I invented this fresh sausage recipe as a way to link the venison with its surroundings. Venison and woodland mushrooms like porcini are natural complements — and sage is another natural pairing with venison, and grows wild here in California. So there you go.
I also wanted this to be a little more refined than my typical country sausages, so I used gin and ground the meat and fat through the fine die of my meat grinder; this results in a smoother texture in the finished sausage.
A note on the fat: If your deer is fat, cut off some of it, chop it small and render it out slowly in a little pan with some water. Once the fat is clear and rendered, smell it: Does it smell good? Taste it on some bread: Does it taste good? Then use a little venison fat in this sausage. If not, use pork fat or beef fat.
You also need to remove as much gristle and silverskin as you can off the meat or it will clog the fine die. You can avoid all of this by grinding everything twice, first through your coarse die, then the fine.
If you are not a hunter, substitute in lamb or beef. If you are having trouble finding dried porcini, you can often find it in supermarkets in little packets, or just use any dried mushroom you can find.
Once these sausages are finished, they are excellent smoked for a few hours, then grilled.
NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with making sausages at home, I wrote a good step-by-step on the technique over at my friend Elise’s site Simply Recipes. You can read it here.
Makes about 5 pounds, or about 15 sausages
Prep Time: 90 minutes
Cook Time: n/a
- 4 pounds venison, lamb or beef
- 1/2 pound venison, lamb or beef fat (optional)
- 1/2 pound pork fat (or 1 lb pork fat if not using venison fat)
- 1/4 cup gin or red wine
- 1/3 cup water
- 33 grams (about 2 tablespoons) Kosher salt
- 4 grams (1/2 teaspoon) Instacure No. 1 (optional)
- 6 cloves chopped fresh garlic
- 4 minced shallots
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons ground dried mushrooms
- 3 tablespoons minced sage
- hog casings
- Chop the meat and fat into chunks of about that will fit into your grinder. (Optional expert step: Mix the salt and curing salt with just the meat and refrigerate overnight. This helps make a tighter bind by developing myosin in the meat.) When you are ready to grind, mix the garlic, shallots, herbs and spices together and toss with the meat and fat.
- Take out some hog casings and set in a bowl of warm water.
- Make sure the meat and fat are very cold, about 34°F or thereabouts. If it’s not, freeze the meat and fat for an hour or so. Grind the meat and fat through your coarse die, anywhere from 10 mm to 7 mm. If the mixture is still nice and cold, grind immediately again through a finer die, say 4.5 mm. If the mixture’s temperature has climbed beyond about 38°F, chill it in the freezer until it’s cold enough.
- After grinding, put the mixture back in the freezer until it’s very cold — about 30°F. It won’t freeze solid because of the salt. When it’s cold, take it out and add the gin and water and mix thoroughly either using a Kitchenaid on low for 60 to 90 seconds or with your (very clean) hands for 2 minutes. This is important to get the sausage to bind properly.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings all at once. Twist off links by pinching the sausage down and twisting it, first in one direction, and then with the next link, the other direction. Or you could tie them off with butcher’s string. NOTE: If you are using venison, lamb or beef fat, make these sausages smaller than you would with pork fat, as these fats are richer than pork fat.
- Hang the sausages in a cool place for at least an hour; the colder it is, the longer you can hang them. If it is warm out, hang for one hour. Once they have dried a bit, put in the fridge until needed. They will keep for at least a week in the fridge. If you are freezing the sausages, wait a day before doing so. This will tighten up the sausages and help them keep their shape in the deep-freeze.
Thanks so much. I am going to give them a go, will let you know how it turns out, Linda
If I dont have the instacure, is there something from my pantry I can use instead?Can i make my own instacure?
Thanks so much for your delicious recipes, I especially like the pickled herring. I have made it a few times now,Very much appreciated, Linda
Linda: No, there isn’t. But if you are just making these sausages without smoking them, you can certainly skip the instacure.
I have already processed my venison with a 20% beef tallow mix in the ground meat Should I consider that as taking care of the 1/2 pound of fats called for in this recipe ?
Hugh: Yes, that’ll work. I like my sausages to be closer to 25% fat, but 20% is OK.
These were the first sausage I ever made with venison, as I love mushroom as well. The sage, mushroom, and venison are a perfect combination of earthy flavors that just make you appreciate your hunt even more. I would recommend everyone try this recipe at least one!
This recipe sounds delicious. What would happen if I omitted the Instacure to reduce the amount of sodium?
Cindee: With these? It’ll be fine. I use the instacure when I am slow smoking sausages only.
How do you think this will work with Wild Duck?
Douglas: Fine. Just go 3 pounds duck to 2 pounds pork shoulder for fat.
This recipe is very tasty with the sage/mushroom influence bringing a very gourmet flavor. I did a 5# batch expecting to smoke half and keep half fresh, the family liked the fresh so much I had to forgo smoking the other half. Will do a another batch soon and try smoking it as I suspect a Pecan smoke will add a nice touch to the flavors in this sausage.
Thank you for the inspiration and shared knowledge to explore outside the normal venison sausage recipes. While I will continue to make the crowd favorite Smoked Jalepeno/cheese, Italian or smoked German sausage my new favorites will be the artisan fresh/smoked sausages that incorporate the herbs and spices the game we hunt are surrounded by. Between this website and your latest cookbooks I’ve explored how versatile venison, wild boar and wild rabbit can be and my family is enjoying!
Made these today with venison and they were fantastic! Do yourself a favor and use fresh ingredients as recommended. Fresh sage, garlic, etc. So good!
Hi Hank,
I made these yesterday with mule deer and pork fat. My first real effort at making sausage. Next time I will increase the fat ratio and reduce the salt. Overall they are tasty. The sage really comes through.
Hank, What size shallots do you like to use?
Thanks
Rick: Standard supermarket ones. Honestly it doesn’t matter. Sure, you’ll have more or less shallot in the mix, but it will work regardless.
Thanks for the recipe! You’ve got lots of questions in the comment section at your simplyrecipes.com link.
I just made a batch with a moose shoulder roast a friend gave me a couple of years ago. I haven’t smoked them yet but this is already a superb sausage.
I am not fond of venison fat (tallow). This has to e the first recipe where I have seen it used in sausage.
Hank: Made this with Elk last night, I’ll try it tonight but it smelled fantastic. I don’t have a smoker, and further preparing suggestion?
Bryan…maybe a year too late but I ground dried porcini with a mortar and pestle and it worked great. Used about a hand full of larger pieces to get to 2tbls
Thanks for all your great recipes! Made duck stock last night as well and making your spicy goose prosciutto next week with spec.
Giuseppe: I’d grill them if possible. If not, brown in a pan with a little oil, then finish in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.
Hank:
You mention that they re excellent smoked then grilled. Does that mean cold smoked for flavor only, and all the cooking done on grill? Or hot smoked to doneness?
Either. I usually hot smoke to doneness, then store them, then thaw and grill only to reheat and for color at parties and such.
Mr. Shaw,
I had to let you know how impressed I was with this recipe, even though I did some tinkering out of necessity. I couldn’t get my hands on the porcini mushrooms, mainly due to my own impatience, so I roasted/dried some sliced portabella mushrooms in a 200 degree oven for a few hours, diced them up, and used them in the mix. Two hours of hickory and pecan smoke in my Bradley and the links came out as close to perfection as I could have hoped. Thanks for the recipe and method. All that venison roast in the freezer now has a new purpose.
Mikhail: Well, I can assure you that I can taste the porcini in this recipe. If you want more porcini flavor, add more. Simple as that.
I just made this recipe with more wine and no gin and it was very good. However the whole porcini thing is an absolute joke. I actually added several times the required amount of dried porcini mushrooms, just because I had them available, but then I realized that it’s a total waste of porcini’s because you will never be able to taste them. Please note that I could not find my butcher’s string and ended up using some cotton (I think) string I had available, and it did not work nearly as well as butcher’s string, the knots did not stay tight.
Unbelievable! Made this last night and am cooking some up for breakfast as well. This is a close to venison sausage PERFECTION I’ve tasted. Thanks Hank!
Would you recommend using porcini mushroom powder or getting whole dried porcini mushrooms and grinding them myself? If the latter, how many ounces of porcini mushrooms are in 2 tablespoons?
I just made this recipe and it was terrific! Even the wife likes it.
Hank, just made my adaptation of this recipe, using Berkshire pork and juniper berries (no gin on hand). Did a sample taste test. Oh wow! This sausage is unbelievably good. Now off to get some casings to stuff it.
Wow, second time today I failed to read the entire piece. I completely missed the part about smoking, which I’m presumming your addition of Instacure #1.
Curious as to the addition of the instacure #1?