Sausage Making Day

Back in November, my Mister filled his elk tag with a beautiful, young cow elk. We have been enjoying her for the last few months, but there are parts of her that had yet to be processed.

Until today.

We had planned to turn all 65 lbs. into approximately 85 lbs. of sausage today, but as the day went along, we found that we only had enough time to get through half of it.

The only disappointing part of this process is that we could not find grass-fed pork. Pork needs to be added to the venison because it is so lean. It ended up being 1 pound of pork shoulder butt, (That doesn't even make sense, but who am I to question the butcher?), to 4 pounds of venison. When I asked to the butcher about grass-fed pork, he asked, "Do pigs eat grass?"

Hmmm....Another reason to start building a pig pen.




After the venison and pork was cut into 1-inch chunks, my Mister mixed them, then fed the meat into the meat grinder.

The first time through, we used the disk with the largest holes.

After the first time through the grinder, the spices were added and mixed in. We used a premade spice pack from a sportsman's store. Next time, we'll try mixing our own spices.

We then ran the meat through the grinder a second time, using the medium grind. I wish the picture had turned out, because it looked very appetizing.

For raw meat.

After the second grinding, we stuffed the 2 pound bags and my Mister crimped the hog rings on the end. Son #2, Tanner, marked all the bags, while son #3 asked if we were going to eat some for dinner.

So we did.