Venison Sausage Texture (2024)

My Italian Butcher does 50/50 pork shoulder and Wild Game Meat.

Invest in a Vertical Stuffer, grind once and mix.

TM0218 said:

No, I can’t say I’ve even heard of rusk. What is it?

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Its dried bread crumbs, same stuff you coat fried chicken in etc
Cheers
Richard

WyoDoug said:

I would also be careful not to over mix meat when you are making sausages or you end up with bologna type texture and density. For italian sausage, I only mix it enough to be well blended. If it's too dry for the stuffer, I add just a little bit of ice water until it feeds through well.

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This. Don't over-mix. If you want fine textured sausage like a summer sausage or snack sticks, then mix it well until the meat becomes tacky. For brat / Italian style sausage, just mix enough till the seasoning is blended in but no more.

Kaitum said:

This. Don't over-mix. If you want fine textured sausage like a summer sausage or snack sticks, then mix it well until the meat becomes tacky. For brat / Italian style sausage, just mix enough till the seasoning is blended in but no more.

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Sorry I might have steered him in the wrong direction, my idea of a sausage is the British banger, not Italian which I just googled!
Cheers
Richard

Another tip for you: You want your metal parts that touch the meat as cold as possible. You do not want them to be getting warm or they will partially render the fat in the sausage and melt any cheese and that might create lumps too. For the grinder and stuffer, I put all the metal parts including blades in a bin and put it in the freezer for at least 6 hours. For the mixer, I put frozen bags of water in zip lock bags in the mixer and cover it with a towel.

If you use cheese, you want to buy the high temp cheese available from Weston or Cabellas. Over the counter cheese, unless it is high temp cheese, will turn into a liquid cheese and you will not even notice it when you grill the sausage and it may have a weird texture and taste.

Hi-Country sausage and jerky mixes are fantastic! They are all excellent. I use them each and every year. Country Blend, Italian, and German are all excellent. Like others have stated mixing a little more pork fat/meat into the works will work nicely for you. I grind twice. After first grind I add the sausage mix into the 5-gallon white bucket I use only for mixing game in, nothing else. I mix it well by hand and then I grind the second time. I also mix it by hand again after the second grind. I feel that it gets the sausage mix more evenly distributed in the meat. I have never used a sausage stuffer and like to make my sausage into bulk packages right at about a pound each or just a touch more. For me at least it works better for us using it this way. You can find pork bellies on sale quite often and they make excellent mix as they are about 50% meat and 50% fat. I also like to vary things a bit if I prefer or want a little more of a spicy sausage, I just cut down on the total amount of meat I am mixing the seasonings into. Say the package calls for 30 pounds of meat I might use 25 pounds of meat so I get a little bit more flavor in the sausage.

Hi Country also makes excellent jerky mixes. I love them. My favorites for jerky are the Original Blend, Smoky Blend, Three Pepper, and Sweet & Spicy.

Hi Mountain spices out of Wyoming also makes some excellent flavorings also. I've used a couple different mixes of theirs and really liked them, but I pretty much have stuck with Hi Country. If it's not broken, don't fix it.

TM0218 said:

Okay awesome thanks everyone! So it sounds like more pork and less mixing is the consensus. If anyone has any recipes that they’re willing to share please do! Thanks again

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More than likely it's the mixing. Try some of Hank Shaw's recipes @ honest-food.net