Help Making Deer Sausage

[Birddog]

I tried a batch of deer sausage this weekend and did not have good results. I followed the recipe and added the cure, seasoning pack to deer meat I groud up with 20% prok fat. I stuffed it in casings and put it in my smoker at 170F until I got an internal temp of 165 as per the recipe. It appears all the pork fat cooked out of the sausage and doesn't have much spices taste to it. Any ideas what happened? Did the seasoning go out with the fat? Why did the fat cook out of it? Ideas?

[Mr Walleye]

I'm by no means any type of sausage expert. I'm just getting into it but I did just look up deer sausage in the book "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas. I know everybody considers this book the bible. According most of the recipes they take the IT to 152 degrees. I know from smoking everything else that fat renders around 160 degrees so I would think that taking it to an IT of 165 is probably the problem. Hopefully some others with a little more experience will comment.

Mike

[Habanero Smoker]

I agree with Mike. It's best to keep the temperature down to around 152°F. I never made venison sausage, and there may be a reason the recipe calls for an internal temperature of 165°F. I would take the sausage out of the smoker at 152°F and store it in the refrigerator or freezer. If you have concerns treat it as partially cooked sausage and when you are ready to use the sausage cook it until the internal temperature reaches 165°F.

[pensrock]

When I do any sausage, including venison, I never go above 150 degrees. The book Mike refers to is a great read with many recipes. I highly recommend it. Like he said, it's the sausage makers bible. If you cook sausage to 165 it will be fully cooked and ready to eat, IMHO. When I do venison sausage I always buy a pork butt and mix it with the venison. About 60% venison and 40% pork. It always comes out great.

[drano]

Birddog,
I don't know what recipie says to smoke to 165 deg, but I agree w/ the other posters--152 is good.
I've made about 5 batches of deer summer sausage in my OBS and what works for me is getting the meat to 155 (a couple extra degrees to be on the safe side). 
I run the OBS at 160 deg for a few hours, then bump to 170-175 until I get the sausage to 155, which was 8 hours on my latest batch over the holidays--see my post a few down the list.  Some of the fat started to cook out, but was not excessive at all, and there was still plenty mixed in the meat.  I think if I kept the smoker at 165, I could still get meat to 152, but I don't have the patients to do that.  I do 3 sticks one day then 2 sticks the next and place them on the top racks.  I think they cook more even with more room for air to move around, but I'm hoping to add a fan soon, and hang them next time to do all 5 at once.

On a side note, did you let the meat set over night so the cure could do its work?  I couldn't tell from your original post.   I've always understood that the cure needs time to cure the meat before smoking it.  If you smoke it too soon, it may not be able to kill all of those bad things that try to grow in the sausage as it slowly warms up during cooking.  If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone here will set me straight soon. 

I've done 70% deer/30% pork butt with no more added fat, and it turned out good.  Another option is find a butcher shop and ask for pork sausage trimmings.  Its all the fatty odds and ends, that may have about 50% fat.

My OBS temp is controlled by a Love Controls TS digital controller, so I'm +/-5 to 8 of my set temp.  A PID would be better, but for $50, I'm happy w/ the TS. 

Try another batch, and cook to 152-155, with a smoker temp of 165-175 and I bet you'll be amazed how well it turns out. 

Get smokin
Drano

[winemakers]

10 ring shots all of them.  Just another question, did your recipe call for a binder such as dry milk or the like?  These binders help to hold the fat in the meat some, but the driving force is the temperatures.

good luck!

mld

[pensrock]

Drano,
  Temperatures of +- 5 to 8 degrees is quite good IMHO, and for 50 bucks I find that hard to beat. Even with a PID controller I would not expect any better than +- 2 to 3 degrees and thats after fine tuning the controller a few times.

[drano]

Pensrock,
Yea, I'm not and electronics expert, so the TS works great for me.  Changing temp is easy, and it holds it good enough for my use.  Glad I added that to my smoker. 

Get smoken

Drano

[RocMo]

i'm new to the whole sausage making thing myself, i've only made 2 batches of sausages, one bologna and one salami, all using venison. so far but i've learned alot already.  the first batch of sausage was brats, 80% deer & 20% pork butt.  i fried up a sample patty before stuffing and it was fantastic, but when i smoked it it was just plain nasty.  i took it up to around 165* and used hickory smoke the whole time.  YUCK! not even edible.  >:(  the next time we made the venison polish sausage recipe from the sausage bible.  used 70% venison, 15% pork butt & 15% pork fat.  took it to 152* using 2 hrs of apple smoke.  turned out very good.  personally i wouldn't put the fat content any lower, i've found it gets really dry if you do.  it's ok if you're going to use it fresh, but i wouldn't advise smoking it.  don't know if that's the case using all pork, we've got TONS of venison to experiment with and sausage is my new thing right now.  BTW, i got the 70-15-15 percentages from a local sausage supply place, they've been very helpful w/ tips on using venison in sausage. you can play with the amounts of pork lean and fat a little, but not too much.  it depends on how fatty your pork butt is. 
and dry milk or soy flour does wonders to keep the stuff from shrinking up on you, i was really suprised by that.
HTH :)

[Stickbowcrafter]

Great responses here for sure. Not sure where you got that recipe but you might want to refrain from using any more of theirs. I've never seen a recipe call for sausages to go that high and render out all the fat.

-Brian