Featured Recipe
Venison Sausage
Every hunting season brings fresh elk and deer meat into our kitchen. Then the real work begins; grinding, cutting and packing pound after pound of fresh, organic meat.
Over the years, I have played around with spices until I achieved just the right mix for our tastes.
These recipes work great for ground turkey as well!!!
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Venison Breakfast Sausage
(based on the Turkey sausage recipe from Nourishing Traditions)
10 Pounds of Meat (best if it’s 8 pounds venison, 2 pounds beef or pork fat).
2 ½ teaspoons each:
5 teaspoons each:
5 Tablespoons Sea Salt
Mix all ingredients together and freeze in appropriate portions for your family. It will taste and keep best if you shape it into a log, then slice off rounds when it comes time to cook….something happens to the flavor when you take it out and mash it into other shapes. I like to put my logs in plastic bread sacks to better protect the flavor in the freezer. Then I wrap them in freezer paper.
***  Our local natural food store sells nitrate free bacon ends in 20# boxes.  I often use this as the fat portion in my mixes.
Spicy Italian Venison Sausage
10 Pounds Ground Venison
2 Pounds Beef or Pork Fat
3-4 Tablespoon garlic minced
4 1/2 Tablespoons Sea salt
7 Tablespoons fennel seeds
4 teaspoons cayenne pepper
3-4 Tablespoons red pepper flakes
7 Tablespoons black pepper
Same mixing instructions.
Morning Maple Venison Sausage
15 pounds ground venison (I suggest adding at least 10% fat)
2 Tablespoons thyme
1 Tablespoon marjoram
5 Tablespoons sea salt
6 Tablespoons sage
3 Tablespoons black pepper
1 ½ cup maple syrup (grade b is best)
1-3 Tablespoons maple extract (depending on your taste)
Get More Recipes Below!
one thing i like with my Game turkey sasusage are two things the turkey has to be a big old tom and the pork fat has to come from a wild hog /grass fed hog
Hi! I just started my blog, and linked this page into my first post! I just wanted to inform you and ask your permission! Great blog!:)
Kaleigh
Kaleigh! I am honored!ÂÂ
do you have a recioe for smoked sausage in 50 cent size casings?
Made all three yesterday with a Red deer I shot and pork fat. All three are delicious! Thanking you for sharing your recipe. 🙂
Timothy, my pleasure! This past year I ground mine with bacon instead of fat—OH BOY! That was amazing! ENJOY!!!
Kayla
Thats what we do. We ground of hog jowl for our fat and it is amazing!
I have ground deer that is frozen. Can I unthaw, make into sausages, then freeze it again?
Absolutely! I often do this if I don’t have time!
-Kayla
Hi Kayla,
I will soon be making moose sausage for my hunting group and there is a split between the spicy and mild folks so I will make two batches based on your Italian Spicy sausage recipe. I will simply add paprika and white wine to the spicy Italian recipe and strip away some spices for the mild folks. Here is where I would like your opinion, I was thinking of adding regular ground pork shoulder to the coarse ground moose, about 1:3 in favor of moose. Do you think this might just kill the game, should I just go with some ground pork back fat?
Thanks,
Pierre
Hi Pierre! I think that sounds like a just fine ratio for mixing…it will make it taste less strong of game, but Moose is pretty mild anyway so I’m sure it will be delicious! Let me know how it goes.
Kayla
When you say pork or beef fat…. do you mean ground meat/sausage or just the fat? Sorry new to this whole deer sausage processing thing.
I usually use just the fat – or something I use bacon!
Kayla
Hi Kayla, The sausage making event recently took place and we made better than 30Lbs of venison sausage. I used to occasion to trial a new press and it worked very well. The sausage was a split between mild and spicy Italian, I had the presence of mind to ask the butcher who prepared our moose to ”give” me 30-40 foam trays so the the vacuum packing did not crush the sausage too much. It was a success, everyone enjoyed the process and product. Next year…liverwurst and endouille! I tried to attach some pictures but I don’t think your site accommodates that……….Take care, thanks for the feedback and Happy New Year to you/family and your followers.
have 6 lbs of venison and want to make the spicey Italian you offer. How do I work the adjust the amounts ofseasoning?
Ricardo, You can just cut everything in heaping halves. 😉 So if it calls for 4 Tablespoons for the full recipe, you can do 2 heaping. Does that make sense?
Kayla
How does fresh herbs go in these & how would it adjust the measurements amount by. .
Thank you
Ross
Hi Ross, I’ve never used fresh herbs in these recipes, so I’m not sure of the conversion. You might Google a conversion chart to get some ideas!
Kayla
Hi Kayla, if Im out of wild game and I want to make a lean breakfast sausage. (Something a little healthier) What would you suggest to replace the Venison? And would the cut make a difference? Like a pork loin instead of a shoulder? I like the idea of adding bacon for fat. We often make bacon venison burger. about a 5 to 1 mix.
Hi Scott! I would use ground turkey in place of the venison. 🙂
Kayla
To put through sausage stuffer, is it best to do after mixing and freeze the “links”, or still freeze in logs, thaw, and then put through stuffer?
Thanks!
Hi Wendy! I put mine through the stuffer right after adding the spices and just gently laid them on a cookie sheet as they came out. I then wrapped them, and froze them in waxed paper. They hold together really well!
Kayla
That makes sense, thanks. I just made your venison pepperoni sausage. How do you prefer to cook and serve this variety?
We mostly Barbecue them! But it’s also good browned and used in spaghetti or other Italian dishes. =)
Kayla
I could not find the jalapeno cheese sausage recipe
Hi Diann! That is in the book that you can download on this page by putting your email in the box above.
Kayla
Thanks so much!
Good Morning Kayla,
Found your recipes online while looking for some Venison sausage recipes. The Morning Maple recipe sounded great, so I went ahead and made 27#s of it using bacon for the fat and bacon flavored sea salt I had laying around from my last deer. I wanted to let you know that it came out excellent and I Thank You!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it and it turn out well! Thank you for letting me know!!!
Kayla
How long would you have / cook a big log of pepperoni sausage?
Kayla, how, and how long do you cook your sausage rolls. Bake, fry, etc. Or due you fix it like link Italian sausage in supermarket.
Gary, I’m going to guess 30-ish minutes on the BBQ… I just cooked them until they appear done!
Kayla
I’m trying to get the free venison sausage ebook but the link isn’t working.
Hi there Sherry! I’m sorry about that– can you email us so we can shoot it over to your directly? kayla@kaylahoward.com
THANKS!
Kayla
I would like to get your e-book recipes.
In the maple recipe – do you prefer to use dried spices or ground?
Hi there Elizabeth! I use mostly dried spices. =) But you could experiment a little with it for you.
Kayla
how can iget a cook book from you
Hi there, can I just make this and put it into sausage casings right away?
YES you can!
Kayla
How do I add fat into the sausage? I have huge hunks of mangalitsa pork fat in my freezer, do I just grind some up into the venison?
Judy, great question! I personally chunk the fat up into 1-2 inch cubes and feed it in with the first grind of the meat. It mixes in better after the second grind!
Kayla
Awesome! Thank you!
So happy to find a use for my high quality pork fat
Hello Kayla,
Is your Venison Sausage book available hardcopy? If not, may I have the free ebook?
Hi Janine! My book is not in hard copy, but you can 100% get the printable version in the box above! Just enter your name and email and I will come right to your inbox. 🙂
Kayla
hi KAYLA i am looking for a recipe for making smokies but i want to add blueberries and maple syrup but cant find anything but breakfast sausage and no one says if i should use the blueberries as a liquid or whole and how much of either to use ( blueberries or syrup) im not looking to make 30 pounds just 3 pounds to start if you could help would greatly appreciated thanks shane
That sounds like a delicious idea! I would probably start with the maple recipe I have and add blueberry preserves or dried blueberries. You might be able to add fresh ones, but it might add too much water. You could experiment a bit in small batches and see what you think!
thankyou for the reply i will try that and see what happens