My sausage is dry...

[ctom87]

Get your mind out of the gutters, perverts!!

I took my first crack at diy sausage making. I did beef fat with venison, 8 lbs venison to 2 lbs beef fat. I then attempted to cold smoke it on the traeger for 8 hrs by filling up the amazn smoke n tube twice. I then packaged it up and froze it.

I took some out and it just seems dry. When I cooked it I got IT up to 195 (yikes, too much.) The flavor is ok, but that may be the recipe. It tastes a little... smokey in a bad way. Like burnt smoke. Hard to describe. Any suggestions?

[Aggiehunter08]

Good dry sausage is a true art and science. Very tough DYI.

[ctom87]

Good dry sausage is a true art and science. Very tough DYI.

I would have to agree. I am hoping it may just be this batch. I will be upset if the 90 lbs i processed all ended up like this!!

[ATI]

Use pig/hog fat or boston butt and try higher percentage.
Hang smoke the meat using real wood smoke
Take the time and follow your instructions precisely the first few times until you get IT, seems like you got bored and decided to make sausage

Did you use cure? Be very careful, it’s been pretty warm to “cold smoke”

[JES]

Are you trying to make dried sausage or regular sausage?

Use Boston butts for the mix, pork fat is much better in my opinion. Since you went 80/20 it is going to be dry. I like 60/40 or more. I like juicy sausage yes, I said I like it juicy!

Smoking, you smoked it too long I think. How many hours of smoke total did you get on it? Did you trap all the smoke in the smoker or did you have it venting out? You need to get the smoke moving across the meat, not just sitting stagnant.

I have a batch of bacon that is over smoked, you can definitely over smoke it.

[Aggiehunter08]

I don’t plan on ever trying but if I did I’d give this recipe a shot. https://honest-food.net/landjaeger-recipe/

[Smart]

Need to add more fat. 80/20 is lean for sausage

[Kingfisher789]

My humble opinion is you should not have used beef fat. Lard? What are you calling beefcdat? Thanks

[txhunt7]

I process all my own meat, except sausage. When I do finally get the time, I will start with small batches till I get it right. I have made some ok pan sausage but I cheated, I mixed with Jimmy Dean and called it a day.

[louieagarcia]

You lost me at “burnt smoke”

[kmitchl]

I use 50/50 venison and pork butts. When i stuff i add water to the meat mix until it is the consistency of bread dough. It helps with stuffing and basically steams the sausage when it is cooked. When you smoke you want cold smoke with little heat.

[ctom87]

Thanks for all the responses. I went to my local butcher and asked for pig fat and they were out. They said I could sub beef fat, and they sold me 14 lbs at .49 cents a pound telling me it would do the same thing. The smoke was exiting the smoke stack and the smoking tube was on the opposite side to promote flowing. Its definitely edible. Just could been better. Live and learn.

I may go 70 30 next time. The beef fat was brisket trimmings I believe. I will be building a smokehouse for this purpose for sure.

Appreciate the advice fellas keep it coming!

[roughneck266]

Pork is a cleaner fat, you can use a bit more of it without affecting the overall flavor of the sausage. I use beef sometimes too, but pork is much more forgiving

[Smart]

My sausage is dry...

Most folks use pork butts/pork shoulders to make sausage ... the ratio of 40% deer to 60% pork butt is pretty much the goto for sausage ...50-50 is a close second. They can be found for 89-99 cents a point at least once a month somewhere. The PB is meat and fat so the ratio above is not pure meat to fat but that combination with pork butts is money. Plus it extends your meat and makes the quantity higher. We make it 300-400 LBs at a time as do many folks on tbh. It’s pretty much bulletproof.

[JES]

Most folks use pork butts/pork shoulders to make sausage ... the ratio of 40% deer to 60% pork butt is pretty much the goto for sausage ...50-50 is a close second. They can be found for 89-99 cents a point at least once a month somewhere. The PB is meat and fat so the ratio above is not pure meat to fat but that combination with pork butts is money. Plus it extends your meat and makes the quantity higher. We make it 300-400 LBs at a time as do many folks on tbh. It’s pretty much bulletproof.

Listen to this man, he’s a bit of a guru when it comes to sausage making and smoking.