Venison Sausage and Smokehouses

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Rick 386
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Post by Rick 386 » Mon. Dec. 12, 2016 1:34 pm

Lately I've been toying with the idea of making my own venison summer sausage (think Lebanon bologna), fresh sausage and deer sticks.

Most are then hung in a smokehouse. Google and you tube has it pretty well covered in how to smoke the stuff.

But I see some suggest making the smokehouse out of cedar planks. Won't that allow some cedar flavor into the meat ??

For now I'm thinking of just making the smokehouse out of plywood. I know ideally having a brick or block smokehouse would be best but really not sure I want to make it that permanent of a structure.

I'm also looking for some decent recipes that are tried and true.

We have been taking our scrap meat out towards the Shady Maple Restaurant to a group of Mennonite farmers but it is starting to get a little expensive. Damn grandkids like the deer sticks so much we had to get 80 lbs of them made !!!! So I figure we need a good grinder, a sausage stuffer, and the smokehouse. Then spend a day or 2 prepping and smoking and we are good to go.

Any suggestions ??

Rick

 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Mon. Dec. 12, 2016 1:58 pm

You can use an old refrigerator for a smokehouse. You can put a hotplate in the bottom for the smoke, or pump the smoke in from an outside smoke generator.

http://smokedaddyinc.com/

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/85462/how-to-build-a-fridge-smoker

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Dec. 12, 2016 2:14 pm

Anything that will hold the smoke in and slowly release it up and out the top. Little bit of air in at the bottom and a little bit of smoke out at the top. ;)

I've seen simple ones made like a small teepee using cut branches from windfall trees for the uprights, with just a piece of canvas or heavy duty plastic drop cloth wrapped over it,... with the meat strips hanging from cross sticks tied onto the uprights and the fire in a hole dug in the dirt.

Paul


 
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Mon. Dec. 12, 2016 2:57 pm

Doing it to save $$$ or other reason?

 
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Rick 386
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Post by Rick 386 » Mon. Dec. 12, 2016 3:16 pm

davidmcbeth3 wrote:Doing it to save $$$ or other reason?
To save money and to try to get some consistency on the taste. 1 year the summer sausage is great, the next not so good. With us travelling out to the farmer, you have to make it worthwhile on the amount of meat they make for us. Then if it doesn't taste so great, you have a whole batch that way. I figure I/we can just do smaller batches when we need it. And if we screw up a smaller batch, we have not wasted a lot of good venison.

I will say that we make a real good jerky with my small propane smoker. We have also made some venison front shoulders into a "pulled pork" meat that is great in a sandwich bun. But that smoker would be too small to hang a load of sausage in it.

From what I saw in the 1 video, they use a propane burner like I have for our clam steamer, to generate the heat for the initial drying/cooking of the meat. Then they just throw wood chips in a cast iron skillet when it is time to add the smoke. And temp regulation seems to be very critical. So going with a propane burner seems to make more sense since it would be easier to regulate the temps. Not sure I'd use a cast iron skillet for the smoke. I'd probably just make a steel pan to sit on the burner.

Rick

 
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Post by McGiever » Mon. Dec. 12, 2016 5:50 pm

Recipies, I have had great success using "Con Yeager" pre-blended spices and/or all inclusive kits.

Great product line, most game blends are availble in large or small batch sizes and prices are a good value.

Ever cure and smoke a Canada Goose or a butterball turkey...you would be amazed.
Would buy fresh pork sides and cure my own bacon doing a honey cure w/ sides rubbed w/ cure and lathered w/ honey before folding and wrapping the sides to cure in a regular working fridge for at least a couple days. After cured would pull fro fridge, rinse, pat dry and move them to smoker...yum. 8-)

My smoker was a porcelain on steel lined fridge w/ 3" fiberglass insulation...hard to find them today though. Used a electric hot plate in it with a line stat w/ extended capillay bulb and also wired in a stop timer for shut down in the wee hours :)


 
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Post by johnjoseph » Tue. Dec. 13, 2016 10:42 am

http://outdooroverload.com/diy-build-your-own-smokehouse/

This is the smoke house I plan to build in the spring. I will mill my own cedar from the property( my uncle has a mill) and have leftover bricks for the burn pit. I will be using rocks in place of the cinder blocks as we have an abundance of them on out old farm. This was a project that I never got to this year due to getting my chicken run and coop up and running. Most of our smoking will be done with sugar maple and apple wood, as its also available on the property as well. Good luck Rick

 
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Dec. 13, 2016 11:27 am

I posted these pictures here years ago, here is step one.

Get a keg of beer. :D
This sits on slight hill, there is about a 6 inch flue pipe dug in the ground. One end of the pipe is near a small fire pit 10 feet away and the other end exits in center of the box. The box itself is just plywood. Dirt floor.... with dirt scraped up around the bottom of the outside There is no outlet on the box but it's put together haphazardly so plenty of places to keep the draft going.

We'd get a really good fire going at first with oak or whatever to get things heated up good and then once you have nice bed of coals we'd put the meat in add both dry and soaking wet smokewood like hickory or whatever.


If I recall 175 degrees for three hours, flip them around half way mark.

I'll see if I can get you some recipes. Most use 20/80 to 30/70 mixture with pork being the higher number.

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