grinding venison/pork for sausage

saskgunowner101

saskgunowner101

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Is there a general consensus as to which plate to use when grinding meat for sausage?? I have a few different packaged mixes, but they only mention ground meat, not fine or coarse. Does it really matter?? Or will fine grind turn everything into different tasting wieners.:redface:

One more question. A few of the recipes mention smoking in a smoker. Can I just finish them in the oven?? One pack mentions 300 F for an hour. Any thoughts appreciated.(some recipes are no casing type rolls)
 
I prefer coarse ground,but thats me,too fine a grind tastes slimy to me.
also if you coarse grind the venison and pork separately,then grind them together to mix and stuff them I find the texture about right.
choose your casings wisely...a tough case can ruin the eatability(my own word)
I've made jerky on racks over the wood stove,so even tho I've never tried it,I'm thinkin the oven would work...might wanna hold off on the tin pan of wood chips tho... ;)
 
My take is you choose the grind to suit the kind of sausage you want to eat. Think, the difference between baloney and, say, Kielbasa, at extremes. Check out the different grinds used for the various salami's available at the deli counter at the grocery store, for other examples.

Short answer is that it is going to depend on what kind of sausage you are trying to make.
I like a coarse grind, myself, over a fine grind.

Some sausage is smoked for flavor, some as part of the preservation process.

Cheers
Trev
 
Coarse or fine what ever you want. The key is to grind the meat very cold, semi frozen is best. Cold is your friend when mixing too. Most sausage failures can be attributed to not having the meat cold when grinding and again when mixing. If you meat is warm 5 degrees or higher it won't bind together and make a good sausage, you need at least 20% fat to make a good sausage . I prefer 25-30% if you have the correct mix of fat, meat, water and spices your sausage will turn out terrific. Not enough fat they will be dry and meally, not enough mixing they will be crumbly or if mixed too warm it will be greasy.
for 10 lbs of venison I add 2 lbs of pure pork fat , I then mix that with 12 lbs of ground pork shoulder that gives you a mix that would be about 22% fat and makes a nice sausage.

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Big Guy must you haunt all the boards I visit with your recipes and pictures of great looking food. I can't make it through a day without a rumbling stomach and drool on the keyboard. Damn you.....arrrrrghhhhhhh. Keep up the good work.
 
well i grind my deer coarse the i use pork shoulder and grind it coarse them mix well it then goes thru the grinder toghether in to the casing i like 1 third pork shoulder two thirds deer reember to have it moist enugh to slid in the casing to dry will have problems ripping DUTCH
 
Any thoughts on the oven temperature?? One of the recipes calls for 300 F in the oven for an hour. This was for a caseless formed pepperoni (Grandma LaMures Spice n Slice). I know, I know, not very fancy, but its a start.

Could I just add a bit of liquid smoke to the mix, and make the sausage in casings, in the oven too??

I'd rather use my smoker, but for a first batch of sausage(other than breakfast patties), is the oven okay??
 
If you get the temp too high you will render out the fat in your sausage, they will be terrible. Most Pepperoni recipes never have the meat go over 160 F and you want to keep the oven, or smoker temp under 200 IMHO. If you want to cook sausage to eat while hot go for the 300.
 
Big Guy said:
Coarse or fine what ever you want. The key is to grind the meat very cold, semi frozen is best. Cold is your friend when mixing too. Most sausage failures can be attributed to not having the meat cold when grinding and again when mixing. If you meat is warm 5 degrees or higher it won't bind together and make a good sausage, you need at least 20% fat to make a good sausage . I prefer 25-30% if you have the correct mix of fat, meat, water and spices your sausage will turn out terrific. Not enough fat they will be dry and meally, not enough mixing they will be crumbly or if mixed too warm it will be greasy.
for 10 lbs of venison I add 2 lbs of pure pork fat , I then mix that with 12 lbs of ground pork shoulder that gives you a mix that would be about 22% fat and makes a nice sausage.
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This is what I use for a mix of wild to pork.

What I have found for grind is that to grind everything fine is asking for a weiner texture in your sausage. To grind pork (and the fat) course is asking for lumps. I have found grinding your wild meat course gives the sausage a nice consistency and grinding the pork fine prevents lumpiness and mixes the fat nicely. Mix meat and spices and stuff.
 
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Course. The last two years we have been making goose/pork (60/40 ratio) sausages unreal. We make them in Hungarian garlic,mild and hot Italyian and honey garlic
 
I like course grind for the first grind, then mix pork/fat/venison/spices/water.

Second pass through the course plate will complete the mixing and give you a nice even sausage. Taste test, then adjust or stuff casings.

For a pepperoni, you need a prague powder and sodium nitrate to cure it. It should be in the kit for you, but do not try to stretch your spices into more pepperoni than your kit says it's for. You will not have enough cure. As for cooking, smoker or oven over 170 is enough to kill any bad bugs. For a pepperoni, you are trying to dry the sausage as much as cook it.
 
bufalobill

How long would I need to keep the sausage at 170 F in the oven?? Is it safe to say that whatever mix I use, as long as the sausage gets to 170 F, it will be safe??

I have 2 other mixes from Luhr Jensen, one polish, one summer. If I omit the smoker and use the oven, am I good?:confused:

All mixes have nitrates in them.
 
300 F for 1 hr.... ??? 212 is 100 C and water starts to boil, fat will melt and you end up with dry, crumbly sausage, greasy on outside of the casings.

As to grinding plates it depends what type of sausage you making but good chunks of meat you can grind coarse,than pork with signew, tendons fine so they serve as binding medium.

I have made Pork Ham sausage using plate with only two holes to grind chunks of meat and pork with tendons I grind-ed twice through 3 mm plate.

My last sausage was Polish Smoked Sausage and recipe called for grinding all meat through 12 mm plate.This left visible pieces of fat.

Try
www.wedlinydomowe.com this is Polish site with english version. Lots of good info.
Andrew
 
saskgunowner101 said:
How long would I need to keep the sausage at 170 F in the oven?? Is it safe to say that whatever mix I use, as long as the sausage gets to 170 F, it will be safe??
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Once you reach an internal temperature of 170, it's good to eat.

saskgunowner101 said:
I have 2 other mixes from Luhr Jensen, one polish, one summer. If I omit the smoker and use the oven, am I good?:confused:

All mixes have nitrates in them.
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Even with adequate nitrates, smoking or drying has to be done to 170 for food safety. In theory, you could eat them raw and be ok, but that's kind of gross.

Don't be afraid to use both the smoker and the oven. I will put a couple of pans of smoke at pepperoni's and then finish them in the oven to complete the cure. Make sure you leave enough time for them to 'bloom' before finishing them, or they will not get full flavor from the spices.

You can also just package and freeze for use at a later date. Pull out a pepperoni and throw it on a BBQ with a smoker box on low heat in the spring for a delicious tasty treat. Not really BBQ'ed, but has some excellent flavor.
Liquid Smoke has it's place, but I find it more of a bitter smoke flavor than real smoke.
 
170 would be too high. Making sausage is an art, and making a semi dry sausage such as a pepperoni is not an easy task, you need the proper tools, spices and techniques. First go out and buy a good book on making sausages. " Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas is the bible. read this book learn about grinding,stuffing, spicing, cures. then start with fresh sausage once you have mastered that go on to making your own bacon,hams and finaly to dry and semi dry sausage. Along the way you will aquire some needed tools, a good grinder, sausage stuffer, mixer, smoker,knives, meat tubs, digital thermoneters with several probes so you can monitor the temp of your meat and the temp of your smoker Sounds intimidating but its is easy Just like any hobby you need to know what you are doing. You don't start a young kid out shooting with a 300 mag, start slow with a 22 and work up.
 
I've also heard that book is the bible, so I purchased one tonight online. We already make sausage, but I want to learn more about curing.

Book was $32 at Chapters(in the store) and was $21 online from Chapters. I bought another book for my daughter so shipping was free. Pretty good deal I think.:)
 
So, once I hit 170 F, its good to go?? I don't need it to sit at 170 F for any length of time?? How much past on the oven do I set the temperature (170-200 F). Sausage happening in about an hour, I'm just chilling the grinder in the freezer. Thanks in advance.:redface:
 
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