Italian Sausage

This sausage is perfect as a spaghetti sauce base or in an Italian soup.

Ingredients:

  • 5 lbs ground venison
  • 5 lbs ground pork shoulder
  • 5 Tbsp salt
  • 5 Tbsp ground black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp dried sage
  • 2 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 2 Tbsp coriander
  • 2 Tbsp white sugar
  • 2 tsp cracked fennel (fennel seeds crushed in mortar and pestle or spice grinder)
  • 2 cups ice water

Directions:

  1. Place ground meat in a meat mixer, or container large enough for you to mix by hand. If you don’t have a large bowl or food-grade meat tub, you can always use a cooler or Rubbermaid tub.
  2. Sprinkle dry ingredients evenly over the meat, and add the required liquid. Mix thoroughly. It often takes 4 or 5 minutes if you’re doing it by hand, so be patient. Food-grade nitrile gloves can take the edge off the cold mixture.
  3. Use a sausage press to stuff casings. If you don’t have a sausage press, you can put the sausage meat into burger bags or wrap airtight in butcher paper.

This sausage is perfect as a spaghetti sauce base or in an Italian soup. For more tips, check out our article, Sausage Making 101.