Sausage--Venison to ?? ratios

[TomBow]

I had a rEE-diculously successful first trad season this year.  I loves me some steaks and roasts but two year ago,  started to branch out to making sausage.  Last year was less successful and sausage wasn't in the plan.  When I made sausage two year ago, I went about 70-30 Ven. to pork.  Breakfast sausage was good, Italian brats were good but both were a touch on the dry (read LEAN) side.  Questions for you Sausage "heads":  What is your prefered ratio of Venison to pork or do you use beef?  Do you choose beef over pork depending on the sausage?  Have you found good oven recipes for us'ns who don't have a smoker but enjoy a little smokey flavor?

Any help us much appreciated!

Thanks,
TomBow

[ksbowman]

If I'm mixing it with pork shoulder I mix 60-40. If I mix it with pork fat I do the 70-30 and the sausage comes out fine. Are you sure you're not over cooking your sausage?

[pukwana]

I use the 70/30 venison to pork fat also.  It's cheaper and makes much better sausage in my opinion.

[TomBow]

I will 'fess up and state that the original sausage attempts were made without a scale so I am not really sure what the actual ratio ended up being.  I am not ruling out that the sausage (Italian brats) might have been overcooked but I am sure that they were too lean and yielded a good tasting but a bit dry-sausage.  I now have a meat market quality scale so I can fine tune the ratios and produce various test ratios to find which works best.

thanks for the replies.

[bergie]

I use the 1/3rd measure for 30lbs use 20 venison and 10 pork butt 60lbs use 40 venison and 20lbs pork butt this is what a sausage maker told me to do. Pork butt or pork shoulder or Boston Butt works great just clean some of the slime fat and veins out.This will make you some great sausage. GO on line and look up a company called the Sausage Maker they have a great book and DVD that will answer all your questions. GOOD LUCK

[Clo-z-nuff]

I've always used a 50/50 mixture with a leaner pork (butcher calls it 80/20).  Even this can get a little lean at times.  I've been experimenting with a lot of mixes over the years and most of what the family likes now involves a little cheese in the sausage which adds moisture.

[TomBow]

Well, the sausage making for this year is done.  I produced about 10+ lbs. of summer sausage, which was a 50/50 mix recipe, weight wise.  This was a oven summer recipe with liquid smoke added to the mix and I went straight with the recipe from Harold Webster's "The Venison Sausage Cookbook".  The sausage is tasty with just a hint of smoke flavor.  As a first attempt I did not modify the recipe, but probably would tweak it in future attempts next year (more garlic, maybe some cheese and jalapenos).  I ended up with a dozen 10" by 1.5" diameter logs, perfect for crackers or solo.
 I produced about 7 lbs. each of breakfast sausage and italian brats.  I ended up taking about half the italian mix and adding some cayenne for a bit more spice.  Unfortunately, had some trouble handling the natural hog casings so only got the mild italians cased before deciding that I was too frustrated to attempt to case the "hot"s.  I used Fraboni's spice mixes for the bfast and itals and they both produced good sausage.  I have also used Mountain House's Hickory Jerky mix for ven. jerky with positive results.  I went with 1/4" thick cut slabs cut from hind quarter roasts for the jerky, produced again in the oven and it yields a good jerky that is fairly tender, compared to the "murdered" jerky that you see at the grocery or convenience store.  Sure, you use up some good roast meat but it is worth the sacrifice.

For anyone who hasn't tried it, it is well worth the effort and saving a little money.  Local sausage makers around here are close to $4/lb. for finished summer sausage and meat sticks were running $8/lb.  I am more than satisfied with the results from DImYself.

[Steve Kendrot]

TB- are you using the stuffing attachment on your grinder to stuff natural casings? If so, I hear you. Pretty much stopped making cased sausage myself because it was was so frustrating. Then I got a vertical stuffer. All the difference in the world. I got a 5 pounder from Grizzly for $80. For the home sausage maker who makes 20-30 pounds, it's great. I'd want a bigger one if I were to make large batches but for me it worked fine.

[TomBow]

Yup, grinder came with 3 different stuffing tubes, 2 plastic and one metal which was 1/2" ID or so. The meat would fill the tube and then REFUSE to go out the end and into the casings.  The larger plastic ones worked better. I be a cheap SOB so I try to eliminate expeditures and use what I have on hand.  Think I'll try and find a narrower PLASTIC stuffing tube first before I invest in the vert stuffer.  Good to know it works though.  Thanks for the infomation.