Venison Charcuterie

[PredatorX]

Has anyone made venison charcuterie? I love cured meats and want to get into making some. I made some sopressata before so have some of the basics down. But never used venison.

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[Desk Jockey]

I have experimented. Used a recipe Hank Shaw published.

It was good and fun. You have to add some kind of fat and to be honest I couldn’t tell you it was deer meat by the time it was all finished. I am going to try carpaccio or something next time.

Also, if you are really experimenting, think about a “dry run” with store bought meat. I had a failed jerky experiment that cost me about five pounds of Ground venison. The lesson I took away is to pioneer with store bought stuff and then use my game meat once I have it dialed in.

 

[Azone]

I do around 300 to 500 pounds of venison salamis for me and a few friends every year. I use a 60/40 mix of venison/domestic pork then add wine, spices, and cure #2. Some people swear you need to have a starter culture or you will die but I have never used one. My process is pretty basic. First step coarse grind meat and mix in cure, salt and sugar then let that sit 24 to 48 hours. The cure will turn the meat a grayish color so when you see that happening you know it's working. Second step is to mix wine with spices then pour that into the meat and mix till extremely tacky, when your done mixing pack the meat down in your meat lug to start eliminating air pockets. Then let meat cool in the fridge or walk in cooler while you get casings ready. Step three load your stuffer being careful to keep air pockets from forming in the meat. Then stuff into 38mm to 42mm hog casings you want the casings tight but also loose enough to tie with string without ripping the casings. I tie links off at about 8 inches with one continual piece of string so when you hang them the string supports the weight and not the casing. If the casings are supporting the weight they will tear open and that link will need to be tossed in the trash. Step 4 treat them with Bactoferm 600 and hang them in an environment that is roughly 55 to 65 degrees and a humidity starting at 80 to 85 percent the first week then drop it down to 70 to 75 percent. Too high a humidity will keep the salami from drying and they will get spongy and rot, too low of a humidity will cause case hardening and rot them from the inside out. If they do case harden towards the end of the drying process vaccum sealing them and letting them sit in the fridge for a week or two can sometimes help reverse this. I have had salami take anywhere from 21 days to 42 days to dry to my liking. I will try to post some pictures of the whole process one of these days