That rabbit looks tasty Roosta!
Love Rabbit. I ran beagles for years when we had some rabbits around this area.
Stocked up everybody's freezer during the hunting season.
Your recipe looks great!
Stocked up everybody's freezer during the hunting season.
Your recipe looks great!
Superbowl is almost here, so started prepping for game snacks next weekend. Brats and beer are one of my favorite game time snacks, so I decided to whip up some jalapeno and cheese venison bratwurst. Found a recipe for brats and did some tweaking on it to use it with venison. Recipe is as follows.
5 lbs trimmed venison
5 lbs pork fat
1 cup seeded and minced jalapenos
16 oz cheddar, grated or shredded
4 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoon onion powder
4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon caraway seed
1 cup cold water or beer (water my ass!)
You can adjust meat vs fat mixture however you choose, I like fatty sausages because... I am a fatty, I like my sausages the same. I did not have caraway seeds, so I substituted with fennel seeds. They are related, but have somewhat different tastes from what I read. I love fennel in sausages, so that is what I used. Looking back on modifications, I would have used more fennel and probably more beer. I mean really, who doesn't need more beer. Beer is a great flavor in brats, and I could definitely taste it, just needed more, or perhaps a different beer. I poured off the Miller Lite tallboy I happened to have in my hand at the time. Stronger, darker beer might be more appropriate.
Spices
Jalapenos and cheese. They make such thing as high temperature cheese that holds up better in a smoker or grill, but I find the stuff so bland and non flavorful. I'd rather have melted flavorful cheese than a chunk of wax in my sausage, so I used plain ol extra sharp cheddar, cut in small chunks.
Coarse grind on fat and meat.
Mix it up. Mixing meat is cold. Your meat should always be kept at the lowest temperature possible when working with it. Mixing bare handed is nearly impossible. In order to get it mixed up well, I used my smoking gloves. They keep my hands from freezing off and allow for a good thorough mixing. You could use a mixing paddle, but I prefer to do it by hand.
Ready to sit. I let it sit overnight in the fridge. Once you remove it from fridge, give it another good stir to mix up any goodness that has leeched out from the peppers.
I learned a really important lesson on stuffing this time. I've struggled with the final texture on sausages before and always thought it was due to the die using to stuff. I switched to a stuffing dye that has three big holes in it that would do little cutting, but still didn't get the texture I wanted. After doing some reading, I found lots of discussion on freezing your meat and equipment before stuffing to keep everything super cold. This will keep everything together and keep your fat from smearing. So next time, I will freeze my stuffer and meat for about an hour, then stuff it in the casings. Anyway, it still turned out good, just not quite the big chunky consistency I wanted.
Vacuumed and ready for the smoker!
5 lbs trimmed venison
5 lbs pork fat
1 cup seeded and minced jalapenos
16 oz cheddar, grated or shredded
4 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoon onion powder
4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon caraway seed
1 cup cold water or beer (water my ass!)
You can adjust meat vs fat mixture however you choose, I like fatty sausages because... I am a fatty, I like my sausages the same. I did not have caraway seeds, so I substituted with fennel seeds. They are related, but have somewhat different tastes from what I read. I love fennel in sausages, so that is what I used. Looking back on modifications, I would have used more fennel and probably more beer. I mean really, who doesn't need more beer. Beer is a great flavor in brats, and I could definitely taste it, just needed more, or perhaps a different beer. I poured off the Miller Lite tallboy I happened to have in my hand at the time. Stronger, darker beer might be more appropriate.
Spices
Jalapenos and cheese. They make such thing as high temperature cheese that holds up better in a smoker or grill, but I find the stuff so bland and non flavorful. I'd rather have melted flavorful cheese than a chunk of wax in my sausage, so I used plain ol extra sharp cheddar, cut in small chunks.
Coarse grind on fat and meat.
Mix it up. Mixing meat is cold. Your meat should always be kept at the lowest temperature possible when working with it. Mixing bare handed is nearly impossible. In order to get it mixed up well, I used my smoking gloves. They keep my hands from freezing off and allow for a good thorough mixing. You could use a mixing paddle, but I prefer to do it by hand.
Ready to sit. I let it sit overnight in the fridge. Once you remove it from fridge, give it another good stir to mix up any goodness that has leeched out from the peppers.
I learned a really important lesson on stuffing this time. I've struggled with the final texture on sausages before and always thought it was due to the die using to stuff. I switched to a stuffing dye that has three big holes in it that would do little cutting, but still didn't get the texture I wanted. After doing some reading, I found lots of discussion on freezing your meat and equipment before stuffing to keep everything super cold. This will keep everything together and keep your fat from smearing. So next time, I will freeze my stuffer and meat for about an hour, then stuff it in the casings. Anyway, it still turned out good, just not quite the big chunky consistency I wanted.
Vacuumed and ready for the smoker!
Man, Roos, that looks awesome! I agree with having a hard time getting the consistency I want from a grinder. I've been looking at the dedicated sausage stuffers operated by a handle. That might be the ticket?
Looking for somebody that has one and can give a 1st person review.
Looking for somebody that has one and can give a 1st person review.
I put all grinder parts, dies, auger, etc....in the freezer along with all the meat before stuffing sausages. Just about 30 minutes is perfect. Definitely keeps a good texture that way.
Rabbit fricasse is great Roosta, your's looks delicious.
Rabbit fricasse is great Roosta, your's looks delicious.
I just bid on one today - if I get it I'll be cranking out some more hot links. I'll review it as well.
I started off with the old time crank grinder with a stuffing tube on it and had the same issue. From everything I read, it has nothing to do with the augers, dies, or anything else. All the veterans said temperature of meat and equipment. I don't know if you can notice one sausage in the group that looks a little different than the rest, that was the first one that came out. That's what I want them all to look like, but I guess it doesn't take long for that fat to heat up and get smeary. I'm going to whip up another batch this week and see what difference freezing it all makes.
An issue I had using the crank grinder is tearing the casings. According to some of the lit I've read, using a purpose-built stuffer allows you to use a "thinner" consistency of meat, thereby putting less pressure on the casings. We'll see.....
