemade and stuff sausages, dry cured items, etc. Many of us have taken parts and parcels of the recipes and come up with our own creations. You'll find out about our obsession on this topic: Charcuterie My father-in-law gave me two deer this season. Recognizing that the freezer is not a safe deposit box, and recognizing that venison and sausage are a natural, this is what I did. I wanted something quite different from what most meat markets here do with venison and sausages. 3-1/2 lb diced venison, all tendons and sinew removed 1-1/2 lb diced pork back fat, skin removed 1/4 c minced sage (packed) 2 T toasted fennel seeds 1-1/2 T granulated or minced garlic 3 T Morton's kosher salt (scant 3 T.) 1/2 c diced dried cherries 1 c red wine 10 feet hog casings 1. If your casings are dried and packed in salt, remove 10' from the package, rinse with water. Open up the opening and flush water down through the casings. Soak in water in the fridge overnight. 2. Soak the cherries in wine for a couple of hours. Drain, reserving wine. Put wine in fridge. You'll want the wine to be very, very cold! 3. Combine venison, fat, sage, fennel seeds, garlic, salt and drained cherries. 4. Follow instructions in the book to grind, bind and stuff. Make sure that everything is as cold as possible as you grind and bind! You could also just grind and bind and fry the sausage as patties. These sausages were wonderful grilled to an internal temperature of 150 (F). Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Game ( RG1716 )

Thanks, pals. I think that they would not have been nearly as good had it not been for the collective wit and wisdom of this topic. Lessons learned: Cold, cold, cold. Hand numbingly cold. If it's too frozen, you can leave it on the counter for a few mintues. It isn't proper sausage without fat. The recommended percentage. Don't hesitate to add some extra liquid. This sausage had the right mix of fat, and I kept it really, really cold throughout the grind and bind. An instant read thermometer is another piece of necessary equipment, I think (cha-ching; another piece of stuff to buy for The Most Expensive Cookbook ever). Peter put it perfectly. Mom, is is creamy but has definition (the latter word is on his spelling list this week). He was right. The only change I would make is to up the black pepper to 1T and be a bit more generous with the sun-dried tomatoes. So, I'm off to get butt this week, and hopefully, there will be breakfast sausage on the menu this weekend. Ron, I know that you have done the breakfast sausage from The Book. Any changes you would make? Did you microplane or finely grate the ginger?

You and me both! My kids are ready for a break from photoing everything! I'm thinking that maybe I will get that head of iceberg tomorrow and heat up some butt, get out some tortillas, cheese and salsa, but if that doesn't happen, we can call for takeout and the teen can use her learner's permit to drive Paul to get it. I did get to spend some quality phone time with a close friend, who will be joining us with her family at the cabin this weekend planning menus; charcuterie and smoked pork will be featured! Who'd have thunk that when I agreed to this blog that we would have the wettest May week in recorded history? Yes, Marlene, we do work like a well-oiled machine, and it was an absolute pleasure having Mike join us. He is a grilling and smoking master, and I'm going to lure him into the world of Charcuterie! So, to those who have tagged along, dust off those grills, get some charcoal or an extra tank of propane, and light that fire! I've proved that you don't need fancy equipment do make bacon, sausages and make everyone you know happy!

Mike, that is one pretty pitcher. In the woulda, shoulda, coulda department, there was so much stuff that were I to clean out my grandmother's house how, I would have taken. Instead, I was young and naive: "hey, yes you can have the cast iron pans that have been in the family for a century." "you want that neat-o-keen-o pitcher, take it." And, my Costco does not sell hot Italian sausage. But, I can make my own! Is your Costco convenient?

Dessert, since I don't have any cake: I would have chosen Shaker's, but I wanted a citrus kick, and am out of lemons and limes. Shaker's Rye is absolutely fab. Peter just came to give me a kiss and tell me how wonderful these sausages were. Paul and Diana's immediate reaction was to ask for all sorts of condiments (including kraut), but these are a finely textured and flavored sausage that needs nothing but perhaps some more cracked black pepper. Next time around, I think I'll up the sun-dried tomatoes a bit.

Charcuterie sighting over here. Scroll down and see my perfect sausages!

Middle child is in bed, youngest one is in bed, having had his story and now reading, and the teen is taking a bath (again). It's nice and quiet! As I mentioned uptopic, it was an absolutely stunning May day. The kind we should have expected all during this blog. This is where I sit and drink part of my first cup of coffee every morning (the rest of that cup is consumed during my yard walk around). I love this glider rocker. We bought it in 1998, when we put a pergola in the backyard of our former house. When we sold the house two years ago, a wisteria had climbed and covered the top. The glider was a Mother's Day present, probably the one I've gotten the most enjoyment out of. But, to dinner (you can see that I've already started the grill; Paul called at 6:00 to say he was one the way home). Chicken sausages, ramps, asparagus and zucchini. I did add more asparagus and zucchini to the mix after I took this photo. I've also discovered that the ramps don't fall through the grill if you leave the leaves on them. One of my sausages burst. Oh, well. It was still yummy. I am even prouder of this sausage than I am of my bacon. Over on the Charcuterie topic, a whole bunch of us have made sausages, which aren't as slam dunk as you might think. There is the matter of how much fat. How cold when you grind, and how cold when you bind, how full you fill the casings, how you soak the casings. My first attemp was crumbly, and my second not much better. But, these were perfect. Nirvana. Mike, buy the book and get bitten by the bug. (BTW, I want those chips)

Dinner report coming. I need to finish attending to my maternal duties.

Mike, you really do need to buy Charcuterie. Become an addict like the rest of us! Dinner in progress. Paul got home quite late from work. And, yes, it is still grilling weather.

Melissa, I've done this twice and my folks did it once. You've prepped very well, but I'd think about holding out one half-sheet pan for hauling stuff around. A 9 x 13 doesn't hold very much, and a half sheet pan is thin enough that they store easily (and accumulate stuff like junk mail equally as easily!). And, as you box stuff up, label to excess. And, yes, think about acquiring a dorm fridge. Got any students who will lend you one for the summer?

It's looking nice enough that we might eat on the deck tonight. On another and totally bizarre note, we've had 3" of rain this week (at least). Some guy down the street is watering his lawn. ?????

... and the cold smoker... ← Oh. Let's not forget the meat slicer.

The second belly half is off, and the Weber is shut down. Need to cool it off enough to get the drip pan out so I can grill some homemade sausages! The skin has been removed, and oops! The knife slipped on one of the knobby bits. Somehow, that always happens and I force myself to taste what "accidentally" came off. Oh, bacon. Makes my heart flutter!

Geez. This is turning out to be one expensive cookbook. I need a stuffer. I need a vacuum sealer. And more charcoal.

With the chicken sausages we don't eat for dinner, I'm tempted to freeze them on a sheet pan and then putting them in a zip lock so I can defrost just the right number.

Missed this when you first posted. Yes, you can deep fry in a LC. Actually works quite well because the pot holds so much heat.

Ta Da! About 4.5 hours to get it to 150 (actually just under 150). The second half is on right now. The instructions in Charcuterie say something about trimming and squaring up the belly before smoking, but I really like those odd bits on the end, and I want to maximize how much bacon we have. Edited to add: I really don't care of using these silicone hot pads because they aren't very flexible. But, they are idea for removing meat from the grill. Moisture doesn't wick up them to burn your hands. They work better than tongs and a spatula for the bacon because there's nothing to tear it. Now, while this is still warm, time to trim the skin. This was smoked skin side down. Edited again to add this: The skin is off. I used a knife like this to get the skin off. It has a very thin, flexible blade that sharpens very easily. I think Paul has had this knife since he was about 12 years old.

Lunch: Smoked butt on a tortilla with cheese and salsa. I wish I had gotten lettuce when I was out earlier (but I really didn't want a Costco sized package of lettuce) because one of my favorite ways to eat leftover butt is on a bed of shredded iceberg with salsa. My lunch needed lettuce and no cheese. I reheated some butt in the microwave, which is not a preferred method, but if I do it on the defrost cycle, it works fairly well. Back to my yard and weeds. It is just spectacular outside today.

Hot dogs sound great. The bacon has been on for almost 4 hours, and it is at 130 now. I'll take it to 150 and then pull it off and get the second half on. Hopefully the second one will be done so we can eat at a decent hour! I don't know what the cure does for nasty critters, but I sure won't hesitate to eat this bacon!

What's in the rub, Marlene?

I was on my deck! We live in a split entry, so the deck is pretty high up. Oh, and before I plant the herb garden, I have to remove about a ton of river rock. This yard was an absolute disaster when we moved in (there was no garden), and the house was surrounded by river rock. I have removed all of the river rock in the front of the house, and about half of it from the back of the house. It's nasty, mean work, but I offered it to takers on twincitiesfreemarket.org, and people came and took it away.

Back to the plant sale I went to last Friday. I have an area of the yard next to the house that will become an herb garden. It is adjacent to more space -- that has the door to the garage. There are some cement stones forming a path from the garage to the back yard, and it's a weed-infested mess. So, I'm going to plant a while mess of thyme. The things in the black plastic tray are all herbs -- the ones behind are flowers. I bought creeping Thyme (Thymus serpyllus) -- both a bigger leafed version and a real mini one: Caraway Thyme (Thymus herba-barona): and Lime Thyme: I also bought sorrell and winter savory. A couple of weeks ago, I bought lemongrass, Thai basil and a new rosemary plant (did not winter over this year). Since I bought them earlier in the season than I'd want to plant them, they have been sitting in the pot of my kaffir lime tree on the deck. That way, if they predicted a freeze, I could get them inside quickly. The soil is still pretty cold, so I'll probably wait until we get back from the cabin (we're going on Friday) to plant them. I have not even purchased my tomato plants yet -- I never plant them much before Memorial Day weekend. I'm tempted, for the tomatoes this year, to go the tire route.

As you can see, it's a stunning day here in the Twin Cities area. There are a few herbs in this garden, and the big plants on the left side are rhubarb. These came from my grandparents farm in Nebraska -- I have no idea how old the stock for these plants is. I'll be clearing out another area of the yard next to the house for a proper herb garden. I'm so pleased with myself. I've kept the Kettle down to between 150 and 180 so far, and I left for about 45 minutes and things were just fine! My mom wanted to go to Costco, so I went along with her. Costco is a little over a mile from my house, so I'm a frequent (very) shopper, and will often stop for just a couple of items, as I did today. Kid supplies. Grated cheese, tortillas and yellow mustard. The cheese was $4.79 for 2 pounds, tortillas $2.99 for 36, and the mustard was $3.15. I noted that regular 1% milk was $1.99/gallon (supermarket runs about $3.59), butter was $6.15 for 4 pounds. We were there too early for samples! Gasoline is running about $2.75/gallon right now, but the price will go up on Wednesday night or Thursday morning and then drop again on Sunday. This is the gas price pattern during the summer -- nail them before they head out of town.

First half of the belly is on. The only drawback of the Kettle is that I don't have much grill real estate, so it will be a long day of smoking!

Mike, I'm greated with that bane of the bloggers, too. A full dishwasher. It will wait until the kids are gone. It s absolutely stunning here today -- sunny, the promise of warm. I'm wearing shorts and intend to attack the yard today while I'm smokin' bacon. Today is what a day in May should be like! Coffee in hand, time for a quick garden tour, then get the boy and Heidi up and ready for school.