Wild game summer sausage

A recipe from Executive Chef Chris Taggart, Uintah Basin Technical College

In late fall 2022, the DWR Northeastern Region office partnered with the Uintah Basin Technical College culinary program to host a wild game cooking seminar featuring recipes using elk. This summer sausage was one of the attendees’ favorites, and it can easily be adapted to be made using deer, bear or other game meats.

Thanks to EBTech Executive Chef Chris Taggart for sharing the recipe!

Wild game summer sausage

Quantity: Makes about 10 pounds summer sausage

Ingredients

• 8 pounds elk or other wild game (cut in 1-inch cubes)
• 2 pounds pork fatback (cut in ½-inch cubes)
• 6 tablespoons kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons dextrose powder
• 2 teaspoons curing salt (also called "pink salt #1")
• 1 ½ tablespoons yellow mustard seeds (whole)
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 cup Fermento (powdered starter cure)
• 1 cup water
• 4 collagen casings (2 ½-inch diameter, 18-inch length)

Directions

Important: During all steps of the sausage-making process, keep ingredients ice cold by setting metal mixing bowls inside larger bowls or trays filled with ice or ice water.

Step 1

In a large bowl, combine the game meat, pork fat and all of the other ingredients except for the Fermento, water and casings. Mix to combine with your hands. Work in small batches and keep cool while mixing.

Step 2

Using the ¼-inch plate on your grinder, grind the meat mixture into a bowl set over ice. Change out the grinder plate to the ³/₁₆-inch plate and pass the mixture through the grinder again.

Step 3

Meanwhile, dissolve the Fermento in the water and stir with a spoon. Add to the ground meat mixture and mix with your hands — or throw the meat mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on the lowest setting — until evenly incorporated.

Step 4

Press a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the meat, making sure there are no air bubbles. Then wrap the bowl with a second layer of plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator for two days to ferment.

Step 5

Make a small test patty and cook it in a sauté pan to be sure it's seasoned to your liking. Adjust seasonings as needed, stirring well to incorporate evenly. Using a sausage stuffer, stuff the sausage into the casings. Let the stuffed casings rest in the refrigerator (hung from a rack or on a tray in a single layer) to dry out for 1-2 hours.

Step 6

While the stuffed sausages are resting, soak a pan full of applewood chips for 20 minutes. Preheat the smoker to 112-130 degrees. Set the pan of chips in the smoker. Lay or hang the sausages in the smoker.

Step 7

Smoke for about 60 minutes, then raise the temperature to 180 degrees. Keep refilling the pan of soaked applewood chips as they get low. Smoke until the internal temperature of the sausages (tested with a meat thermometer) reaches 150 degrees. This will take 2 to 3 hours, depending on your particular smoker and the ambient temperature.

Step 8

When the sausages are done, remove from the smoker and hang at room temperature for 1 hour to cool, then wrap well and refrigerate. Sausage can be refrigerated for up to four weeks, or frozen for several months.