Venison Salami and Summer Sausage

[Darryl]

Here is a recipe that I use. You have to try it to find out just how freaking good they are smoked thisaway. Tender, moist and flavorful beyond description.

Thanks Dean!


Darryl

[andreas]

good day gentlemen,

your posts on smoking and sausage making are very instructive. there is some serious dedication to eating here.

i was wondering if anyone here knows about making dry-cured salami or meats, much like hard pork salamis or prociutto or schinken (the German version). i have already found information on making these products with pork and beef, but any of the venison-versions i have discovered (internet, local library, cook books, etc) call for heating over 130F, which really just cooks the meat.

what i ask myself: do i HAVE to heat venison over 130F, as one does with summer sausage? is it necessary because it is "wild" meat, and has not been inspected by a veterenarian?

any hints or thoughts are greatly appreciated, because i LOVE dry cured meats.

PS: last christmas i was in Germany, and they sold red stag cured meat, and wild boar prociutto in a delicatessen store. no words to describe the flavor.

cheers,
andreas

[Dean Torges]

Originally posted by andreas:


... the venison-versions i have discovered (internet, local library, cook books, etc) call for heating over 130F, which really just cooks the meat.
 
 

Andreas, different curing and smoking methods and temperature schedules help yield different results, different kinds of sausages and salamis. It's mostly a matter of what you are after as a final product, with the important exception and consideration of trichinae in pork. Smoking meat to an internal temp over 138° F destroys trichinae in pork (if any exists). It also stops the fermentation process in semi-dried sausages such as summer sausage.

There are no health risks that I know of in dry-curing venison (including red deer). However, if you want to be safe when dry-curing pork that never reaches 138-140, you either have to have government certified trichinae-free meat, or you have to have the meat at certain thicknesses frozen at low temps for a prescribed length of time, or you have to keep the meat curing with a certain salt content for an extended period of time. Nothing to fool around with if you don't know the parameters, though trichinosis is not nearly the danger that it was 50 years ago when the family farm slopped hogs. Proscuitto from feral hog is safe because of the very long and salty dry-curing process and also because the internal temp is brought past 140 near the end of the cure.

[andreas]

thank you for your reply Mr. Torges,

it is indeed good news to hear that the good old michigan whitetailed deer will do for dry cure. i have set aside plenty for this purpose.

my original concern for heating a red meat product above 140 degrees Fahrenheit was with the change in protein structure (was it called hydrolyzation?!), and the resulting change in the meat's texture. what i enjoy the most in dry cured meats and sausages, such as "schinken", prociutto, etc., is the hallmark texture and aroma, which sausages such as summer sausage, cervelat, etc. do not have. i do understand now, though, that heating above 140 does not disqualify for the label "dry cure".

i will keep researching and will post my findings on dry curing venison the german way (as i will again have the pleasure of spending time there over christmas) for those who are interested.

cheers,
andreas

[Jim/VA]

Dean, did you brine/smoke the ham similiar to the chickens? A friend of mine in PA does deer "hams" via the artery pumping method and the results are incredible. I would also think a wild turkey could be cured in similiar fashion to your chickens.

[Dean Torges]

Jim, I inject hams because they are otherwise too thick to leave in a brine by the soak method. The likelihood of the meat souring around the bone before the cure can reach it is greatly lessened by injecting or artery pumping. Chickens are thin enough across the breast and thigh that a three day soak usually permeates them completely.