Wild Game Sausages

Wild game meat is lean and darker than other meats due to a lot of physical activity the animal is subjected to. This requires an increased supply of oxygen and as a result more myoglobin is developed. The more myoglobin is present the darker the color of the meat. Such a meat is often tougher but is good for sausages as meat for sausages must be ground first what is a tenderizing step. Even tough meat is easy to chew when it is ground through a small plate. Sausages made of venison are commercially made for sale in Canada and Alaska. Venison is lean meat and it should be mixed with pork back fat, fatty pork or a combination of pork and beef. A proportion of 60% venison to 40% other fatter meats is a good choice. You can add 30% of pork back fat or fat pork trimmings.

Venison is at risk of being infected with trichinosis and the regular freezing methods as applied to pork may not be enough. Freezing will not kill larval cysts in bears and other wild game animals that live in Northwestern U.S. and Alaska. That meat has to be cooked to 160º F (71º C) internal temperature. Any type of sausage can be produced from game meat, the fermented types included. The manufacturing process for making wild game sausages remains the same as for other sausage types. Using starter cultures and good manufacturing processes as outlined in the book, a semi-dry fermented venison sausage can successfully be made at home.

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The Practical Guide to Making Salami is a companion book to The Art of Making Fermented Sausages, published in 2008. Since then, more information has become available; safety standards have been updated and tightened, new cultures have appeared, and getting supplies and newer equipment online has become more accessible. The most relevant theory has been transferred from The Art of Making Fermented Sausages. Still, The Practical Guide to Making Salami includes plenty of new materials such as fermented spreadable sausages, acidified sausages, or combining acidulants with natural fermentation. The recipes section has been expanded and includes 264 selected recipes from different countries so the reader can immediately produce sausages.