Expert: Keith Patton - 12/2/2008

Question
I don't eat beef or pork (either the meat or the fat), but the people processing my deer can't figure out a good way to make venison sausage without adding one or both of these.  Any suggestions?

Answer
Becky:

All the two do are add fat in order to bind the sausage. There are lots of creative sausage recipes out there that you could play with.  I made one that had cheese and apple in it, a french recipe.  Grind the meat and then regrind it with a white cheese and sliced peeled apple. You could try it with cheddar as well. Season it with salt and pepper, cumin and parsley.  These sausages need to be put in casings, if not the cheese melts and runs out before the sausage is fully cooked.  

Another option is oatmeal.  Mix cooked oatmeal mixed with olive oil for fat, with the ground meat before stuffing or making into patties.

You can season the sausage with fennel salt and pepper.

Here is another one, use venison and substitute about 1/3 of the meat with oatmeal. as a binder.


• Ground venison: 2/3 lb
  1/3 lb cooked oatmeal
• Coarse salt: 1/2 tablespoon
• Ground black pepper: 1/5 teaspoon
• Imported Hungarian paprika: 1/2 tablespoon
• Fresh garlic cloves, crushed: 1/2 clove
• Boiled garlic cloves, mashed: 1/2 clove
• Ground allspice: 1/3 teaspoon
• White raisins: 1/5 cup