Sausage

The finished product.

One of our favorite things to make with venison is sausage. We did not make any last deer season, but had enough in the freezer to last us until this summer. So even though Nate did not have time to hunt this year, we cleaned all of the venison from last year out of the freezers, and got ready to grind. The discovery was made that the grinder works much better when it does not contain toy matchbox cars! Once the pieces were removed and the grinder cleaned, we tried again. Nate uses a combination of venison and pork. We also experimented with some lamb sausage this year. This was the first year that the boys observed and participated in the process. Their enthusiasm grew as the sausage was stuffed in the casing. Kohen went from the reserved one, washing his hands every two minutes, to coiling the casing as it came out of the stuffer. Nate then smoked the links for some excellent flavor. I have a tough time eaten store bought sausage now. It has much more gristle, and less flavor. We use the sausage for grilling, and also a mean sausage and peppers with pasta.

Kohen the coiler.

Isaiah the observer. (Yes the pumpkins in the background give away that these pictures were taken over a month ago, I'm playing catch up on posts before the end of the year.)

Unfortunately this picture should come first in the series. This was Kohen's hands-off, you can't make me touch raw meat, pose.