OT Sausage Party

Last weekend I was invited to the annual sausage fest. You have to bring four things cubed venison, a 12 pack of your favorite beverage, some good stories, and thick skin.  The morning starts with sitting around tables cutting pork fat and beef fat into cubes.  Then inevitably some one shows up with venison that needs to be cleaned up.  Two men start weighing the meat and fat for each batch.  The ratios we used were 20# venison to 7# pork fat.  This was sent through the grinder.  After going through the grinder it gets transferred to the mixer where cure and seasonings are added.  From the mixer it is transferred to the press.  We used imitation casings for the summer sausage and natural casings for the sausage.  The sausage was cut into bun length pieces and package in butchers paper.  The bulk Italian sausage and ground meat was packaged in 2# plastic bags.  For the summer sausage the ends were tied with twine and taken to the smoke house for 6-8 hours.  We made four different kinds of sausage including cheese and jalapeno.  Bulk Italian, ground meat, and the summer sausage. 500# total. It was a lot of fun and a good use of venison.