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 meat is often tougher but is good for sausages as it is tenderized during cutting and grinding. Even tough meat is easy to chew when ground through a small plate. Sausages made of venison are commercially made for sale in Canada and Alaska. Venison is lean meat, so 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, so the regular freezing methods applied to pork may not be enough. Freezing might not kill larval cysts in bears and other wild game animals living in Northwestern U.S. and Alaska. That meat has to be cooked to 160º F (71º C) internal temperature. Any sausage can be produced from game meat, including fermented sausages. The manufacturing process for making wild game sausages remains the same as for other sausage types.

Available from Amazon

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.