How do I make a small deer shoulder taste better because I want to make it into sausage, too.?

Question

The front shoulder will produce about three to five pounds of meat. It is frozen at the moment. Any hints so I don't waste the meat?

Answer 1

Pineapple juice...

Answer 2

The first thing I'd want to do before making the sausage is to determine if this piece of meat has a "gamey" taste. To do this, I'd defrost the meat and cut it off the bone. You'll have to do this anyway if you make sausage from it. Then take a piece of it and fry it until it is still slightly pink in the middle. If you fry it to complete doneness, it will be tough and dry. Do not use any seasoning except maybe a bit of salt and use the salt only after the meat is cooked. Taste the bit of cooked meat to determine if it is gamey. If you find it to have an acceptable taste, you can then proceed to make sausage from it. On the other hand, if it is too gamey for your taste you will need to marinade it to remove the gameyness. I have found that the best way to do this is to place the pieces of meat into a container of ice and water and put it into your refrigerator for about 4 to 6 hours, Remove the meat from the refrigerator, pour off the ice water and replace it with more ice water. Continue to do this until all of the blood has been rinsed out of the meat and it has a pale appearance. You have now removed the juices and blood that give the greatest amount of gameyness to the meat. Again, take a small piece of the meat, fry it and taste to see if it has become more palatable. At this point, you have done all that can be done to remove the gameness from the meat. From this point, if the meat is still more gamey than you like, you have only two choices to save the meat. The first is dilution, that means that you will have to increase the amount of pork or other meat in order to dilute any residual gameness to a tolerable level. The next technique is to increase the amount of spices in order to cover the taste. You may need to do both in order to salvage a particularly gamey piece of meat. The best way to avoid gameness is proper handling in the field. Game should be treated the same as you would treat beef, pork, etc. You wouldn't buy a steak and tie it to the top of your car and drive 100 miles home with it and neither should you do it with a deer or any other game. I hope this helps and you end up with some tastey sausage for your efforts.

Answer 3

Venison Breakfast Sausage
"Homemade venison sausage for breakfast."
INGREDIENTS
1 pound ground venison
8 ounces bacon, minced
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon onion salt
DIRECTIONS
Combine the venison, bacon, sage, ginger, pepper, and onion salt in a large bowl; mix well. Shape into 12 patties using about 1/4 cup of mixture per patty. Patties can either be pan-fried or frozen for later use.

Summer Sausage
"This recipe uses venison and breakfast sausage. Takes four days to make, but well worth it!"
INGREDIENTS
1 pound ground venison
1 pound pork sausage
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard powder
1 teaspoon mustard seed
2 teaspoons liquid smoke flavoring
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons onion salt
1 1/2 teaspoons meat tenderizer
1/4 cup water, or as needed
DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix together the ground venison and pork sausage. Season with mustard powder, mustard seed, liquid smoke, garlic powder, onion salt, and meat tenderizer. Mix in just enough water to make the mixture sticky. Cover, and refrigerate for three days, mixing once a day.
On the fourth day, preheat the oven to 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Form the mixture into 2 inch rolls, and place them on a baking sheet.
Bake for 6 hours in the preheated oven, until firm and cooked through. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until needed.

Answer 4

Hey Cat,

First, use Juniper Berries to reduce the gaminess.

Also, check Penzeys for spices specifically for deer meat AND sausage spices. www.Penzeys.com.

Answer 5

Take it to a butcher shop, and ask them to make it into pepperoni sticks. That's what my friend does after he goes deer hunting. Deer pepperoni sticks are so delicious!

Answer 6

Soak it in milk, that will take the gaminess out of it. Soak it for about hours in the fridge.

Answer 7

I mix mine 50/50 with pork. Usually works with grind.

Answer 8

you need seasoning...strong stuff....and lotsa salt
wait--just make it into jerky if youve got the equip.thats the best