shannerdrake
Well-known member
Ever since I gave into the positive thoughts and bought a vertical stuffer, I’ve been looking forward to trying my hand at a natural cased fresh sausage.
I have a lot of ground elk and I had some nice fatty pork in the freezer. After finally ordering some natural casings, I decided it was time to stop thinking about it and just do it.
Hank Shaw’s Sheboygan Brat recipe was the jumping off point (Google search for recipe). I put the ratios in a spread sheet so I could easily adjust on the fly. There were also some home dehydrated mushrooms in the pantry from earlier in the year. All that was left was buying some Swiss cheese. I splurged on
a nice aged European variety. Cubed it up, then let it air dry in the fridge for a couple days (all that increases the melting point which is nice for a hot sausage).
Final product had 6lb of elk, 4lb of pork, 3c of dehydrated mushrooms, and 1lb of cubed cheese.
After two days chilling in the fridge I tossed a couple on the smoker since I already had it rolling smoke.
Man, next level good! I had an internal debate of when the meat ratio reaches a point I can’t call them elk. I decided that since I was still more than half elk, I can still call them “elk brats.”
Wife loved them which is a huge plus. After all the packaging was done, 10lb of vac sealed sausages went in the freezer.
In already thinking on the next experiment.
I have a lot of ground elk and I had some nice fatty pork in the freezer. After finally ordering some natural casings, I decided it was time to stop thinking about it and just do it.
Hank Shaw’s Sheboygan Brat recipe was the jumping off point (Google search for recipe). I put the ratios in a spread sheet so I could easily adjust on the fly. There were also some home dehydrated mushrooms in the pantry from earlier in the year. All that was left was buying some Swiss cheese. I splurged on
a nice aged European variety. Cubed it up, then let it air dry in the fridge for a couple days (all that increases the melting point which is nice for a hot sausage).Final product had 6lb of elk, 4lb of pork, 3c of dehydrated mushrooms, and 1lb of cubed cheese.
After two days chilling in the fridge I tossed a couple on the smoker since I already had it rolling smoke.
Man, next level good! I had an internal debate of when the meat ratio reaches a point I can’t call them elk. I decided that since I was still more than half elk, I can still call them “elk brats.”
Wife loved them which is a huge plus. After all the packaging was done, 10lb of vac sealed sausages went in the freezer.
In already thinking on the next experiment.
