Polish Homemade Venison Sausage

Many (if not most) of the homemade venison sausage recipes I come across are for a breakfast-type deer sausage.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact is...

...You can make a great polish sausage from the bounty of your deer hunting trip too.

Just remember that you need to add some fat to the equation because venison is so very lean.

I like to use pork shoulder and/or trimmings for the added fat, but you could use beef and beef fat if you want a pork-free sausage.

Recipe

3 lbs trimmed venison, cut into 1 inch cubes

2 lbs 25% fat pork shoulder or trimmings, cubed

2 tablespoons garlic powder or granulated garlic

2 tablespoons kosher salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon fine ground black pepper

2 tablespoons paprika

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon ground mace

1 teaspoon ground celery seed

1 teaspoon #1 cure (prague powder or Instacure)

1 cup ice water

Grind the chilled venison and pork through the medium blade on your meat grinder.
Mix all the cure and spices with the 1 cup of ice water.
Pour the water/spice/cure combination into the ground sausage meat and mix it very well by hand to be sure of even distribution.
Stuff the sausage immediately into 35-38mm natural hog casings or comparable sized collagen casings that have been formulated for the smoke house.
Follow correct smoking procedures, and make sure the sausage reaches 152 degrees F.
Click Here for Sausage Smoking Instructions

I have kept this sausage in the freezer for up to 8 months by vacuum packing it, and it hasn't lost any of its goodness. I would try to use it up within 3 months if you don't have access to a vacuum packer though.

Keep in mind that you can certainly multiply the recipe to use up the windfall bounty of a successful hunt, but be sure to keep the ratio of cure to sausage meat the same (1 teaspoon per 5 lbs).