Venison Italian Sausage from Sophie May

This Venison Italian Sausage will go great in every one of your Italian recipes!

I love Italian food and I have a plethora of venison in my freezer so this recipe kind of wrote itself! Italian sausage kind of just goes with Italian food. In a lasagna, meatballs pizza, calzone, and every other dish you can think of. Throw this bad boy in it and go to town. I made this sausage loose with my LEM #8 Big Bite Grinder, but if you want to case it you definitely can. Also, I used an 80/20 venison to pork fat ratio, but you can go 70/30 or even more fat if you just hate venison.

Making sausage can seem like a scary process, but it doesn’t have to be. Again, keeping it loose so you don’t have to worry about the fat leaking out of the casings or not having a smoker is a great beginning intro into the sausage making world. I have a few recipes coming out of this sausage so keep an eye out for what’s in store and enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 4 lbs venison
• 1 lb pork fat
• 1.5 T pepper
• 3 T salt
• 1.5 T fennel seeds ground up
• 1.5 T red pepper flakes
• 2.5 tsp oregano
• 1.5 tsp paprika
• 2.5 T garlic powder
• 1.5 tsp onion powder
• 1.5 tsp dried parsley
• 2 tsp brown sugar

Instructions

1. Cut venison and pork fat into small cubes that will fit in your meat grinder and place into a freezer for ~10-30 minutes (depending how cold it already is).
2. Mix seasonings together in a small bowl. Make sure your fennel is ground up. I used a coffee grinder, but you can use a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
3. Grind the venison and pork through a coarse plate in your LEM Big Bite Grinder.
4. Mix the spices thoroughly into the meat with your hands, stand mixer, or meat mixer and then put back into the freezer for 10-30 minutes.
5. Clean your grinder and freeze any part of it that comes in contact with the meat.
6. Grind your meat again through a fine plate in your LEM Big Bite Grinder.
7. Mix the meat again thoroughly. You can add some water if you want to try to help the binding process.
8. This is a loose sausage so when it is sufficiently mixed you are done! You can vacuum seal the sausage or get straight to cooking! Enjoy!!

Notes: 

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Serving: 5 Lbs
To adjusting the serving size and ingredients accordingly, check out this recipe on Sophie's website and many others. 

About the Author

Hi y’all! My name is Sophie Milich May (@wifeofahuntercooks) and I live in Texas. I grew up around hunting with my father and Poppy both going as often as they could. I have even had the fortune to go deer hunting and dove hunting. A year ago I married my husband and he slid right into the family, hunting just as often. He is more adventurous and has had the opportunity to go alligator hunting and brings in the occasional squirrel. Since we have so much game in our freezer AND I absolutely love to cook, I figured I would start a blog of recipes to help others navigate the world of game. The goal is to one day make a cookbook so all of my recipes are easy to access, but, in the meantime, ENJOY!