The Lost Art of Sausage Making

Homemade venison sausage is one of the great benefits of wild game hunting, and it’s easier than many people think. One of my favorite meals is venison sausage, with mustard, relishes, and cheeses…divine! In this post I’ll share my venison sausage recipes along with lots of tips and tricks for making your own delicious sausage at home.

One of my favorite meals is sausage, mustard, relishes, and cheeses...devine

The Lost Art of Sausage Making

Making homemade sausage truly is becoming a lost art. Most people are satisfied to pick up a pack of Kielbasa from their local store and stick to those flavors as opposed to creating their very own flavor profiles. I have nothing against Kielbasa sausage; it really is fantastic. Yet knowing just how easy making sausage can be, I would rather get out my fresh meat and CREATE! I love that I get to determine every aspect of this sausage. Additionally, since my family hunts wild game, I needed a flexible venison sausage recipe.

An Adaptable Venison Sausage Recipe: Use What You Have on Hand

Venison originally meant any game animal killed by hunting. The word comes from the Latin venari, meaning “to hunt or pursue.” Way back when, you would categorize rabbit, pig, and even goats as venison.

Here in America, when we refer to venison, we usually mean deer, including antelope, elk, caribou, whitetail deer, and the like. That’s how I use the term in this venison sausage recipe article. Although I am using whitetail deer for my recipes, feel free to substitute that meat with whatever meat you may have.

Sausage Making: An Essential Skill for Wild Game Hunters

Venison Sausage is one of those “must haves” if you frequently dine on venison. In most hunting circles, just mentioning venison sausage evokes nostalgic memories of waking up to venison breakfast sausage at the hunting camp after an enjoyable weekend of hunting.

Every hunter needs to have in his skills set the ability to make his own sausage. It is really very simple. Many people believe that it is too time consuming or that they would rather leave that to the processor, but each of us are individuals with a variety of tastes. With just a little knowledge, you can make your own sausage to your liking with little effort and a super tasty reward.

Through the years of speaking on the subject of eating wild, I get to meet resourceful farmers, hunters, gardeners, and wild life enthusiasts. In the past few years, I have noticed that more and more of them are beginning to process their own deer and therefore, are looking for tools and recipes to make their processing easier.

Fortunately, you now can order almost all of the necessary tools right off the internet. Equipment may be as minimal as a manual meat grinder, depending upon whether you want to make breakfast sausage, link sausage, smoked sausage, or cured sausage.

It takes no time at all to grind meat for #sausage!
It takes no time at all to grind meat for #sausage!

Sausage Making Equipment

A Meat Grinder

First, you need a meat grinder. You can use your stand mixer with the meat grinder  attachments or a manual grinder. On the other hand, you can go all out and buy an electric meat grinder.

My family of 9 usually harvests about 13 deer a year; therefore, we process quite a lot of venison. Our investment in an electric meat grinder has certainly brought a tremendous return. If you are going to be processing more than a deer or two a year, I suggest that you buy at least an 1/2 horsepower grinder. They are faster and much quieter than the lower horsepower grinders.

Sausage Casings

If you are going to make links, you will need casings. There are all kinds of casings out there, but I find that  natural hog or sheep casing are the best for the money. Nothing is quite like using a natural casing. The natural casings “snap” when you bite into them and help to create a beautiful color to the sausage.

Optionally, a Sausage Stuffer

You don’t have to have a sausage stuffer — I didn’t for a long time — but I do think it is easier and more convenient to have one. Sometimes, using only the grinder attachment may cause the sausage to get too hot, resulting in a sub par texture. A sausage stuffer can be expensive, but if you are planning on making sausage often, the investment is worth it.

A Smoker for Smoked Sausage Recipes

If you plan on smoking your sausage, you will need a smoker. You can purchase these at your local sporting good store or make one yourself. This winter, I am planning on building a smoke house to cold smoke my sausage, but for now, I am completely satisfied hot smoking.

Cold Smoking

Dry sausages such as summer sausage, pepperoni, and salami are cold smoked and requires temperatures below 110 degrees for about 15 to 48 hours or longer for desired flavor and dryness. Cold smoking allows total smoke penetration inside the meat and has a very long shelf life. Using curing salts, drying, and cold smoking meats are a very effective and tasty way to preserve meats.

Hot Smoking

Hot smoking relies on a humidity and heat balance to get that great smoky flavor. A good way to regulate the temperature is to place a liquid-filled pan (I like to use apple juice) inside of a small smoker and wet wood chips an hour before smoking. 

I prefer using a propane smoker because it gives me more control over the temperature than an electric smoker. Also, the propane smoker reaches an optimal temperature faster.

Hot smoking dries out the surface of the meat, creating a barrier for smoke penetration but allowing enough smoke flavor to create great sausage in a relatively short amount of time. Hot smoked meats should be kept in the refrigerator. If you don’t plan to consume them fairly quickly, you should freeze them.

Venison Sausage..just like I like it...ready to go into the smoker!
Venison Sausage…just like I like it…ready to go into the smoker!

More Sausage Smoking Tips

When smoking links, allow the links to dry for an hour or two before putting them in the smoker. Smoke the links for about 3 hours, maybe longer if they have not reached an internal temperature of 150-160 degrees. I usually remove the wood chips after the first hour and one-half and continue to maintain the temperature in the smoker until the desired internal temperature is reached.

You can remove the sausage from the smoker and finish them in a 200 degree oven if this works better for you. Allow them to cool before freezing.

The Basics of a Good Venison Sausage Recipe 

First, a good venison sausage recipe hinges on fresh ingredients and proper balance. Venison is quite lean; as a result, it needs a little fat, liquid, salt, and herbs and spices to create a super sausage. Once you have the right balance of ingredients, the sky’s the limit.

I like to use pork, beef, or lamb along with my venison in sausages, but this is not necessary. I do recommend using fat back if you aren’t going to use multiple meats because venison can be a little dry by itself. Here are a few basic sausage making steps that will give you a leg-up on sausage making.

  1. Everything that you are going to be using to make your sausage, such as bowls, feeder for the grinder, stuffer, meat, and fat needs to be very cold. Why? If your ingredients get warm, your sausage mixture is going to get mushy.  So I suggest putting all your equipment, venison, and fat in the freezer for about an hour before using them.
  2. Before removing your ingredients from the freezer, make certain that you have all your spices ready to go into your mixture. You are going to need to work fast so that your meat remains cold.
  3. Remove only your meat from the freezer, and cut the meat and fat into 1-inch cubes. Mix with your dry ingredients, cover,  and place back into the freezer along with any liquid that is to go into the recipe. Freeze for another 30 minutes.
  4. After your sausage mixture has chilled, remove equipment and ingredients from the freezer and set up your work station.
  5. If you are making link sausage, soak your casings in warm water to remove the salt and to soften them. I like to use 32-36 mm casings. If you aren’t making link sausage, ignore this step.
  6. Add the liquid to your chilled sausage mixture and blend with your hands. Attach the 3/8-inch plate (course or largest die) to the grinder and begin feeding the mixture. By using this plate, you have less chance of your sausage becoming mushy. If your mixture feels warm, place it back into the freezer for a few minutes while you attach the stuffer to the grinder and clean up a bit.If you are not stuffing your sausage, freeze as if you were freezing ground venison or prepare patties: freeze on a cookie sheet, place wax paper between the patties, and place in a freezer bag. Give them a night in the refrigerator if you are planning on eating them fresh; that gives the flavors time to infuse into the meat.
  7. Place a casing onto the stuffing tube leaving about 5 to 6 inches off the end of the tub to tie off. Air will fill some of that casing. Feed the mixture into the stuffer. Allow the sausage come out in one long coil, trying to keep the sausage casing consistent in size as it comes out of the tube. Remember to leave about 8 inches of extra casing after the last of the sausage is stuffed. Tie off the casing in a knot.
  8. If you wish, every 5-inches or so, pinch off what will become the links. Roll the link a few times and repeat until you get to the end of the sausage. Tie off the other end. Arrange the links on a wire or cooling sheets where air can move around them.
  9. Allow the sausage to dry for about an hour. If you are smoking the sausages, place them in the smoker, but if you are freezing them, refrigerate overnight then dry and package them for the freezer.
  10. If you are going to eat them, the sausages will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Stacy Lyn’s Italian Venison Sausage Recipe

One of my very favorite link sausages to make is Italian sausage. It is a wonderful sausage to smoke, grill, or fry. I personally like my Italian sausage fried with onions and bell peppers. It is great on a bun or on top of greens, grits, or mashed potatoes.

The versatility of Italian Sausage amazes me. Oftentimes, I will remove the casing and add the sausage to my pizza or spaghetti sauce.

If you try any sausage recipe at all, this one is a must. I like to smoke mine before cooking. It seems to add an earthy element to the sausage that I can’t get any other way.

When in a fix, marinade your sausage in a dark beer. I like cooking with Guinness beer. If you don’t want to use beer, you can brush a very small amount of liquid smoke over the sausage links before grilling, baking, or frying them.

One of my favorite meals is sausage, mustard, relishes, and cheeses...devine

Italian Venison Sausage

In most hunting circles, just mentioning venison sausage gives a nostalgic feeling of waking up to a venison sausage breakfast at the hunting camp after an enjoyable weekend of hunting. Every hunter needs to have in his skills set the ability to make his own sausage. It is really very simple.
Course Main Course
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • 2 1/2 pounds ground venison
  • 2 1/2 pounds ground pork
  • 2 Tablespoons Kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons fennel seeds cracked
  • 1 teaspoon coriander
  • 3/8 cup cold water
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary chopped

Instructions
 

  • Chill attachments, venison, and pork in the freezer for about an hour. Remove meat from the freezer and cut into 1-inch strips. Mix dry ingredients into the mixture, cover, and return to the freezer for about 30 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, if you are going to make link sausage soak the casings in warm water to remove the salt and soften the casings. You can run water through the casings to make sure there are no holes in them.
  • Remove equipment and ingredients from the freezer and quickly set up for grinding the meat. Add cold water to the meat and spices and mix with your hands. Place the 3/8-inch plate on the grinder and begin feeding the mixture through the feeder.
  • If you are not making link sausage, you can freeze the sausage as you would ground venison. To make the link sausage, place a casing onto the stuffer leaving 6 inches of casing for tying off. Begin stuffing the sausage into the casing leaving about 8 inches to tie of the end of the casing. If you have remaining sausage, use it as patties or ground sausage. Tie off the casing in a knot.
  • If desired, every 5-inches or so, pinch off what will become the links. Roll the link a few times and repeat until you get to the end of the sausage. Tie off the other end. Arrange the links on a wire or cooling sheets where air can move around them. Allow the sausage to dry for about an hour. Freeze, cook, or smoke the sausage and enjoy!
If you like this recipe, please give it a star rating to help other cooks find it!
Follow me on Instagram and tag #stacylynharris so I can see all the SLH recipes you make. ♥
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!
Venison Breakfast Sausage and Biscuits
Venison Breakfast Sausage and Biscuits

How to Make Venison Breakfast Sausage

If you have never made sausage before, breakfast sausage is also a great place to start. You can use any mixture of spices that you like. Traditionally, breakfast sausage includes sage, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Sometimes I also like to add brown sugar.

I have created a simple recipe that my family loves with very few ingredients. I often make link sausage with this recipe and save some of the mixture back for a few servings of breakfast sausage as well. Additionally, you can freeze this mixture as you would ground venison and bring it out for your favorite Italian dish. For instance, you can use it in soups and meatballs.

Stacy Lyn’s Breakfast Sausage

If you have never made sausage before, breakfast sausage is a great place to start. You can use any mixture of spices that you like. Traditionally breakfast sausage consists of sage, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. I have created a simple recipe that my family loves with very few ingredients.
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American

Ingredients
  

  • 4 pounds of venison scraps run through the largest holes of the meat grinder., you could use any part of the deer for this recipe
  • 2 pounds of lean bacon run through the same grinder. Have your butcher run it through his grinder if you do not have one of your own.
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • ½ tablespoon pepper
  • ½ tablespoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 cup parsley
  • ½ cup dry white wine
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Instructions
 

  • 1.In a large bowl, mix venison and bacon with your hands until blended. Add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, parsley, and white wine. Chill for about 30 minutes.
  • Form sausage into 4 ounce patties. Do not over-handle the mix as this can affect the texture of the sausage.
  • Heat olive oil in 10-12’’ cast iron skillet. Add sausage patties and cook over low heat, turning frequently, until light brown on all sides. Cook in batches. Serve warm with Homemade biscuits.
If you like this recipe, please give it a star rating to help other cooks find it!
Follow me on Instagram and tag #stacylynharris so I can see all the SLH recipes you make. ♥
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!

Making sausage is a lost art that should be found once again—especially with a venison sausage recipe. Enjoy the process of trial and error in producing your favorite sausage. Try new herbs, spices, and different liquids; you may be surprised at the wonderful flavors that you will bring to the table.

This dish is absolutely one of the healthiest tastiest dishes ever. I love to serve it with sausage and crusty toasted garlic bread.
This dish is absolutely one of the healthiest tastiest dishes ever. I love to serve it with sausage and crusty toasted garlic bread.

One way that you can make the most of your venison harvest is to create beautiful tasty sausage, feed it to your family and neighbors, and enjoy the smiles you bring to their faces.

Watch me make my venison sausage recipe here.

Also check out my recipe for Venison Sausage Smothered in Italian Tomatoes and Onions – The Ultimate Comfort Food!

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44 Comments

  1. Hello
    I often make sausages. It is best if you leave the ground meat mixed with the spices for 24 to 48 hours to rest in the refrigerator before you stuff the sausages.

    1. Stacy Harris says:

      Yes, that would be very helpful for keeping it cold and for the flavors to develop. Thanks for the comment.

  2. Last year my husbands cousin stopped by our house after a successful hunting trip and dropped off a whole deer for us. Imagine my city girl expression at seeing this skinned animal laying on my kitchen table. Thank goodness for the internet, I was able to process the animal myself and after a quick trip to the store for a meat grinder I was able to make up a batch of breakfast sausage. Not bad for a first try but this article will definitely make this years sausage making a success.

    1. Stacy Harris says:

      Shannon, that is so exciting. I wish you had video taped the entire event. I am so proud of you. Very industrious! I hope you like the sausage recipe and I have more coming so stay tuned! Thanks for commenting!!

  3. Stacy, the package of hog casings I purchased smell. Are they supposed to have an odor or did o get a bad package?

    1. Stacy Harris says:

      Abbie, they will have a smell. They SHOULD be fine, but if you want to be safe, order one more pack and see if they have the same smell. After you soak them for a while, the smell will dissipate. It would be better to be safe than sorry, so if you have any hesitation, don’t use them. They will not be odorless though. I hope this helps. If you have another question about it, please don’t hesitate to ask.

      1. Are the ones you purchased vacuum sealed? Some packages at the store seamed to have a nice tight pack and others not as much. My husband got first doe of the season yesterday. We both are excited to try something different besides just tenderloins and ground meat. I thought while the garden herbs are still going strong I would do some sausage with the fresh herbs! Would be nice to create our own sausages rather than purchase them.

        1. Stacy Harris says:

          Congrats on the doe! I am so excited that you are going to experiment with new recipes. That is exactly why I do what I do. You have made my day! To answer your question, yes, I get the vacuum sealed packages. Please send me pictures of the finished product – to my Facebook page or right here if you can load them.

      2. If you soak your casings in water with a bit of white vinegar and rinse them well inside and out, the casings should no long have an odor.

      3. Consider what they are and what was previously in them! Of course they will have an odor, just soak them in lukewarm water before using, add more salt to what you don’t use and refrigerate. They will keep up to a year.

  4. Do you or anyone else have a sausage recipe for venison snack sticks? Like jack links or slim jims?That is what the kids want me to make with the deer that my husband brought home yesterday.

    1. Stacy Harris says:

      I don’t have one right now, but will work on one for you Nicole. I am working on making venison “bacon” right now too.

  5. This recipe sounds real good for link sausage. I make sausage often myself so will try the first one..Thanks for posting it. I will be smoking mine.

    1. Stacy Harris says:

      We will be smoking some this weekend. My husband and boys just built me a smokehouse. It gets too warm here to cold smoke a lot of the time, but next week it looks like it will be the right temp. to cold smoke. Let me know how you like the recipe and thanks for coming by!

  6. Made my first batch of fresh and smoked kielbasa for Christmas. Got rave reviews from the Polish and non Polish. Cant find good Polish sausage in Florida so I decided “the hell with it” I can make it better than the stuff they import from Chicago @7.99 lb. Even my old man complimented it and he bitches about everything!
    My Brother In Law wants me to make sausage for his Birthday party!

    1. Wow Jeff! It looks like you’ve got it going on! Awesome. I am proud of you for stepping out and knowing you can make it better than the stores! Great job.

  7. Steve Madger says:

    I have been playing around with sausage smoking for a few years. Still learning and modifying every time. I built my own smoker out of a refigerator. Struggling with keeping temperature under control but it works. Check the Internet for recipes. There are a lot out there. I have made venison snack sticks, keilbasi, andouli, kabanasy and also pastrami. It is fairly simple just a little work. I get crazy and make 60 lbs at a time. Way too much work for one person. Have fun

    1. It is a lot of fun, but all fun is work if you think about it. Glad to have a comrade in with me Steve! You have fun too!

  8. Kim Tingle says:

    Thank you for the video! Is the recipe at the bottom of this blog post — your breakfast sausage, the same one you used in the video? I’m excited to try a recipe with wine and pancetta — sounds like it will appeal to my wine-loving friends. And perfect to serve when all the ‘hunting widows’ get together!

  9. You mentioned you use a propane smoker. I bought a used one and and could never control the temperature down low enough so I moved up to an electric by Cookshack. I totally support “Set-IT and Forget-It”. It controls really well but was quite expensive. Maybe they could sponsor you — they are American made and seems like a great fit. There are some Chinese knock-offs and I suspect Camp Chef (Scott Leyseth’s Sponser) has one also.

    1. Thanks John. I am using my smoker today to smoke a few turkeys. I will check into Cookshack. that does seem like a great fit!

  10. Janet Garman says:

    This is a very helpful post with lots of information. We have a new sausage stuffer now and I am passing this post on to the son who will be making our sausages! thanks!

    1. Thanks Janet. I hope he enjoys it and is able to use it very much. This article is going into my updated version of Sustainable Living along with a lot of new recipes and “how to’s.”

  11. How do you twist your links? We made boudin last weekend, and after much experimentation, decided alternating twist direction was the way to not lose the segments as we worked. (Highly recommend the boudin recipe from The Hot and Hot Fish Club cookbook, best I’ve ever had!)

    Also re: casing – I was amazed to find that the casing left over from the last sausage experiment (chicken & bacon) three years ago was just fine after a few hours of soaking. It had been well wrapped and stored out of sunlight.

    1. Yes, that’s exactly how I do it!! I read a few years ago that twisting each link in opposite directions would help the links not to unwind. I’ll check out the cookbook. I’m a cookbook-aholic. Always looking for a new one to devour.

  12. ANDREW WALOCH says:

    HI Stacy,
    Should one use special curing salts when cold smoking sausage so that it “keeps” longer and safer? I just want to hot smoke and what’s not consumed in a couple weeks while refrigerated will be frozen. Will regular or kosher salt “cure” it enough to prevent botulism,etc?

    Waiting for deer season so i can try your very appetizing breakfast sausage recipe but in links.

    Thanks!

    Andy

    1. If you hot smoke it, you can use Kosher salt, but you need to refrigerate or freeze. If you cold smoke, that’s the only time you must use the curing salts. I look forward to hearing how it goes and how the breakfast sausage turns out; let me know.

  13. The Italian Venison sausage calls for pork. I’m assuming you are using domestic pork which is fatty. If I were to use wild pork would I need to add in some fat? Wild hogs don’t have to much fat on them.

    1. Yes, you are correct. I used domestic pork. If you wanted to just add pork belly, you could do that as well.

  14. Hi,
    I just found your site and am excited to start reading and trying recipes.

    I notice cayenne in the Italian sausage recipe, but not red pepper flakes. Is this a ‘spicy’ Italian or more mild? We prefer spicy and have been using a LEM mix the past two years which is tasty, but I want to make my own so I can use sea salt instead of processed salt.

    If I need to add red pepper flakes for the ‘spicy’ effect, can you recommend the amount for the recipe above?

    Thank you!

    1. Sure. You already have cayenne, but you could add an additional teaspoons of red pepper flakes to add a little more spice to the dish! I think it would be a great addition. I know my boys would love it.

  15. AC Leggs has a Jalapeño smoked sausage mix that is great in sticks or 1 1/2 “x12” fibrous casings with about 4 hours smoke cooked to 152*. I add some high temp pepper jack cheese that’s already cubed in 1/4” size. They also have a breakfast sausage Blend 10 that’s some of the best I’ve tasted. And no,I don’t work for AC Leggs,Lol. They just make a good product at a very reasonable price.

  16. How does extended cold smoking on Summer sausage extend it’s shelf life? Do you use cure #1 or 2 with extended smokes?

    1. The smoke adds flavor and helps preserve it a little more than just the salt. The salt does most of the curing (#2) and the smoke finishes it off. The curing and the smoking extends the shelf life. No refrigeration needed.

  17. David J Wadsworth says:

    I make my own lard from the back fat that I have the butcher set aside when I take a hog in. How would you recommend using the pork fat in place of pork meat or bacon in the two recipes in this article?

    1. Hi David! Great to hear from you. I just love wild hog fat. We have been using ours a great deal around here. Just run it through the grinder like you do the deer meat, making sure it is super cold so that it doesn’t get mushy. As long as it is cold, you will have no problems at all. Even when I call for the lean bacon, you can use your hog fat. No need to render it. I’ve done it with hog fat and lean bacon. It works both ways. If it is too greasy, just use less of it the next time. If you have a smoker, you can smoke the belly of the hog and make bacon, then grind that. You can’t go wrong here! I like to keep my ratios around 3 parts venison to 1 part fat or so. No need for perfection, but that’s a good rule of thumb.

      1. David J Wadsworth says:

        Thank you! I’ll let you know how it turns out

  18. got some great info on your site. I am going to try and make Italian sausage using sheep casing . I want to mix fresh Broccoli Robe and Romano cheese with my pork. should i blanch my Broccoli Robe first before i grind it with my meat
    Thanks
    Giovanni

    1. I think I would blanch it. I don’t think you have too, but I do think it will seal in the beautiful color of the broccoli robe. Good luck!! Let me know how it turns out!

  19. Doug Dean says:

    STACY! As an avid whitetail bow hunter here in Alabama (2,000 acres on the mighty Cahaba River), and aspiring amateur chef, I’m elated to discover your venison-friendly site here! Particularly since this year is my maiden voyage to jump onto the venison sausage making game this Fall with the first whitetail harvest.

    Going to start simple with venison (slightly hot) Italian sausage, and smoked with jalapeno.

    Doug Dean
    Birmingham, AL

    1. Great to meat you Doug!! I love your passion for hunting and sausage making. Warning: it can be addicting! You are going to love it. Let me know your thoughts or how you think I can make it better! Happy Sausage Making!

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