Homemade Sausage Recipes - How to Make Sausage

Four varieties of fresh, homemade sausages on a plate

Photo by Hank Shaw

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Sausage-Making Tutorial
Recipes: Venison, Beef, Lamb, or Goat | Wild Boar or Pork | Duck, Goose, Turkey, or Other Poultry

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Homemade sausages are part of a salami-maker’s repertoire; you can’t make salami if you can’t first make fresh sausages. Below are an eclectic list of homemade sausage recipes made with both wild game and domestic meats, mostly lamb and pork in that case.

Why make your own sausages? Control.

You can add or subtract anything you’d like, adjust how coarse or fine the sausage is, make them skinny or fat, long or short, spicy or sweet. A well-made sausage is a symphony in a link, needing nothing more than a simple accompaniment to play harmony.

Note that while I am categorizing these sausage recipes by what meat is in them, understand that you can mix and match. There is no reason you cannot use pork or duck or whatever in what’s listed as a venison sausage recipe.

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Tutorial

If you’ve never made sausage before, I wrote a tutorial on how to make sausages at home. Start there.

Venison, Beef, Lamb or Goat Sausage Recipes

Keep in mind that when I say “venison,” I am lumping in deer, elk, moose, antelope, caribou, etc…

Smoked Venison Sausages

One of my go-to venison recipes, this is a perfect recipe for a sausage made in late fall or early winter. You can use any variety of sage, and dried porcini work just as well as fresh.

A plate of bangers sausage with mashed potatoes, peas and a beer.

Homemade British Bangers Sausage

My take on a traditional British banger sausage, made like a Gloucester style sausage. I use venison here, but pork is traditional.

Venison Merguez Sausages

This is the classic North African sausage, normally done with all lamb – casings, too. Here I go with all venison, plus sheep casings. This is a spicy sausage great for grilling.

Sage and Juniper Venison Sausage

I designed this recipe after deer hunting on Catalina Island, where there is lots of wild sage and juniper growing all over the place. This makes a pretty classic “hunter’s style” venison link.

A plate with Swedish sausage, fried potatoes and sunny side up eggs.

Swedish Breakfast Sausage

This tangy Swedish breakfast sausage is addicting, and not terribly hard to make.

Andouille Sausage Links, Cajun Style

A Cajun classic, you can use any meat. This one is spicy and smoked. A must for any Creole or Cajun gumbo, jambalaya or etouffee.

Texas Hot Links

This recipe is for the standard Texas hot links you’ll see pretty much everywhere in the Lone Star State, except for east Texas. It’s usually made with pork or beef, but I use pork and venison.

A platter of garlic sausages made from venison and pork

Garlic Sausages with Basil

Make this venison sausage in the summertime. Lots of fresh basil and garlic make it a great recipe for summer grilling.

Venison Sausage with Bay and Garlic

Bay leaves are the main flavor here. I love them, and if you get good ones, they smell floral and sweet. This sausage is good any time of year.

Loukaniko: Traditional Greek Sausage

The quintessential Greek sausage, it has many variations. Mine is an amalgam of several classic styles.

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Wild Boar or Pork Sausage Recipes

If you have bear meat, these recipes would fit well here.

Sweet Italian Sausage

This is the classic, the basic sweet Italian sausage we all know and love. I normally make this with wild pig, but really any meat will do.

Spicy Italian Sausage

This would be the other classic, hot Italian sausage. You kinda need both sweet and hot in a good Italian stew, right?

Polska kielbasa on a plate with fried eggs.

Homemade Polish Kielbasa

Traditional, smoked Polish kielbasa, made with lots of garlic and a little marjoram.

Portuguese Linguica Sausages

The essential Portuguese sausage, it is to Portuguese cooking what Andouille is to Cajun cooking. It’s a spicy link with lots of paprika and garlic. My version is smoked.

Louisiana Boudin Sausage

Louisiana style boudin sausage, which is more like a meat stuffing with rice in a casing than a regular sausage. Damn good eaten on crackers with Creole mustard!

Green Chorizo

Green chorizo gets its color from green chile, cilantro (you could sub in parsley if you hate cilantro) and powdered greens. It’s perfect broken up in chilaquiles.

Boerewors and Kindness in the Dark

A traditional South African link made with a mix of pork and beef (or wild game) and flavored aggressively with coriander and other spices. I first learned of this sausage under, well, extreme circumstances.

Herbed Wild Boar Sausages

A regular ole’ sausage link gussied up with lots of fresh herbs — enough to make the links look kinda green.

Morcilla, Sanguinaccio, Boudin Noir

Blood Sausage. Yep, the real deal. My recipe is inspired by Portuguese morcilla, but it is a combination pork meat-pork blood sausage; many blood sausages only have blood, no meat.

Hmong Sausage with Wild Boar

There is a strong sausage-making tradition in Southeast Asia, and unlike the smooth Vietnames sausages, the Hmong sausages are coarse and rustic. I prefer them. These are flavored with ginger, chiles and cilantro.

Mazzafegati — Italian Liver Sausages

An Italian sausage from Umbria that mixes liver and pork meat. This is my favorite thing to do with wild boar liver, which can be strong-tasting otherwise. In this sausage, flavored with oranges, the liver is barely noticeable.

Slices of braunschweiger sausage with crackers, mustard and blue cheese.

Homemade Braunschweiger

If you don’t normally like liver, these braunschweiger sausages will make a believer out of you. Smoky, rich and only slightly livery.

Wild Boar Mexican Chorizo

A spicier, softer version of Spanish chorizo, this is my version of the Mexican standard.

Longaniza Sausages

Classic Mexican longaniza, a cousin to chorizo. This recipe is from the state of Tabasco.

A tray of crepinettes, made from wild pork.

French Pork Crepinette

Crepinettes are a French thing: Loose sausage meat wrapped in caul fat, and then fried or grilled.

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Duck, Goose, Turkey and Other Poultry

I mostly make duck and goose sausages, but you’ll find a few turkey sausage recipes here, as well as those using chicken and pheasant.

Homemade Sheboygan Brats

Yep, this is the “white brat” you eat in Wisconsin while watching sports or drinking beer. I made this with wild turkey, but any white meat will work.

German Bockwurst

A traditional German-American sausage meant to be poached in bock beer and eaten with potatoes, kraut, and more beer. You can use pretty much any meat if you don’t have goose.

Duck Sausages, Hunter’s Style

My go-to sausage for wild ducks, these links are flavored with sage, juniper and a little Chinese Five-Spice powder.

Polish Duck Sausages

A great Eastern European style sausage that begs to be simmered in beer and sauerkraut.

Toulouse Sausage

A simple French recipe I do with duck, it’s flavored with garlic, nutmeg and black pepper. Use this recipe when you are planning to make cassoulet.

Smoked Canada Goose Sausage

An oldie but a goody. I designed this sausage back in 2007, and it’s served me well ever since. This is a German-style smoked link.

Duck Mortadella Sausage

Mortadella is what baloney thinks about when it dreams at night. This is not an easy recipe, but if you’ve been making sausages for a while, give this a go. You will not be disappointed.

Duck Hot Dogs

Yep, duck hot dogs. They’re awesome. Trust me.

Pheasant Sausage

A simple sausage for chicken or pheasant, flavored with oregano and garlic.

Provencal Style Chicken Sausages, also good with pheasant or turkey (my recipe hosted on Food & Wine magazine’s site)

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