Stick’s Smoked Venison Summer Sausage Recipe (2019 version) (makes 30 pounds)

24 lb ground venison 6 lb ground pork butt roast ¼ C coarse black pepper ¼ C cayenne powder (90K units hot) 2/3 C mustard seed ¼ C marjoram 1 C salt ½ C lemon pepper 1 C dextrose 3 Tbsp Insta Cure #1 (pink curing salt) ¼ C ground coriander 1 Tbsp ground ginger ¼ C ground mustard ¼ C garlic powder ¼ C corn syrup solids 1 ½ tsp Bactoferm culture (got it from sausagemaker.com) ¼ C liquid smoke 2 C buttermilk 2 C Fermento (optional) 2 C cold water ¼ C red wine vinegar

Directions: Grind venison and pork through coarse wagon wheel plate. Mix meat together and then grind though 3/8” plate. Place meat mixture in a large tub. Mix Bactoferm in water and let sit for 20 minutes. In a big bowl, mix all dry spices together and then add all the wet ingredients. Pour over meat and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate meat for 3 days to let it ferment.

NOTE: Before you pack the meat into the sausage casings, fry up a patty or two to see if it’s got the taste you’re looking for.

Pack sausage into pre-soaked fibrous casings and seal. Make sure you pack the casing as tight as you can to prevent air bubbles. Seal each casing with a hog ring. Follow the schedule below for cooking.

1) Smoke the sausage in smoker – In my experience, the entire smoking process takes about 12 hours. Preheat smoker to 120o F. Hang or lay sausage on racks in smoker, making sure the sticks are well separated from each other. Insert temperature probe into center of sausage near the middle of the smoker. Allow to dry for one hour with damper wide open at 120o F. Add wood chips (hickory is suggested) to the wood pan, close damper to 1/4 open, and increase smoker temperature to 150o F for four hours. Add water to water pan and increase temperature to 170o F and smoke for another four hours. After that, increase the smoker temperature to 220o F and cook until the internal temperature of sausage reaches 155o F. While smoking add wood as necessary in 1/4 cup amounts and generate smoke for three to ten hours (suggest four or five hours for first try) depending on how "smoky" you want it to taste. Some recipes recommend using a heavy smudge during the smoking process. A "heavy smudge" is produced using lots of heavy white smoke. This is difficult to do with most home smokers at 150o F unless you have an additional smoke generator attached to or within your smoker to produce the necessary level of smoke.

2) Stopping the smoking/cooking - To stop the cooking process once the sausage reaches an internal temperature of 155o F immediately plunge the sticks into ice cold water to drop the internal temperature to 100o F

3) Blooming: Dry the outside of the sticks with a towel and allow to further air dry while hanging at room temperature for a few hours to reach proper color and then store in a cooler or freeze. If wrapped in aluminum foil and butcher paper the sausage will stay fresh in a freezer for several months. Vacuum packing and freezing will ensure freshness for up to a year.