Just bought a grinder and sausage stuffer and going to give it a try this weekend. Going to stick to pork only on this trial run, but will venture into venison very soon after I figure out how to make decent sausage without ruining everything. Anyone have some recipes they'd be willing to share, or guidance on where to look? Thanks.

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Based off of your posts on the BBQ thread, I will consider you a trusted source. Thanks!

EDIT: Isn't he your co-worker as well??

For 100# of sausage (approximate):
57.5# boneless pork picnic shoulders, skin off
7.5# pork backfat
35# venison
1# 12 oz kosher salt or pickling salt
4 oz Insta-Cure #1 (aka Prague Powder #1 or pink salt. If you're not going to cold smoke the sausage or dry some, you can leave it out, and just replace with the same amount of kosher or pickling salt)
9 oz black pepper (#16 or #32 mesh is fine)
4 large garlic cloves
3/4 oz cayenne pepper

Slice the pork, venison, and backfat into pieces suitable for your grinder. Take about a cup of the salt, and grind it with the garlic in a food processor until no visible pieces of garlic remain. Combine the garlic salt with the rest of the seasoning. Sprinkle seasoning over meat, and mix thoroughly. Grind the meat through a 3/8" die. Mix to combine the lean and fat so there aren't any large pockets of lean or fat. Regrind the meat through a 3/16" die. Check the bind by taking a piece the size of a golf ball, and make a patty of it in your hand. If you can turn your hand over and the patty sticks without falling, the bind is right. If you want to add cheese, use a high-melt cheese at a rate of 1 pound of cheese to 10 pounds of meat. Stuff into casings of your choice (the ones we get aren't sized, but they are roughly a 32mm-38mm hog casing. If you're using a natural casing, flush them first, even though it's a royal pain to do so). Hang the sausage in the smokehouse, and cold smoke for 2-4 hours. Remove the smoke source, and air out the smokehouse (the smokehouse we use has a bathroom exhaust fan in it, so we get it cooled down quickly). Allow the sausage to hang and bloom overnight between 32-45 degrees. The next day, vacuum pack the sausage, label it, and freeze.

Edit: we use green pecan wood to smoke, and mesquite coals for the fire. You only need enough coals to get the pecan wood smoking. We used to use green hickory, but grandpa neglected to tell us where the hickory tree was on his brother's property before he died, and my dad and I could never find it. So we switched to pecan.

I made a 20 lb batch a while back and posted it here. It was my first attempt, but I was happy with the salt level. Not an expert level attempt by any stretch, but maybe you'll find it useful.

https://texags.com/forums/67/topics/3129186

For a first time, I really recommend not trying to do your own seasoning. There are some pre-mixed seasonings out there that are really good, and it eliminates a huge variable in sausage making.

You need to learn the process before you get into experimenting with the seasonings IMO, because the process initially is more important than the seasoning blend.

I have a couple of my own seasoning blends I use when I make sausage at our annual get together after the hunting season is over, but for things like jalapeno sausage, breakfast blend pan sausage, etc. - I've found that Zach's seasonings out of Pasadena is every bit as good as anything you'll put together yourself, easier and cheaper.

Most of my sausage is some form of venison supplemented with either pork or brisket. For the blends that I use the pre-mixed Zach's seasoning, I cube the meat, mix i the ratio I want, season, then run it through the grinder. I like my sausage coarse, so I run it through the coarse blade once. I've tried it after running it through a second grind and frankly didn't see any improvement in texture, flavor, etc. This lets the grinder to the work of mixing and doesn't turn any of the meat into paste.

For my German coarse style sausage, I have to grind first, then mix seasonings and the bull binder in my mixer with enough water to get the consistency I like.

This year I'll be making some brats, hot dog franks and summer sausage, so I'll be adding some steps (re-grinding, especially for the hot dog franks).

Making link sausage isn't hard, but it's a learning curve. The guys I make sausage with have been doing it for a long time, and we generally make 4-800 lbs per year, depending on our harvest.

That's awesome. I can't wait to get started. I know there's a learning curve...my goal is to simply not waste meat while I learn!

In that case, start with small batches. Most any batch of sausage can be saved if you mess it up, but it's going to be more work to fix 100 pounds instead of five.

schmellba99 said:

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For a first time, I really recommend not trying to do your own seasoning. There are some pre-mixed seasonings out there that are really good, and it eliminates a huge variable in sausage making.

You need to learn the process before you get into experimenting with the seasonings IMO, because the process initially is more important than the seasoning blend.

I have a couple of my own seasoning blends I use when I make sausage at our annual get together after the hunting season is over, but for things like jalapeno sausage, breakfast blend pan sausage, etc. - I've found that Zach's seasonings out of Pasadena is every bit as good as anything you'll put together yourself, easier and cheaper.

Most of my sausage is some form of venison supplemented with either pork or brisket. For the blends that I use the pre-mixed Zach's seasoning, I cube the meat, mix i the ratio I want, season, then run it through the grinder. I like my sausage coarse, so I run it through the coarse blade once. I've tried it after running it through a second grind and frankly didn't see any improvement in texture, flavor, etc. This lets the grinder to the work of mixing and doesn't turn any of the meat into paste.

For my German coarse style sausage, I have to grind first, then mix seasonings and the bull binder in my mixer with enough water to get the consistency I like.

This year I'll be making some brats, hot dog franks and summer sausage, so I'll be adding some steps (re-grinding, especially for the hot dog franks).

Making link sausage isn't hard, but it's a learning curve. The guys I make sausage with have been doing it for a long time, and we generally make 4-800 lbs per year, depending on our harvest.

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I've made hot dogs once. They're quite a bit of work. If you can get two large food processors to chop everything, it will make life easier for you.

Beef Cheek said:

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Here are some of my favorite recipes/tutorials

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This was a fascinating rabbit hole I went down. Everything from the L&L story, to the other YouTube channels that are being influenced by L&L/Chud BBQ style. Really awesome stuff!

Same. I'm going to make a test batch of that jalapeno cheese sausage for a super bowl party.

Nice! I plan on using the foil boat method on a couple of racks of ribs next weekend. What a wealth of knowledge.

Also agcrock, that looks awesome! Well done! What grinder and/or stuffer did you use?

fav13andac1)c said:

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Nice! I plan on using the foil boat method on a couple of racks of ribs next weekend. What a wealth of knowledge.

Also agcrock, that looks awesome! Well done! What grinder and/or stuffer did you use?

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I hunt a lot and got tired of paying outrageous processing fees (was probably spending $2,000/year on deer meat). I bought the LEM #12 Big Bit Meat Grinder and the LEM BIG BITE DUAL GEAR SAUSAGE STUFFER . They both worked great. Can't wait to use them more. My wife does not appreciate the mess, but she will get over it.

Did Chud's Jalapeno Cheddar sausage this weekend and it turned out awesome. Love watching his videos. Have seen you in several of them as well. Looks like you guys really get along well and have a lot of fun. Wish my job was more fun! Food pics below.

These old German's here in Spring Branch in Comal CO been making sausage for a while. Go to seasoning seems to be for 40 lbs of meat/fat mixture...
1 C salt
1/2 C black pepper
1/3 C sugar
1/4 C garlic powder
1/8 C cayenne
add 8 tsp pink salt for dried sausage

Used it many times and makes a good sausage