Venison Sausages

[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 )