VENISON SAUSAGE CASING RECIPES

Steps:

• Cut the venison and pork belly into grinderappropriate sized pieces. Place on a tray and in the freezer for 15-20 minutes while you set up the grinder.
• Assemble the grinder with a 3/8” plate to start and grind the meat once through the 3/8” plate.
• Gently combine the Butter Garlic Sausage Seasoning with the once ground meat. Place back in the fridge while you reset the grinder.
• Replace the grinder plate with a 3/16” plate and grind seasoned meat through once. 
• Add the binder flour and pink salt to the meat block and combine well with your hands or a meat mixer.
• Add water and mix until protein extraction starts. Prep sausage stuffer with a ¾” horn. Load stuffer with meat block, avoiding any air pockets when loading.
• Thread sausage casings onto horn and gently begin stuffing into casings, leaving just enough give to twist them. 
• Link off sausages and use a sausage pricker or sharop knife to remove any air pockets. 
• Place on a rack lined sheet tray and place in the fridge overnight to dry and to develop flavors.
• Preheat smoker to 130 degrees F. Hang sausages on smoke sticks, allowing at least 2” between sausages. Place in the smoker for 30 minutes.
• Place ¼ pan of moistened sawdust on the heating element and increase the house temperature to 150 degrees. Smoke for 45 minutes.
• Remove the sawdust and increase the house temperature to 170 degrees and cook for 2-3 hours, or until an internal temperature of the sausage reaches 155 degrees F. 
• Take the sausages out of the smokehouse and place in an ice bath for 15-20 minutes to rapidly chill.
• Store in vacuum packed bags for future use or grill up right away and enjoy!

Steps:

• Make sure your casings are soaking in a big bowl of water for at least an hour or overnight if possible. If they are packed in salt, run cold water inside and rinse them off before soaking.
• Measure out and stir together all of the dry seasonings (not the water or vinegar). Mix it with diced venison cubes and diced pork cubes in a large bowl. Make some room in the freezer and place the meat inside to chill. It must be very, very cold before grinding. Let it chill for 30 minutes or longer, but don’t let it freeze solid.
• Set up your grinder and use the small die attachment. Grind all of the meat. Return it back to the large bowl.
• To make the bind, stir in the ice water and red wine vinegar. Mix with either a wooden spoon or use your hands and knead together for a few minutes. You want the bind to stick together in a large ball and not crumble. The texture should feel tacky. When finished, place it in the fridge to stay cold while you clean up your meat grinder and set up your sausage stuffer.
• Pull the casings out of the water and squeeze out any excess liquids. You still want the outside to be a little wet because it helps it slide better. Feed all of the casing over the tube of the stuffer, leaving a few inches off the end. Bring your meat back out of the fridge and feed it into the sausage stuffer. Keep feeding it through at a consistent pace as it extrudes the meat into the casing. Be sure to pack it tight, but not so much that it pops. As the stuffer continues to extrude meat, you can start to coil up the sausage. After all the meat has been pressed into the casing, start to form links by pinching at equal distances and twisting several times. Each link should be twisted in alternating directions (or tie with a butcher’s string). Do this throughout the entire casing.
• It helps to let the sausages sit overnight in the fridge before cooking. To cook, sauté in a hot cast iron skillet or grill over high heat until cooked through. Serve with sweet peppers.
• *Note: This is sausage has an 70/30 ratio of venison to pork fat.  For a leaner sausage with an 80/20 ratio, use 2 pounds of venison, and 1/2  pound of pork fat.
• 2
• Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add a glug of olive oil and, once hot, toss in the yellow onions. Let the onions cook for a few minutes, stirring only occasionally, and then add sliced fennel and bell peppers.
• Continue to sauté for roughly 10 minutes or until the peppers begin to soften. Pour in the red wine vinegar and the honey. Cook an additional minute, or until the liquids dissipate. I don’t like to overcook the peppers. I still want a slight crunch to the fennel strips. Season for salt and pepper to taste.