# Sausage making question.



## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

Last year I made a few pounds of elk sausage using this recipe. The "Base" is the original recipe, "Base *7.0" is adjustments to recipe for the 42 pounds of meat I was thinking of using to make a bunch of this. Planning on antelope meat this time.

I can get the recipe tabbed out so it looks great on the screen but as soon as I submit the post all the formatting goes away.

ELK SAUSAGE 
Base	Base *7.0 
Wild game 6.0	lb	42.0	lbs 
Ground pork 3.0	lb	21.0	lbs 
Thyme dry 1.0	tbsp	7.0	tbsp 
Oregano dry 1.0	tbsp	7.0	tbsp 
Sage dry 1.0	tbsp	7.0	tbsp 
Salt 2.0	tbsp	14.0	tbsp 
Onion chopped 1.0	cup	7.0	cup 
Garlic chopped 0.5	cup	3.5	cup 
Red pepper flakes	0.5	cup	3.5	cup	Optional 
Green chili peppers	1.0	cup	7.0	cup	Optional, roasted, peeled, diced 
Sun-dried tomatoes	1.0	cup	7.0	cup	Optional 
Maple syrup 0.5	cup	3.5	cup	Optional, for breakfast sausage 

Made this sausage on 12/17/16. Used about 2 cups onions, 2/3 cup red pepper flake and 1 1/4 cup green chilies. Also used sun dried tomatoes in olive oil from Costco. Purchased a pork shoulder from Costco. Don't remember how many pounds, 25ish? Turned out a little dry, need more pork or pork trim.	

The sausage was a little dry when cooked and if I wasn't really careful checking for doneness a couple times I about turned them into sawdust. So I wondering instead of just using ground pork should I put some fraction of pork trim into the mix to get the fat content up to combat the dryness? I'm thinking about 15 pounds of ground pork and 6 pounds of pork trim?

When I made this I stuffed it in 32-35mm cases and while I like the size there just too big to fit in a bigger hot dog type bun. Whats size cases make a sausage that fits well into a bigger bun but isn't some skinny weiner?


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Packers have changed the way they process pork, making pork more lean nowdays, I would use pork fat to help the dryness, and that may be hard to find-- ask your butcher to save you some. I'm sure Goob can help you on casing size.


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## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

muddydogs said:


> Last year I made a few pounds of elk sausage using this recipe. The "Base" is the original recipe, "Base *7.0" is adjustments to recipe for the 42 pounds of meat I was thinking of using to make a bunch of this. Planning on antelope meat this time.
> 
> I can get the recipe tabbed out so it looks great on the screen but as soon as I submit the post all the formatting goes away.
> 
> ...


I used pork shoulder for the fat element, if there isn't a more fatty cut available. More less, because pork shoulder is cheap

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

Goob gave me a recipe that we like, which is similar to what you are doing but calls for pork butt. Pork butt is usually pretty cheap and is often in the bargain bin. It has plenty of fat in it to make good sausage.

Here is the recipe.

*Originally Posted by wyogoob View Post
Try this:
Basic fresh sausage recipe:

6 lbs - venison
4 lbs - pork butt
3 tbsp - salt
1 tbsp - coriander
1 tbsp - sugar
1 tbsp - fennel seed (freshly cracked if you want more flavor)
2 tsp - coarse black pepper
2 cups - ice water

Cut meat in chunks, 1 1/2" max,
Keep frosty, 
Add water and spices, 
Mix well, 
Keep frosty,
Grind 3/16" to 1/4"

Make patties or stuff in casings.
Keep in fridge 3 days and then freeze.
*

We like to add some garlic. Even my fussy kids like it.

http://utahwildlife.net/forum/26-recipes/15220-sausage-recipes-19.html


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

*my wiener's too dry*



muddydogs said:


> Last year I made a few pounds of elk sausage using this recipe. The "Base" is the original recipe, "Base *7.0" is adjustments to recipe for the 42 pounds of meat I was thinking of using to make a bunch of this. Planning on antelope meat this time.
> 
> I can get the recipe tabbed out so it looks great on the screen but as soon as I submit the post all the formatting goes away.
> 
> ...


Sausage in 26mm to 28mm sheep casings will be hot dog size when stuffed and cooked properly. The sausage will shrink some so 28mm is best. Sheep casings are expensive - about $1.00 per pound of sausage.

Edible collagen casings don't shrink much, so I recommend 26mm (1"). Collagen casings can be chewy but you can peel them off after cooking...kind of a pain though.

Binders make sausage plump and juicy. They are amazing and I'm using the commercial binders more and more. I use Amesphos and Butcher Packer's #414. The phospate-based additives allow me to cut the fat in half! There are other types of binders that help: soy flour and water and non-fat dry milk and water are two examples. I've used non-fat dry milk in sausage for over 45 years and still do.

A dry or slightly crumbly sausage is not all that bad and some types of sausage are just that way; blood sausage, fish sausage, types of Brit and Irish sausage that have a lot of bread in them and certain types of Asian sausage come to mind.

Making sausage is an art and the more failures I have the better I get at it. Good luck.


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

This is a dinner / hot dog sausage. I don't add the maple syrup. Most the time we eat it in a Brat bun and sometimes just a sausage on the plate with a good mustard.

I will shoot for 20% fat this time even if I have to cut the fat off the pork trim to weight it as I noticed the trim vering in the amount of fat to meat ratio wildly. Sometimes it's mostly fat and other times it's more pork.

I am not sure what I did the first time with elk to pork shoulder as I started to mess with my adjustable Excel spread sheet before realizing I didn't have the info written down and lost my previous data.

I was surprised by the cost of sheep cases and decided to get the 28-32mm hog cases so I will see how I like there fit in a bun.

My first run of sausage was great with just enough spice for the wife and I but they were just a tad dry, I suspect like you guys pointed out that there just wasn't enough fat in the pork shoulder and I didn't add any extra. If a pork shoulder is only 20% fat then by the time I added probably 25 pounds of elk I was probably down to 5 to 10% fat and I suspect I probably actually used more elk then 25 pounds.

Thanks for all your help guys, I'll post up some pics as I make the stuff and do a trophy shot once finished and cooked. Now to thaw 30 pounds of antelope and the pork shoulder in the freezer, a guy has to plan this out right when fridge space is limited.


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

Alright guys I finished stuffing 57 pounds of my elk sausage which I have now renamed to Jim's sausage. It turned out great using Goob's 20% fat suggestion, I added 6 pounds of pork trim to the elk meat which should have given me 20% fat content with the pork butt I used. After cooking the links on the grill they were not dry and had just the right amount of juice, I aslo nailed the spicy factor.

Only issue I had was the Butcher & Packer supply hog cases. I ordered the 29/32mm cases. I found that the cases ran wildly in size from hotdog skinny to bigger then the 32/35mm cases I used last year, heck I had to cut a few feet off the ends of some of the cases as they were so skinny I couldn't get then on my tube. I will try another vendor for cases next time as I'm not impressed with these.



Dunkem said:


> Packers have changed the way they process pork, making pork more lean nowadays, I would use pork fat to help the dryness, and that may be hard to find-- ask your butcher to save you some. I'm sure Goob can help you on casing size.


Dunkem
I ended up getting a 18 pound pork butt from Oscar's meats here in Ogden and I immediately noticed how much more fat the pork butt had on it and in it then bork butts purchased at the grocery store. In the future I will be getting my pork butt's from Oscar's especually when I am worried about fat content.


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

Here's what 5 cups of green chili's look like on a paper plate waiting to be cleaned.










57 pounds mixed up and headed to the fridge to fornicate overnight.










One of two tubs of finished sausage waiting to be wrapped and frozen.


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