Mennonite venison sausage recipes?
 

I'm just wondering if anyone has done a fairly traditional mennonite/farmer sausage with venison? I spent the last few years working in Saskatchewan, and having a freezer full of delicious mennonite sausage. Now I've run out, and I want more. I know it's made up of a cure, salt and pepper, and then usually cold smoked. I'm thinking of trying a batch with 30-40% pork fat, and see how it turns out. Anyone have any experiences they would be kind enough to share?

There should be some mennonite recipes online if you look. The Mennonites probably have traditional secret recipes and ingredients.

This is not really mennonite sausage but some good recipes.

http://www.lets-make-sausage.com/venison-sausage.html

Thanks for the reply. From what I understand from the mennonites I met out there, it's simply just salt and pepper amd prague #1. Some of the really old methods included some fermentation as well.

I guess what I'm really looking for, is if anyone has dialed in the venison to fat ratio that would make a sausage taste and feel like the mennonite stuff.

Check out the various recipes. Very informative, to say the least.

http://www.meatsandsausages.com/saus...curing/methods

I use 50% pork trim in my game sausage. The pork trim is 80% lean.

There is a very large Mennonite community north of Saskatoon with probably ten different operations or individuals selling "Mennonite" sausage. What you are going to find is ten very different tasting sausages with some tasting similar but some very much different. Most, if not all, use pure pork in their sausage. You will never get a 60% venison 40% pork sausage to taste like Mennonite sausage. Most do not smoke it either, at least not around here. I think you will be very disappointed if you use 60% venison and 40% pure fat. You should get some 'fattish' pork shoulders and use 50-50 pork and venison. You could also use a commercial sausage mix that you buy. I use bratwurst and add garlic and pepper and a bit of Italian seasoning but I also smoke mine so I would add cure also. Seems to come out fine. Good luck and good eating.

Wow great links guys!

Per KG
Salt 16 g
Pepper 3g
Brown sugar 5g
Cure #1 2.5g

This sausage is highly dependent on fermentation for the unique flavor profile as the flavor is simply Salt, Pepper and Smoke and cure
Oak if you have it.
Sugar is optional but will aid fermentation if you go that route.
Shoot for 20%-25% fat
Coarse grind open grain texture desired-no snap-do not develop the myosin

Awesome. Thanks for this. This sounds identical to what the guys were telling me in sask, of course they wouldn't give me all the details. But hands down they made the best sausage I've ever tasted. I'll be throwing a batch together in a few days here.

These were some of the gents I got to know up there. Duck lake and prince Albert areas. They both smoked their sausage though. I'm sure you're right though, there's hundreds of variations to the recipe as it originated, all with a families little personal touches.

I grew up in a German community in Sask. The recipe looks correct. German food is typically not too spicy. Pork, potatoes, cabbage, onion, salt, pepper, apples, beer.
:mad0100:

I use the spice kit from CTR refrigeration and use 50 percent pork trim,, if your try their jalapeño smokies kit, you'll never go back, I got a wild boar and a moose last week so I'm doing the smokies with the trim and moose,,,, can't wait mmmmm

Just got back from visiting my buddy in the hospital. Guy in the next bed is a mennonite from way up north. Butchers his own hogs and make lots of sausage. Seems to sell a lot of it too. We had a great time chatting, in fact his wife is gonna come stay with us until her husband gets better. They use nothing but pure pork, salt, pepper, and hit it hard with heavy smoke for about an hour. His smokehouse is 4'x4'x8'H made out of 1/4 osb with no vent on top. It is raised off the ground and he builds a small fire underneath it with super dry poplar. He says it fills right up with smoke. He also mentioned that some of his mennonite friends use straw instead of wood to smoke. He feels poplar is the very best. While his wife is staying with us, I am going to pick her brains to see if there are any other tricks. Pretty simple.

That mennonite sausage is the best I ever had. Don't understand why it's not more well known.

My neighbour makes the stuff pm me if you want his info.

Replicating .the bacterial tang and unique flavor of a favorite sausage can be more readily achieved by harvesting some meat and skin from the original and culturing it to add to your own batch.

Think sourdough starter made from the Mother

I jus saying

Omega, do you mean you take say a bit of Mennonite sausage and add it to your mix to get it started?
Oh and not to derail but my pepper crusted dry salami turned out excellent!

Indeed

Scraps of meats and fine cheeses usually find their way home with me to be "Cloned"

Unique and specialized flora exist all around us.

How can we exploit these gifts to our advantage.

Use everything but the oink

Same ingrediants I use in my german sausage, with the addition of a bit of boiling water with garlic in it.
I use 60% pork (picnics cut and ground) and 40% red meat. Smoke for 45 mins. at 150 degrees with a maple smoke and vacuum seal. Quick, easy, and hard to beat.
The true german recipe that I use actually calls for 50lbs pork and 10lbs red meat

Just about to do up a batch of easterband sausage as we speak, see how that turns out

Well, I've got a small batch in the smoker right now. I used the recipe in this thread, as it is essentially the same as both mennonites I spoke to about this. I talked to Ganderblaster's neighbour, and lo and behold, he shared his secrets, but it only has one different ingredient. The more I research, the more I see that many mennonites do use straw.

Sausage is finished. I try not to be given to hyperbole on a regular basis, but this is the tastiest sausage I have ever made. If you are searching for delicious sausage, look no further than the recipe given in this thread. My goodness gracious this is delicious. Serious perfection.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...9ad85cc7ff.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...37d48e3d79.jpg

Mennonite sausage is a name that's used to market many different varieties of sausage, most of which taste delicious!
The traditional Russian Mennonite pork sausage is just salt, pepper and heavily smoked.
One key in keeping it traditional is that the pork cut up, ground, stuffed and put in the smoke house within a couple hours of killing the pig. The meat is not allowed to cool off until the sausage is done.
Also when smoking, the fire would be allowed to burn hot just until a bit of fat starts to dip from the sausage, then the air intake is closed completely and the sausage is allowed to smoke for around 45min. This allows the sausage to heat up enough for the smoke flavour to be absorbed and cure the sausage, but still results in a raw sausage that should be cooked before consumption.
I'm sure there are as many variations of this as there are different types of Mennonites, but this would be the traditional Russian Mennonite version.
I may have missed some details in the process, any questions just ask.
I'm also not sure how this would be done with venison, but I'm sure it could be figured out! I hope to try this fall.

Adding lean meat such as venison is obviously a departure from traditional, however I am confident that you can make a darn tasty product using game meat with a higher level of fat to equal things out. I am going to attempt some this weekend using regular ground pork and game at a 50/50 ration. If I need to add more fat, I will grind up some bacon and cut back on the salt accordingly.

i have no doubt that it will be excellent, departure from traditional is what some call innovation, and that's a good thing, usually. enjoy!

Omega, how about using fermento to get that tangy taste? Bel

Nabob

How long did you smoke them for? Did you just smoke them or did you cook them at all?

Thanks

I cold smoked for 1 hr 45 minutes using hickory pellets in my amazn pellet smoker. Heat never got above 65 fahrenheit.

I cooked in 1/2 water with a nob of butter. Cover pan with lid and let cook on med-high until water evaporates. Turn down to med-low and brown with remaining butter.

Delicious.

That looks great. I need to build my smoker and start making my own sausage. Grew up eating the farmer sausage and want to make it myself. I've got plenty of pork we raise ourselves and a good place to butcher and all the equipment. Just need to get a big smoker.

One of the best sandwiches I ever ate was from a now closed Mennonite restaurant called D'8 Schtove in Winnipeg
Fried split Farmers sausage on a grilled Kaiser with Farmers cheese, sauerkraut-fried egg, Manitoba Beef steak Tomato and a special request to the chef-Sprinkled with Cracklings
Was called something like-Grouspau sp? phonetically-Grew-Spa

My Mennonite ex-wife of 30 years and all of her family never cooked Farmers sausage-Sliced raw and dipped in a bowl of Vinegar and sliced onions.
Plate of Rollkuchen and watermelon for dessert
Schmauntzupp for a starter