I've been making a lot of pork/beef sausages over the last few months and have a recipe down that I like, but now I'm about to transition to making some game sausages since it's that time of year, and am unsure on what percentages of venison to pork shoulder to use. I've been using 70% pork butt and 30% brisket for my sausage, but wonder if I need to up my pork shoulder significantly to account for the lack of fat in venison, maybe 50/50? Going to post to outdoors too, but wanted to start here. Thanks.

50/50 pork butt to venison is a good ratio in my opinion. I've seen this recommendation a lot over the years too, so I don't think I'm the only one.

I use 66.6666666/33.333333333

To make is easy, count up your venison, use half that amount of pork butt.

I just did 34 lbs of sausage over the weekend, ~23lbs venison and ~11lbs of pork butt. Came out great.

I saved the last 10lbs and added dried jalapeno and high temp cheese. Never tried it before, came out really well

50/50. If you can find the large packages of pork loins on sale and freeze they are the best. Pork butt works well though.

dahouse said:

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I use 66.6666666/33.333333333

To make is easy, count up your venison, use half that amount of pork butt.

I just did 34 lbs of sausage over the weekend, ~23lbs venison and ~11lbs of pork butt. Came out great.

I saved the last 10lbs and added dried jalapeno and high temp cheese. Never tried it before, came out really well

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Thanks. In case anyone cares, I got tired of spending so much money on the high temp cheese and did some research, and you can easily make your own. I've been buying the 2.5 lb blocks of Tillamook cheese at Sams and cutting up and putting in the fridge uncovered for 2-3 days and that dries the cheese out and raises the melting point of the cheese. Lot cheaper. More work too, but if you're making a crap ton of sausage that's one way to cut down on the price.

We do 60-40: 60% Pork to 40% Venison. Have always used Boston Butt.

I am very thankful for the information, while at the same time disappointed in myself that I had not discovered this sooner.

This opens way more varieties of cheese for my uses, especially when it comes to summer sausage

Solid tip on the cheese.

Care to share your recipe? or are ya keeping it a guarded secret?

And as far as ratio, I'm generally around 60/40, but I never keep it super precise.

Only time I deviate is on breakfast sausage, where I add a bit of bacon in the mix.

A.G.S. said:

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Solid tip on the cheese.

Care to share your recipe? or are ya keeping it a guarded secret?

And as far as ratio, I'm generally around 60/40, but I never keep it super precise.

Only time I deviate is on breakfast sausage, where I add a bit of bacon in the mix.

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I'm by no means an expert. I've only been doing this for a few months, but the product has turned out great. Lot of friends/family have been buying it from me so it's good to not lose my ass so bad on my hobby! One thing that I do that I had no idea about until I started watching a lot of videos online is using a binder. Never would have imagined adding non fat milk powder and cream/milk/etc. to sausage, but I do and it works well. I also add all my spices to that mixture and then mix with the semi frozen pieces of meat before sending through the grinder. This gets the grinder doing some of the mixing for you so it's easier after you grind. I know some will say it's not necessary and adds cost, but again, no expert here and it's just what I did the first time and it came out great.

Yeah, the dried milk addition for smoked sausage doesn't seem to be as common as it once was.

Back in college I worked at a meat market for a while. Probably made about 80 to 100 pounds of sausage every morning.

Now I only make about that amount every year.

I've stopped adjusting my main smoked sausage recipe for the last few years. Fairly mild and definitely simple flavor, but the family likes it:
30# meat
6 oz salt
3/4 cup black pepper
2 Tbl Garlic Powder
2 Tbl Onion Powder
4 tsp Cayenne
4 tsp Red Pepper flakes (cut back here if ya wanna start milder)
2 Tbl Chili Powder

If ya are planning to smoke it, add the following:
2 cups dried milk for every 10 pounds (6 cups for a 30# batch)
2 tsp curing salt for every 10 pounds (6 tsp for a 30# batch)

And I'll grind everything coarse, mix in the seasoning, then lay out on baking sheets and toss back in the freezer for 1-2 hours. I don't have a separate stuffer, so I do the second grind as I'm stuffing it.

For breakfast I use pork butt, generally around a 60/40 mixture of venison to pork butt. Over the years I've gotten away from trying to make my own seasoning because I've found that Zach's Seasonings out of Pasadena does a damn good job, isn't expensive and makes life a lot easier. Their hot breakfast sausage mix is very good.

For link sausage I use brisket and again go for around a 60/40 mix of venison to brisket. The flavor of brisket mixed versus pork is way better IMO than pork. Again, the Zach's seasoning is just too hard to beat and so easy. Toss in a few extra japs and some cheese and you are done.

I do make a German coarse sausage that I have to mix my own seasoning for, but it's pretty simple - bull binder, coarse black pepper, kosher salt, little bit of garlic and some other stuff. No jalapenos or cheese in that mix, just sausage. Smokes really well and has a great flavor that even the kids love.

For making, I cube the meat, add the seasoning, mix, then grind. I like the sausage with larger coarser chunks of meat and fat in it, so I only grind on the coarse plate. Usually run it through a second time because it really helps with the seasoning getting distributed evenly and I think it stuffs better that way as well. I add the cheese last and mix with a little water in the mixer until the consistency is right for any that have cheese in it.

Absolute lowest ratio I'd go is 50/50. When you start getting more pork or beef than venison, to me it negates the venison flavor too much. At that point, might as well just make straight pork or beef sausage.

Interesting about the cheese and making your own, off to do some reading on it now to learn things.

Not all pork is equal.

Using loins, id use no less than 70% pork.

Using wild pork, grocery store butts, etc id do no less than 60% pork.

Using 50lb bulk boxes from ruffinos, no less than 40% pork. (This is where the standard 50/50 pork/deer sausage from game processors comes from.)

CS78 said:

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Not all pork is equal.

Using loins, id use no less than 70% pork.

Using wild pork, grocery store butts, etc id do no less than 60% pork.

Using 50lb bulk boxes from ruffinos, no less than 40% pork. (This is where the standard 50/50 pork/deer sausage from game processors comes from.)

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Unless you just have some laying around that won't ever be used....why on earth would you use loins for sausage?

The entire point of mixing in some other meat with venison is to get some fat into the mix so the sausage actually congeals and doesn't fall apart while you are stuffing and cooking it. Also that fat keeps it from being dry AF, which loin is going to do.

Just doesn't make sense at all to me.

Its slow at the office so I'll post my recipe as well from the weekend.

23lbs venison, sourced from 4-5 Mason County deer, stored in gallon ziploc bags for too long
11.5 lbs pork butt

11oz of Adkins Klobase seasoning (amount calculated from the 15oz package that makes 50lbs)
8 tsps No1 pink salt
7 cups of water

Rinse casings and soak for 1 hour

Cut up the pork into grinder-throat-sized cubes, put in freezer for an hour or so.
Venison is frozen enough to be hard to separate - that's good.

Grind it up,

Mix seasoning and cure into water.

Pour mix into meat a little at a time and mix by hand (if you swear loudly it makes the pain of the cold hands easier to endure)

Take a beer break and make a little patty and cook it in a skillet. This is your taste test.

Stuff the casings. This in an art form. We pinch and twist as they come off the stuffer. Some people coil the whole thing and make links later.

Last 10 lbs - add 6oz dried jalapenos and 1.5 lbs high-temp cheese. Mix by hand (cursing again)

Stuff that.

All links go in the fridge overnight.

Next day, get smokehouse to 120-ish, hang the links. Mine eventually got to 130-132ish.

4-hours of smoke.

Pull links, let cool, then vacuum seal. We threw a couple on the grill just to try.

Might want to give this a try this winter. I have zero grinder or stuffing equipment though. Never made sausage on my own but it's time to fix that.

Reccs for starting out?

Do you have a preferred casing source and size?

I just made my first sausage last year. Only did breakfast as I wanted to try out the process first. Planning on some link this year.

Any advice on starter equipment?

Has anyone had any issues using wild pig for the pork portion? Or is game on game too much?

dr_boogs said:

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Any advice on starter equipment?

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What kind of budget? There are tons of videos of people making sausage with their kitchenaids. Just depends on how much you're trying to make at a time, and what your budget is. I historically had been taking 7-10 deer to the processor a year. A couple years ago when prices started creeping up, I realized I spent over $2,000 on processing, so I told my wife I was going to buy some equipment and learn it myself. I've already gotten my money's worth because I've made hundreds of pounds of sausages and ground meats. It's really a lot of fun IMO.

oldarmy76 said:

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Has anyone had any issues using wild pig for the pork portion? Or is game on game too much?

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I mixed it with pork butt earlier this year and made breakfast sausage using Leggs #10 seasoning and people could definitely tell there was wild hog in there. It was a clean hog too with no stink. Just has its own flavor I guess. Was good, but we could all taste it.

EDIT. Just realized you were talking about mixing with venison. Sorry.

I started with cheap stuff from Amazon to make sure I liked it. Prices have gone up since I started but I recommend the smaller LEM grinders. Academy and bass pro and other retailer ms carry parts and pieces and accessories as well.

I have the #8 0.5hp grinder. It's probably more than I need. It's $399 now
The #5 is a .35hp and it's $349

I picked up a used 5lbs stuffer for $50 or $75, don't remember. I upgraded to a 10lbs unit, but I got it for free from family. It's an antique cast iron one

Meat totes are a must. I have 2

Natural hog casings are fairly standard. I haven't had trouble with any that I've bought. Academy sells the LEM ones. I used to just order on Amazon. This year I got some at the meat market

My smoke house is a temporary unit. It's made of plywood with hinges minted on the outside corners. Pull the pins and it lays flat in storage. I used my offset out the first couple of times

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My smoke house is a temporary unit. It's made of plywood with hinges minted on the outside corners. Pull the pins and it lays flat in storage. I used my offset out the first couple of times

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Got a pic? Homemade or buy one? My smoker is my bottleneck. I've been using my offset and only feel comfortable cooking 20 lbs at a time. Hard to keep below 150.

This is all I could find

I put a small Weber in the bottom and start a little charcoal fire. I keep a bucket of water with pecan chunks and put a few on every 30-45 mins

See if you can get a large appliance cardboard box from your local Home Depot or Lowes. That with some wooden dowels poked through the side can hold a lot of meat. Use an electric hot plate with a cast iron pan for your sawdust, and smoke away. You can't hot smoke this way (because you run the risk of lighting everything on fire), but it's great for cold smoking.

This year's batch

Holy crap, I recognize that. Did ya'll do a YouTube video a long time ago? I watched so many videos when I was trying to learn how to make sausage, and this looks familiar.

Never posted to YouTube, but I did post those pics here back in 2019

HTownAg98 said:

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See if you can get a large appliance cardboard box from your local Home Depot or Lowes. That with some wooden dowels poked through the side can hold a lot of meat. Use an electric hot plate with a cast iron pan for your sawdust, and smoke away. You can't hot smoke this way (because you run the risk of lighting everything on fire), but it's great for cold smoking.

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Will that ever get it up around 150, or is this much lower temp like 120 or so? This might be perfect for snack sticks that need even lower temp than sausages. Thanks.

Pork loin was on sale in Houston Kroger this morning.

agcrock2005 said:

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Got a pic? Homemade or buy one? My smoker is my bottleneck. I've been using my offset and only feel comfortable cooking 20 lbs at a time. Hard to keep below 150.

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Same here. Can only run about 15-20 pounds at a time.

I do a hot smoke though.
Smoke it at 175-200 for a couple hours with the door cracked to really dry out the casings.
Then shut the door and 1-2 more hours till internal hits 145.

Need to build a temporary cold smoke house like y'all got though.

Last batch shot up on me though at the end when I got distracted. Still good, just some of em got a bit dry on the ends.

Nice! Here's a batch of jalapeno cheese I made a couple days ago, before I smoked them. Do you not use cheese in your sausage? Only asking because I'd imagine it would melt the cheese pretty quickly cooking 175-200?


EDIT: Odd that a picture of cheese sausage would be flagged...wtf

agcrock2005 said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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See if you can get a large appliance cardboard box from your local Home Depot or Lowes. That with some wooden dowels poked through the side can hold a lot of meat. Use an electric hot plate with a cast iron pan for your sawdust, and smoke away. You can't hot smoke this way (because you run the risk of lighting everything on fire), but it's great for cold smoking.

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Will that ever get it up around 150, or is this much lower temp like 120 or so? This might be perfect for snack sticks that need even lower temp than sausages. Thanks.

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Lower. We cold smoke all our sausage.

I found a trick for the freezing hands while mixing:
I have a really thin pair of fleece glove liners. Wear those with some nitrile gloves (longer ones if possible to make sure the liners are covered).
With those, I can mix without cursing!

Oh, and for a lot of my venison sausage I just add 30% of pork fat trim, so that I don't cut the venison any more than I have to. I've used beef fat occasionally, like for merguez, and stuffed in sheep casings, so it's more authentic and I can share with my Muslim friend and his family.

No cheese in these, but this is the same temp we used back when I worked at the meat market, and a lot of our sausages had cheese in there.

With the cheese hack you mentioned above, I'm probably gonna add some jalapenos and cheese to the next batch I do.

It's been ages since I did any with cheese though, how much are you mixing in?