We take great pride in the meat we harvest during our annual hunts. This meat will be processed into steaks, roasts, and even ground venison. The question has always been what to do with all the extra cuts and less popular pieces of our trophy animal. The answer, for centuries, has always been the same: sausage. For experienced meat processors, this is a straightforward task. For many DIY Hunters, however, sausage can remain a mystery. But now we have a solution. The team at High Mountain Seasonings has created a kit that allows us to make sausage at home in the comfort of our own kitchen.
DIY Summer Sausage with High Mountain Seasoning Kit
The sausage kit comes complete with everything needed to make a great summer sausage, as well as bologna. High Mountain was kind enough to send me a kit, allowing me to take a shot at making my own sausage.
The meat for this project came from a trophy mule deer that I shot last November in Texas. Venison, in general, is a relatively lean meat. Because of this, they suggest adding some pork to the mix. Once I had all my meat ready, I gathered all the necessary items and grabbed the handy instructions.
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Cut it Up
Task number one was to make sure that our meat was cut into small cubes. At that point, I ran it through a meat grinder—first the mule deer and then the pork that I had grabbed for the project. Once individually ground, I mixed them with the seasoning, the cure (not the band), and a small amount of water. Once again, I ran the ground meat through the meat grinder to ensure everything was thoroughly mixed.
As I mentioned, the High Mountain kit included everything that we needed for a project, including sausage casings. After a brief soak in water to soften them, I was ready to stuff the casings. I once again put the meat through the grinder, but this time I used my sausage-filling fixture. Slowly and methodically, I fed the meat in, and it eventually filled the sausage tube.
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Everything You Need
The team at High Mountain Seasonings honestly thought of everything we would need for this project. They even included some extra twine at the end of the sausage casing, which I trimmed off and used to tie off the end of the now-filled casing. I now had something that at least looked like sausage.
The Next Step will be to put the sausage in the refrigerator and let it sit overnight. This would allow the cure to work on the meat inside the casing. Twenty-four hours later, I remove the sausage from the fridge and let it sit on the counter to get to room temperature. Now it was time to move the sausage into the oven.
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Oven Time
The suggestion from the High Mountain team is to set the oven at approximately 200°. This was going to be a slow-curing process with the goal of the sausage reaching an internal temperature of 157 °. I set the sausage inside with a small pan underneath it to catch any drippings. And then the waiting game began. For my oven, it took approximately two and a half hours for the sausage to reach the correct temperature. I found myself checking the temperature more than I probably should have, but once again, this was my first spin at making sausage.
Once the sausage reached the correct temperature, I removed it from the oven and placed it into an ice bath in the sink. The purpose of this is to stop the heating process and cool the sausage. About 20 minutes later, the sausage was ready. With my son watching eagerly over my shoulder, I cut the first piece. Much to my surprise, the sausage was delicious. I honestly believed that the process would be much more complicated, but the High Mountain kit made it an easy task.
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Next Time
As with any cooking process or project, there’s always room for improvement. Improvement in this case came down to personal choices that I would make. While I personally enjoy mule deer, this specific animal was one of the leanest I had experienced. I believe I could have added a little more pork to increase the moisture in the sausage. Additionally, a personal taste preference would have added additional salt. As I mentioned, these are personal preferences and factors I consider to refine my next project.
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Sausage at Home
The team at High Mountain Seasonings has done a great job of making what is perceived as a difficult task into an enjoyable event that can be done at home. I look forward to experimenting with different meats and different seasonings. This will undoubtedly be the first of many sausages to come. If you are interested in making your own sausage, I highly recommend checking out High Mountain Seasonings. They offer a variety of kits and have recently added a new Peperoni kit to their lineup. It’s time to get into the freezer and make some sausage.
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