Aussie Venison Smoked/Cooked Sausage

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 03:37

Hello folks, first thread and will try to give you an idea of one of the things we do with wild shot Sambar Deer venison. No closed season, tags or bag limits.

(1) Procure deer...

After getting the deer into small enough pieces carry out to 4x4 and get it home to the cool room. This one is a young stag (spikey) under 12 months age.
Hanging about 4 to 7 days seems to work OK, then putting it through a 3/8" plate twice with 20% pork fat by weight and a Mettwurst premix that produces an excellent sausage.

Hang overnight after filling into fibrous skins then into the small gas fired smoker, mine holds 9 x 3 1/2lb sausages. Handfull of eucalypt sawdust after an hour and cook to internal 67C.

(2) The finshed product in the coolroom blooming for a couple of days...

(3) Cut in half...

Everyone likes the flavour and texture, it resembles a nice Strasburg and will be a major part of our summertime salads for 2012/2013.

You can see the butchers string used to tie off the bottoms of the skins, its a lot less slippery than the white butchers string and grips better when they are wet and hanging up.

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 08:57

Outstanding, Pete! The sausage looks very tasty. Just one question.... how do you get your dog to keep from gnawing on one of those hind quarters. That's a well-trained pooch, pal! Thanks for sharing Pete. Interesting about the twine.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:04

Thanks ChuckWagon,

The German Wirehair Pointer is nearly 6 yr old now. He's very disciplined and I could put the tastiest bloodiest piece of dog "caviar" out of the deer in front of his nose. If I say No, he won't touch it.....lol...just keeps looking at it until I click the fingers and/or say Good dog.

Macs job is to point deer and indicate where he can smell them. Occasionally a deer might run a short distance before expiring and he will find it in a trice in heavy scrub, a terrific dog and loves our grandkids.

And.....he's pretty partial to a bit of the sausage too !!

We also make a lot of fresh sausages for the family, the Cracked Pepper,Coriander & Basil this year was well received.

Had corned venison for lunch today- you can se it doesn't get left in the bush and wasted.

sawhorseray · Post by **sawhorseray** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 00:00

Nice piece of work Pete! I checked Sambar deer out on the net and that's quite a fine animal to have available with no season, tags, or limit. I'd imagine the backstrap steaks marinated in some teriyaki would be real nice on the grill too! Here in Californiia we're able to hunt wild hogs all year, and up until Arnold Swazzenegger became governor a few years back the tags cost $7.50 for a book of five, now they are $20 each. Having a good dog makes finding downed game a lot easier, for sure. RAY

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 00:53

Ray, hunting the wild hogs would be action packed at times, a lot of Aus. has feral pigs that are shot in the thousands as vermin. None real close to my part of (south/east) Aus.

If you want to read more about Sambar Deer in Aus. have a look at a local forum here,

......... http://www.australianbushdeer.com/

(Mods -Apols if quoting another site is not on, pls delete if so)

The sambar venison is very lean and rarely has much fat on it, its the main reason I bought a mincer back in the 80's. It comes up good in a schnitzel though after hammering.

I'll hammer some and marinate in teriyaki, see how it goes, thanks for the tip

Pete

nuynai · Post by **nuynai** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 01:59

Any hog hunters want some good reading, check out Texasboars.com. Tough to get to become a member, but lot of good info on hunting with firearms, bow, dogs and recipes. We don't have them here in WNY, nor do I want them.

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 09:15

Pete, just a sidenote...
Your Sambar Stag produces the finest antler material for knife handles in the world. It's quite famous and imported almost everywhere.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 00:16

Thats interesting CW, didn't know it was held in such high repute.

It is used here for that purpose by custom and home knife makers and looks quite good.

Very hard antler and cast by the stags annually and a new pair grown.

I have a couple of Cutco knives that I like veyr much, the double d serrated edge is very handy and the bright orange handles make them easy to find on the ground.

nuynai · Post by **nuynai** » Mon Nov 12, 2012 01:22

Pete, this may sound dumb but when we go hunting, everything of value has a pink, orange, etc piece of surveyors tape on it, secured with duct tap. Much easier to find when out in the woods and we loose it. Stay safe.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Mon Nov 12, 2012 09:31

nuynai,

Good idea mate !

I carry some pink fluoro tape for attaching to antlers when carrying out of dense bush. Better to be safe than sorry and readily seen by the occasional other hunter.

oneills · Post by **oneills** » Mon May 20, 2013 04:23

Howdy Pete. Can you tell me what brand of premix you used for sausage and what temp you kept smoker at. Looking at them sausages makes me want to get back up bush soon to get a sambar

Cheers

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Mon May 20, 2013 14:49

G'day O'n, hows Sth Gippy going, raining as usual....lol...dry near Maffra lately.

Its called the mettwurst premix, tastes very similiar to a strasburg, we are still eating it after nearly 8 months or so. Great stuff !

I start it off fairly low, say 45/50C, wide open at the top vent for air flow, after say an hour I lift the heat - aim for 67C or so, but get there slowly. Smoke after an hour or so. Usually finish them off to that end temp in the elec oven in the house with the door a little ajar and fan running at round 90C on the stove thermostat.

We vacuum pack everything, improves it out of sight. I have an account with them, very user friendly and I thought the postage they charge is cheap. If I can help further pls drop a PM.

Have a look here....

http://www.butcherathome.com.au/shop/sa ... 44_46.html

oneills · Post by **oneills** » Mon May 20, 2013 17:05

Thanks Pete. Might have to give some a go. What casings did you use ? The poor smoker is going to cop a hiding this year i think. Have half a dozen pigs to kill soon. Its too wet now had over 3 1/2 inches in the last week. Must have prayed too hard as it was vefy dry up till last week, but it has helped the ots i planted come along nicely. Picked up a load of milk from Nambrok & took into Maffra Sat night. Weather was a hell of a lot better than at home......near Korumburra