HIDE THE SAUSAGE GAME RECIPES

Steps:

• While keeping everything ice cold (see methods for fresh sausage), combine the game meat, pork fat, and all of the other ingredients except for the Fermento, water, and casings in a large bowl.
• Mix to combine with your hands. Work in small batches if you need to, and don’t be afraid to throw the meat back in the fridge or freezer, or into a cooler with ice, to get chilled again.
• Using the 1/4-inch plate on your grinder, grind the meat mixture into the bowl set over ice.
• Change out the grinder plate to the 3/16-inch plate and pass the mixture through the grinder again.
• Meanwhile, dissolve the Fermento in the water and stir with a spoon.
• Add to the ground meat mixture and again mix with your hands, or throw the meat mixture in the bowl of a standing mixer and mix on low, until it’s all incorporated.
• Press a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the meat, making sure there are no air bubbles. Then wrap the bowl with a second layer of plastic wrap and set it in the fridge for 2 days to ferment.
• Make a little test patty and cook it up in a sauté pan to be sure you got the seasonings right. Adjust them if you didn’t. Then, using a sausage stuffer, stuff the sausage into the casings.
• Let the stuffed casings rest in the fridge to dry out for 1-2 hours.
• While the stuffed sausages are resting, soak a panful of applewood chips for 20 minutes.
• Preheat the smoker to 112°-130°.
• Set the pan of chips in the smoker. Lay or hang the sausages in the smoker.
• Smoke for about 60 minutes at this temperature, then raise the temperature to 180°.
• Smoke until the internal temperature reaches 150°, which will probably take 2-3 hours, depending on your particular smoker and the ambient temperature.
• Keep refilling the pan of apple wood chips as they get low.
• When the sausages are done, let them hang at room temperature for 1 hour to cool, then wrap well and refrigerate. They can be frozen for several months.

Steps:

• When I make sausage or grind meat, I work out of the freezer in order to make sure that everything is super cold. Another option is to work out of a cooler filled with ice. The meat is easier to work with when it’s on the verge of freezing, and it’s much safer. If your meat is so cold that your hands get an arthritic ache when mixing it, you’re doing it right.
• Combine the meat and fat from the basic recipe. Then add whichever style seasoning you choose to the cubed meat mixture. Toss to combine.
• With a bowl placed at the output of the grinder, run the combined mixture of meat, fat, and seasonings through a 1/4-inch grinder plate.
• For a coarser sausage, pass the blend through that same plate again. For a finer-grained sausage (recommended for tougher meat) pass the sausage mixture through a 3/16-inch grinder plate.
• If making the Vietnamese-style sausage, add the chopped herbs and scallions and mix well.
• Remove a golf-ball-sized sample of the mixture and re­frigerate the rest. In a hot skillet, cook up the sample to be sure you like the seasoning. Adjust the seasoning of the larger batch as needed. At this point, the sausage mixture can be used (or wrapped and frozen) as bulk sausage. Or you can proceed to stuff the sausages into casings.
• Stuffing Sausages
• Plan on using about 20 feet of 32-35 millimeter natural hog casings for 10 pounds of sausage. Start by soaking the hog casings in lukewarm water then set them to soak in clean water at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. When the casing is pliable and clean, rinse the inside of the casing by fitting an end over the faucet in your sink and running water through the entire length of the casing.
• Fill the hopper of your sausage stuffer with meat and lit the tube with a length of the washed and rinsed casing. Tie the end of the casing in a simple granny knot, so that the knot is tight against the end of the tube of casing.
• Working slowly, stuff the sausage into the casings. Be careful to avoid overstuffing the casings, and don’t allow air to build up inside the casings.
• When you are finished with a length of casing, tie off the end with a granny knot.
• Twist the sausage into links measuring 5-6 inches long. There are several ways to do this, but the following is easy and works quite well. For the first sausage, measure the desired length of your link and press with a finger to form a crease. Spin this link about eight times. Then measure ahead another 5-6 inch and press a crease there. Spin this link about eight times. Then move ahead to the next sausage.
• When done twisting links, cut the center of each twist. Refrigerate or freeze immediately.
• To Cook
• Preheat your grill for direct heat on medium-high. If using charcoal, make a slightly cooler section of the grill so that you can remove the sausages from the heat if they are cooking too quickly.
• Lightly brush the sausages with oil and set them on the grill. Grill them gently, reducing the heat if necessary; high heat will cause the casings to burst.
• Cook them all the way through, until they reach 150° internally.
• Serve immediately with crusty bread and grilled veggies on the side. Invite some friends over. These sausages go great with beer.