Elk and Venison Processing help

[North]

I am going to be making Summer Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Hot Dogs and Snack sticks and trying to figure out what seasonings to go with.

Right now I am thinking:
Summer Sausage:
*H Summer Sausage spice (with and without Jalapeno and Cheddar)
*Tons Summer Unit ((with and without Jalapeno and Cheddar)

Breakfast Sausage:
*Maple Flavored Pork

Hot Dogs:
*Apple Bratwurst
*Cranberry flavored
or
*H Summer sausage or Tons Summer Unit with some cheddar???

Snack Sticks:
Gigawatt Hot or jalapeno cheddar
and just cheddar

What are your thoughts on flavors. I am just really worried about the salt content not a big salt person…

Thank you for your help!!!

[Jonathon]

North I don’t remember with 100% accuracy the tons because we only make it every once in a while but I believe our commercial sales guys really like that one. Also, the Ton’s is $15.99 for enough to season 100 lb of meat. How much are you making? H Summer is very good too, it is our best seller for a reason. Given the choice between the two I would go with the H summer. How much are you making? Habanero BBQ is my favorite summer sausage seasoning, it really isn’t very hot, the BBQ gives it a nice sweetness.

For the breakfast the maple is good, some people add some pure maple sugar to it to up the flavor of maple. Most people experience maple as more of a scent than a flavor though, just FYI. For Breakfast my favorite is the H-110C but the maple is very good as well.

I’ve never made hot dogs with anything other than a hot dog seasoning but it will absolutely work. The Apple Bratwurst is one of my favorites, especially if you add some cheddar cheese to it!

For Snack Sticks the Gigawatt is excellent, pretty hot for sure but tasty. Our best seller there is Willie’s Snack Stick Seasoning and for good reason, it is absolutely delicious.

If you are worried about Salt content you could always try underseasoning them slightly BUT remember salt has more functions than just taste in the making of sausage. This is especially true when making a cured sausage product, without the correct salt content protein extraction will be very difficult.

How big was your Elk?

[North]

Jonathon Austin Thank you for the information, very helpful… Maybe you can give me a little more assistance based on your reply… My elk by the way was an archery 6x7 bull and field dressed weight was 560lbs.

Summer Sausage. So I am used to our summer sausage made with whole mustard seed and garlic which was kind of the standard. Then we had either made another batch with cheddar and jalapeno to kick it up a bit. So I am looking for I guess a standard base seasoning that would taste great alone as well to add off with. After reading all the review the Tons and H Summer was what I thought I would use as a base. I guess my question to you would be since you are an employee which would you rather have as a base flavor in all your sausage? What would be the flavor profile difference that stands out to you?

Breakfast links: my family usually orders a maple breakfast sausage so I was thinking the maple flavor as the kids would not be into the hot… Something sweet for breakfast is typically their go to. I might just have to add some apple bacon or some pure maple syrup to the mix?

Hot Dogs: As far as the hot dogs go my wife and I go to this German restaurant that serves a Cranberry pork sausage as well an Apple Sausage she really enjoys. My Mother and Father enjoy just plain cheddar in their dogs so that was my reasoning behind those flavors. I didn’t see just a regular hot dog seasoning could you lead me to it!?

Snack Sticks: Typically my dad and I make just regular sausage snack sticks which I would use the (Tons or H summer) and then add Cheddar to some as well cheddar and jalapeno to spice it up a bit. I noticed the Gigawatt which might be too hot for most however I enjoy some heat. I would rather have heat over too sweet of a snack stick… I did notice the Willie’s and thought of using that as a base however if I ordered the Tons Summer sausage then I would just use that as a base? Again flavor profiles between those very different? Thoughts?

As far as the salt goes I completely understand you meaning as to the cured meats. Is there anything you can see as far as the breakfast sausages or hot dogs go that might have too salty of a flavor as I am just going to use natural casings and then freeze. I haven’t decided if I would smoke first and then freeze the breakfast and hot dogs as of yet. The summer sausage and snack sticks I just expect it…

One last question, after mixing the spices with your seasonings do I have to let them sit over night or for a certain period of time before stuffing. Some kits you have to let the meat sit for 12 hours or so. Thought I would ask as I want to start timing out everything…

Thank you once again for all your help!

[Jonathon]

North biggest difference between H Summer and Ton’s is that H summer has whole mustard seeds where Ton’s has ground mustard seeds. Either would be great but I’d probably go with H Summer, it is a best seller and with good reason!

For Breakfast links adding pure maple syrup is a better idea, I don’t have good luck with adding bacon,m gets mooshie (sp?) whenever I try to use it.

Regular hot dog seasoning (or closest we have) that gets great reviews Hot dog & Bologna then there is the Reduced Salt Frank & Weiner or the Chili dog is really good to but out of those I think the Hot Dog & Bologna will be the closest to what you are looking for.

For summer you can absolutely use the H or the Ton’s as a base, people do it all the time with good results. The gigawatt will give you a nice amount of heat but it shouldn’t be burn your mouth hot. I like to add ghost pepper hi-temp cheese to it so people sweat when they eat too much, it keeps people from treating them as “samples”!

For the salt the breakfast with probably the least salty taste would be the maple, so you are good there. I might stay clear of the Italians as I seem to remember them being salty but I love salt so it is hard to say for sure. For hotdogs, they are all going to have about the same saltiness aside the reduced salt frank and Weiner (linked above).

On your last bit, you said “mix spices with seasoning” did you mean with the meat? If so never mix the seasoning and cures in and then hold before stuffing, if you are using sure cure (or any cure really) then mix, stuff and then hold if necessary. If you wait then everything might start to “set” and you could break your stuffer, not to mention it will be much much harder to crank. If you aren’t using cure then just stuff, if you are using sure cure (and no accelerator) the stuff and hold in a fridge overnight to allow the cure time to work!

Good luck!