Sausage time is here again

 You might remember that in last year's hunting round up I talked about sausage day. Sausage day 2021 was last Saturday.

We started with about 180 pounds of venison

Then added about 30 pounds of pork fat. You have to add fat to the venison or the meat will dry out and taste terrible. We used fat back so the first half hour is spent taking the skin off the fat. Everything gets ground once separately, then the fat and venison get mixed together, spices added and mixed and then ground again. We use a medium grind which leaves the sausage with a little more chew to it.

We have a little bowl that scoops just about one pound at a time which we pack into 1 quart ziplock bags. Thats what I spend most of my time doing. I don't know why that has become my job but apparently I'm pretty good at it.

This year's take was supposed to be split 8 ways but one guy didn't want his share, he had too much meat in the freezer already. Split 7 ways we ended up with 32 pounds apiece with a few pounds left over to give to some landowners who had helped us out during the season. Giving back to the landowners is an important part of hunting.

Considering I didn't take any deer at all in 2020 it was nice to come home with sausage. That's one of the nice things about hunting with a group...