Homemade Summer Sausage

My wife and I just made a batch of venison/pork summer sausage and link sausage that turned out as good as any we have ever had, just my wife’s and my opinion. So far everyone else that has tried it thought it was top shelf. Many have been asking for the recipe so I am putting it all down here before I forget. It was a lot of work but we think worth it for the end product we now are enjoying. We now have some good link and summer sausage that we know exactly what was put in it. All the meat was good stuff and we cut out all the gristle, lymph glands, blood clots or any other membrane we did not want in the ground meat. The seasoning we used for thirty pounds of ground meat is listed below and worked out great. The meat was stuffed into fibrous summer sausage casings and/or hog gut casings to be smoked later. The summer sausage was then cooked in the oven at 275 degrees until it reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees and then allowed to cool in the fridge overnight before being wrapped to freeze. The summer sausage makes great snacks, sandwiches or an on-the-go meal with cheese and crackers. The same meat was used for the link sausage, I even smoked some of the links and then dried them to hard dried sausage that turned out great. For now here is the recipe for 30 pounds so just divide it down for a lesser amount of meat. Wild Ed


Jena & Wild Ed’s Summer Sausage

15 pounds deboned and trimmed ground venison

15 pounds of ground pork butt

3 fresh garlic gloves chopped

6 fresh jalapenos chopped with seeds

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon Cayenne pepper

1 ½ pound of grated Cheddar Cheese

2/3 cup black pepper

1 cup of kosher salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon of meat cure (Prague Powder)

3 cups of cold water

Add cheese, garlic and jalapenos to ground meat and mix.

Add all other ingredients to the 3 cups of water and stir well.  Pour over the ground meat and mix well. The spices and cure need to be mixed though out the ground meat mixture as uniformly as possible. Let the meat rest covered with Saran Wrap in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours and then stuff in casings. Cook summer sausage in an oven or smoker until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees before cooling. It is then fully cooked and does not need any more cooking to serve. Links to be smoked or cooked on the grill should just be cooked before eating to 165 degrees or more. Sausage to be dried and eaten like jerky must be brought to 165 degrees in the smoker or oven before drying. I took all the temperatures with a meat thermometer probe.