Venison Brats or Polish recipes?????

[Guest]

Looking for recipes to make homemade venison brats or polish sausage???? Any suggestions or can't miss family favorites out there??

[Guest]

My family has been making Polish sausage for several generations. The recipe that we have found to work the best is a mix from Petty Brothers in Annandale.

We use 1/2 pork (not too fat) and 1/2 venison. Depending on how deer hunting goes we will do 1/2 pork - 1/2 beef (parents raise beef cattle and pigs). Last year our pig was a little small and hunting didn't go so well, so we did 40 lbs pork, 30 lbs beef, and 30 lbs venison. This turned out great.

We add in 1 bulb of garlic per 25 lbs of sausage. Our grinder is small so we need to cut our meat up into smaller pieces. When cut we mix it up (with the garlic) and grind it. This blends the various meats together. We add water to the seasoning and curring salt and mix into the meat.

When stuffing we use larger casings (hog) on about 3/4 and the rest we use smaller casings (sheep). The smaller ones work great as a hotdog replacement or if you twist them small as a breakfest or 'little smokie' style sausage.

They hang for a few hours to dry, and then into the smoker. Apple wood seems to be the best, with a little bit of hickory. Currently we are using an old fuel oil barrel that will handle about 100 lbs at a time. It smokes for about 4 hours. We let it hang and cool over night, then vaccuum pack and freeze it. The sausage is not fully cooked so it needs to boil for 10 - 15 minutes.

Making the sausage is more of a family tradition then anything, but you might as well enjoy the product also.

Kevin

[woodman]

TedFred- I would go to Stitsworth's Nymore Meats in Bemidji. They did an excellent job on my sausage!!!

Good Luck

Can't wait to hit the open water with you!!

Woodman

[Guest]

Tedfred: Are you an experienced sausage maker looking for new spice recipies? Or just getting started and need advice on procedures?

[Guest]

Just looking for other recipes to try...I haven't found that "perfect" recipe yet that totally suits my taste. Wanting to do some experimenting!! Thanks for the info thus far!!