Venison Landjaeger

Prep Time - 2 hrs | Cook Time - 3 hrs | Serves - 20 links | Difficulty - 10/10

Venison Landjaeger is German dry-cured sausage that is made small enough to fit into your coat pocket on a cold day hiking, fishing — or hunting. Thus the name.

This is not a beginner’s sausage. It requires a few advanced sausage-making skills and specific equipment, such as a dry-curing cabinet.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds Venison
• 2 pounds fatty pork shoulder or pork belly
• 51 grams Kosher salt
• 15 grams sugar or dextrose
• 6 grams Insta Cure #2
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon caraway seed
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
• 5 grams Bactoferm T-SPX
• 2/3 cups distilled water
• 35-38 mm Hog Casings

Steps:

1. • Trim as much sinew and silverskin as you can.
   • Cut the fat and meat into chunks that will fit into your food processor or grinder.
   • Mix the salt and Instacure with the meat and fat, then place it in the fridge overnight.
   • If you have a grinder with a very large die, such as 10 mm, grind it first and then set it in the refrigerator. If you only have the standard "coarse" die, which is typically 6 mm, place the meat and fat as is in the fridge.
2. • The next day, place the fat and your grinding equipment — including the blade, coarse die, and fine die — in the freezer.
   • Mix the spices into the meat.
   • Put the meat mixture in the freezer. Let everything cool down until the meat reaches about 28°F. It won’t freeze solid because of the salt. Typically, this process takes approximately 90 minutes.
   • Soak about 15 feet of hog casings in a bowl of warm water.
3. • When the meat and fat are cold, grind through the coarse die of the grinder, the 6 mm die.
   • If the meat is 35°F or colder, proceed to grind half of it one more time through the fine die, which is typically set at 4.5 mm.
   • If it's too warm, freeze it until it hits 35°F and then grind it.
4. • Once it has been ground, return the meat and fat to the freezer.
   • Dissolve the starter culture in the distilled water. Let this sit at least 15 minutes.
5. • When the meat mixture is back below 35°F, you can mix it.
   • Place the mixture in a large plastic bin with the starter culture mixture and mix it by hand for approximately 2 minutes. If you do this, you’ll know the mixture’s cold enough if your hands ache from the chill. Alternatively, you can place everything into a large stand mixer and mix on low for 90 seconds to 2 minutes.
6. • Put the sausage in the fridge.
   • Run clean water through your casings to flush them and check for any leaks.
7. • Pack the sausage into your stuffer and get ready to make the salami.
   • Leave 4 to 6 inches of casing hanging from the edge of the stuffer as a “tail;” you’ll use this to tie off the salami in a bit.
   • Start working the meat into the casing, using your fingers to press out any air and regulate the flow gently.
   • Do a whole coil before you make links.
8. • Tie off the links with kitchen twine, approximately 6 to 8 inches long.
   • Gently rotate the links to compress the meat within each casing, watching for air bubbles.
   • Use a sausage pricker to prick the links, allowing any trapped air to escape.
   • Hang your sausages from “S” hooks or somesuch on a wooden rack. Let them hang at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours.
9. • Incubate for 18-24 hours at a temperature of ~85°F and 85% humidity or higher.
   • Cold smoke (sub 100F) for 3-4 hours.
   • Hang sausages in a curing chamber until mostly dry. The sausage should be very firm. ~50% weight loss.