Goose sausage is a must if you happen to hunt geese, especially Canada and snow geese, which are often skinned.
Canada geese are especially good, as they are large and meaty and the devil to pluck — I typically only pluck the nicest of my Canadas — you end up with a lot of skinned meat, mostly from the breasts and those big ole’ legs.
You really can make any sausage designed for beef, lamb or venison using goose or duck meat, and you can cut pork 50-50 with goose in those sausages and not lose a lot of character.
One tip if you use pork is to try and find never-frozen pork belly or shoulder to cut in with the goose. The reason is because unfrozen pork will bind to itself better than any other meat, and so will give your goose sausage a better bind.
Like most dark meat sausages, many of which come from Northern Europe, goose sausage loves smoke. Use whatever smoker you have around, but I use a Traeger Timberline. As for wood, anything goes, but I prefer cherry or apple.
Making these goose sausages requires some equipment, however. You will need:
- A meat grinder. If you have a KitchenAid mixer, buy the grinder attachment. It works OK. Weston and The Sausage Maker both make excellent grinders.
- A sausage stuffer. You can get them special order from a restaurant supply store, or over the internet. Buy no smaller than the 5-pound version.
- Casings. Regular hog casings are fine here, but you could use narrow sheep casings or some of the thinner diameter beef casings, if you wanted to.
- A smoker. If you can’t hang these sausages comfortably, they will not be right. You can of course not smoke them. They will be good, but not the same.
Once made, these sausages will keep a week in the fridge, and for years in the freezer if you vacuum seal them.
New to making sausage? You can find my detailed tutorial on how to make sausages at home here.
Smoked Goose Sausages
Ingredients
- 2 pounds duck or goose meat
- 1 pound fatty pork shoulder or pork belly
- 17 grams kosher salt, about 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon
- 3 grams Instacure No. 1, about 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
- 4 cloves garlic, minced fine
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1/3 cup chilled red wine or ice water
Instructions
- Dice meat and fat into about 1 inch chunks. Toss in salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic and marjoram. Mix well.
- Soak casings in tepid water. You will need about 6 feet worth.
- Make sure all meat and fat is cold. You can even keep it in the freezer until it get a little bit frosty. When it is 40°F or colder (but not a sold rock), grind through the small die of your grinder. If it is hot out, or really if your kitchen is warmer that 68°F or so, grind into a bowl that is set in another bowl full of ice. The cold is critical to bind the meat and fat nicely. If it gets too warm, it will break and feel crumbly when you eat it, which isn’t very nice.
- Put the meat mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the wine and mix on the lowest setting of your mixer for 1 minute to 90 seconds. You can do it by hand with a wooden spoon, too. You want it to look like a paste.
- Put the meat in the fridge and set up your stuffer. Put a casing on the stuffing attachment, leaving about 6 to 8 inches free on the open end. Fill your stuffer with the meat and crank it down. Let the air come through the casing first, then when you see the meat coming through, hold the casing to let the meat totally fill it, then release as you go. You want it reasonably tight. Let the casing fill completely without twisting it into links.
- When you are done, twist into short links. I do short links with this sausage because it is so rich you don’t need that much to be satisfied. Make the links by pinching the casing down, then twisting away from you a few times. The next link needs to be twisted toward you a few times. Alternate down the whole length, twisting away from you, then twisting toward you. (This video shows how I do it.) Tie the ends in a knot. You can tie again with butcher’s string if you’d like.
- Hang for at least an hour in a cool room. This lets it dry off.
- Smoke for about 3 hours, or until the interior gets to be about 150°F. Shock in a cold water bath, then pat dry. They are now ready to be stored, cooked in your favorite dish, or eaten right away.
Hank: I have a copy of “Duck, Duck, Goose” and I’m curious – why does this version omit the dry milk and change quantities of a few ingredients? I’m guessing you’ve just refined it through time, but figured I’d ask before I dive into making my own. Thanks!
Jake: Exactly. I have refined it. This is the latest version.
Awesome. Thanks, Hank. I appreciate it!
Finally tried my first Hank Shaw sausage recipe. Flavor was spectacular but turned out a bit dry. Got a bit hot on the smoker and next time I’ll try fattier pork but or try fatback. I’ll keep reading and keep trying! Thanks.
Should I increase the kosher salt by 3 grams if I omit the optional 3 grams of instacure to maintain a consistent salt content of your recipe? It’s my first time making this recipe and I plan to make a 4x batch. The geese are coming in heavy right now. Thank you for all the great recipes!
Marc: You can, but 3 grams is a pretty small amount. So either way.
We cannot eat any meat that has a hoof.
Suggestions please
Betty: Sorry, you are out of luck then. All sausage is made with fat from animals with hooves.
We dont eat pork, what can we replace it with. Thanks for such amazing recipes
Paulene: I’d use beef fat.
Smoked these tonight. They are awesome.! But your right… very rich. Any suggestions for dishes they could be used in?
Time to get more geese!!
David: Cassoulet, or other bean stews, or with sauerkraut or as part of gumbo.
What temp you smoking at ?
Ken: I always smoke somewhere around 200F.
Great recipe. Easy to follow and good results. I used snow goose breast with some pheasant scrap meat that I had leftovers with.
I prefer to coarse grind personally. And keep at that rather than the fine one. The texture doesn’t get so “grainy” that way
Will definitely do again.
Easy recipe and 5 star product. These sausages were a hit with all our hunting buddies and friends. Have made 40+pounds of 3-1 links (3 links to the pound) and cant keep them in our stock. Ready for a 50 pound jumbo batch this time. We add 1/2 pound of pork charizo to each 5 pound batch and BAM! Take it up a notch. Small RV kitchen, we make entirely with a KitchenAid stand mixer meat grinder and sausage stuffer, then smoke in our Treager-like pellet smoker using alder pellets. YUMMEEEEeee!
Tried for the first time tonight, smoked on the Traeger as well – awesome!
Try long pepper and peat smoke
Okay. Thanks for the tip!
Hank,
You mentioned “hanging” the sausages for smoking and if you can’t hang them, they won’t be right. I have an upright propane smoker with racks…could these sausages not be placed in a pinwheel shape on the racks and smoked that way? Or will this method as well not turn out the way you want them to?
Thanks,
Kyle
Kyle: You can do that, but you’ll get the rack marks on the pinwheel, and you will need to flip the pinwheel once to the areas that had been touching the rack get some smoke.