Ok, so i found that i can atleast attempt to process my own game. Got a grinder, and grinded up some hog, didnt mix it with anything but italian sausage seasoning. . I think i got the mixture wrong.
1- would it be better if i added other game or fat ?
2- where would someone get this fat from? The store?
3- should i start with the LEM kits?
What did you get wrong? Too much seasoning? How much did you do?
Dont thing i added enough, but i stuffed it all in hog casings.
Always test fry/taste up a small piece before finalizing it
The only stupid questions are the ones we don't ask. You didn't say what kind of sausage you were making but suausge is sausage whether it is pork, venison/pork mix or any other ground up critter. We make venison sausage with a 60/40 ratio. That is 60 percent deer and 40 percent pork. The pork is necessary to hold the ground meat together and to keep it from being too dry(other fats can be used- beef,lamb,etc). We used to use a product called 50/50 pork trim for our venison sausage but have changed to using boston butts for the added pork. It makes a very lean sausage which we prefer. The amount of fat is a personal preference. Fat can be purchased from some grocery stores as they will trim a lot of the pork they sell. You can usually order a 50 lb. box of 50/50 trim through a meat company. LEM has some good products. I use their natural hog casings for our smoked sausage. Last year you could buy them from BassPro for a dollar a bag cheaper than the LEM site. For seasoning we use AC Legg pork sausage seasoning. It comes in a bag that is premixed for 25 lbs of sausage. We usually add a few extra spices to suit our taste. It took me a couple of years to get my sausage where I could be proud of it when I gave it to friends and family. The only one that was happy when I turrned out a bad batch of sausage was the dog, so all was not lost. There is a web site, "Lets-make-sausage.com" that was a great help to me after my "sausage making mentor" passed away. That old man was 85 and knew how to make sausage and my sausage just wasn't the same as it was with his supervision. It's still not as good as his but no one complains. We use everything on a deer carcass, except the staps, hams and tenders to make sausage. There are several other fellers that follow this site that can offer you some better advice than I can. One last thing, when I started doing sausage on my own, I kept accurate notes on what I did, how much of this and that, how much time in the smoke house and any other thing that might need to be recalled for future batches, 'cause when I finally got it right I knew I had a recipe that would be there next time without having to guess what we did. Good Sausage Making to you, H60mech! Treefarmer
