Homemade Sausage Making

So----looks like around 750 lbs of buffalo strolling into the walk-in next week. Any good recipes out there? Danged if I know what to do with a buffalo!!Sausage? Steaks? Sausage? Roasts? Sausage? Maybe some sausage! What the heck do you do when one of these things hits the ground?? It seems like just another piece of venison to me but it is a new experience for sure! Darn brother called up and says he has a buffalo coming (like Tuesday) and needs a bit of help-I guess so!!

Any advise is appreciated!!

Pat

I best guess is to treat it like lean beef. I am sure that the hind quarter meat will be less desireable than the chuck.

I'm sure you are right Ross-sounds like a lot of grinding to me. I've processed a lot of elk, deer and bear but 750lbs of bison sounds like a stretch! Guess I should have bought that Buffalo Chopper a while back!

I'm thinking around 50 lbs of prime and 700 lbs of ground!

I like dried beef gravy and toast. Otherwise known in the mess halls as SOS. The top round would be a good cut to use for that.

If all else fails, slow cook the heck out of it if it,s too tough otherwise.

Also, it will depend on how the buffalo was fed as well. Those raised for meat are sometimes fed high protein and aren't permitted to free roam much. The grass fed variety could be tough.

Who gets the hump meat? That's the best part!

Charlie

Jerky is always a good way to use game. Vac seal and it'll last forever. You have a lot of decisions to make. Time for a BIGGER smokehouse for sure. Good luck.

I would make heaps of biltong, plain, mild, hot and smoked. Than vacuum pack. It will keep for a long time. Spice up some tough joints and slow cook it. I would love to be given 1/2 a buffalo.
Good Luck,
Jan.

Thanks everyone for the ideas and comments--

We process several deer and an elk or two (and an occasional bear) each year I am guessing this will be similar in fat content and will have to be treated about the same way in most products.

Crusty-I haven't made biltong-any favorite recipes? We do quite a bit of jerky and have always wondered about the biltong.

Nuynai-jerky will be a part of the plan for sure, we are planning to kind of hi-grade the prime cuts and then vac pack a lot of it for ground and smoked products later. My smokehouse will handle around 75 to 100 lbs at a time depending on the product so I'm not too limited there. I seldom run that big of a batch at one time (except around the holidays for gifts), but I can put a lot of meat through it if I need to.

Cranky-not sure who gets the hump-probably not me but we'll see.

This is kind of a novelty-it's just a very large novelty! As I said, we will hi-grade the prime cuts and put a lot of it up in bulk vac packs until we decide what to do with it. I can see a fair amount of burger and a lot of sausage and meat sticks in the near future.

Thanks again
Pat

I think that my approach to it would reduce it to approximately ten pound cuts and freeze most of it. I would cook the bones for stock and can that in quarts. Large pieces will keep better in the freezer than ground products. It could even be cut into pieces of ready to grind size and then packaged in ten pound bags.

That's exactly what I have in mind Ross. We want to try some small recipes before diving into a large batch of unknowns! Also, we are on a pretty tight schedule-pick the meat up Tuesday (22nd) get it in the cooler same day and hang for 7 to 10 days then cut/pkg/freeze and the brother is heading for Tucson on Feb. 3rd so not much time to fool around with it.