Sausage, Chorizo, Venison

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons coarse kosher or sea salt
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 5 tablespoons paprika
• 3 tablespoons ground cayenne pepper
• 8 large garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
• 2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
• 1 cup Ice water
• 7½ pounds ground venison
• 2½ pounds pork, ground

Directions

1. Trim deer meat well. Remove any fat, silver skin. Cut venison into long strips or chunks that will fit into your meat grinder hopper. Grind meat with your meat grinder with 1/4-5/16 inch cutting blade hole.
2. Cut pork into long strips that will fit your meat grinder hopper. We like to use a smaller 3/16-inch cutting blade hole for pork. This will allow the pork to cook at the same rate as the venison, so the venison won’t get overdone.
3. Once the meat is ground, return it to the refrigerator.
4. Measure ice water. Add ice to the measuring cup and then fill it with water to the amount you need.
5. Mix all spices, vinegar and ice water into covered bowl or container. Place lid on bowl. Shake vigorously to dissolve salt and mix spices well.
6. Add the spice mixture to the ground meats and mix gently but well with clean hands. Don’t overwork, or the sausage’s texture will suffer.
7. Return meat to the fridge overnight for up to two days.
8. You can stuff the sausage into hog casings with a sausage stuffer or freeze the meat in bulk. I generally don’t stuff chorizo since I usually remove it from the casings when we cook it.

Notes

Freeze grinder attachments before starting so that they are cold.

Meat must kept very cold! Always keep the meat in the fridge in between steps.

Grind pork with a smaller diameter cutting blade hole than the venison. This will ensure even cooking.

Use a ratio of 30% pork to 70% venison for best flavor.

Use a pork shoulder or a pork butt instead of pork fat. It will be healthier and will provide better flavor.

The amount of chile peppers you use will determine how mild or hot the sausage is.

You can either make Chorizo links with a sausage stuffer attachment for your meat grinder or leave the meat bulk and unstuffed for patties.

The recipe can be easily doubled, tripled, or reduced. For the best flavor, eat it within a couple of months.

You can substitute red wine vinegar for apple cider vinegar.

You can also substitute garlic powder for minced garlic.