Wild Game Sausages

The definition of wild game covers large animals such as deer, elk, moose, bear, mountain goat, and smaller animals such as squirrel, rabbit, opossum, and wild birds. Meat from wild animals is very lean, dark in color, and often has a gamey flavor which some people find objectionable. Fat is known to carry a lot of this flavor, and as much of the fat as possible should be cut away. Since game meat contains very little fat to begin with, it is understood that smoking and cooking will produce a very dry product. The solution is to lace meat with pork back fat, add pork fat into sausages, cover smaller meat pieces with bacon strips, or baste meat with marinade often.

Wild game meat is lean and darker than other meats due to the 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 meat for sausages must be ground first, which 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, 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. Any type of sausage can be produced from game meat, the fermented types included. The process for making wild game sausages remains the same as for other sausage types. Using starter cultures is encouraged, and obeying good manufacturing processes is a must.
Strong herbs or spices such as juniper or rosemary are usually added as they can offset the gamey meat flavor.

Trichinae

Trichinae. The disease is almost non-existent in American pigs due to their strictly controlled feed, but it can still be found in meats of wild animals. Trichinae is an illness caused by the consumption of raw or under-cooked pork from free-roaming pigs or wild game meat infected with “trichinella spiralis.” Trichinae is a parasitic nematode (round worm) that can migrate from the digestive tract and settle in the form of cysts in various muscles of the body. A wild boar, bear, raccoon, or any other animal that eats meat may be infected. The trichinae parasite is destroyed by submitting meat to heat treatment to at least 137° F (58° C). If present in pork, this parasite may also be destroyed by keeping meat frozen for a prescribed time.

Deer are herbivores; they eat leaves from trees, bushes, and shrubs, hence they don’t contract the disease.