Hot Italian Whitetail Sausage

Recipe by Ryan Sparks

After graduate school, I worked at a small custom butcher shop in Iowa for a couple years while my wife finished her master’s degree. During that time, one of the most popular things we sold was our hot Italian sausage.

Since working at the shop, I have adopted the recipe for venison. Each year after deer season we make 15 pounds of hot Italian sausage, vacuum seal and freeze it in half-pound packages, and use it for pizza and pasta throughout the year. It is especially good on a pizza with onions and peppers.

If you’ve never made your own fresh sausage, this is a good recipe to start with. We use whitetail deer, but it would work with any form of venison.
-Ryan Sparks

Makes 15 pounds
35% fat ratio

Ingredients

• 9.75 lbs. deer trim    
• 5.25 lbs. fatty pork trim    
• 102 grams salt    
• 3 tablespoons sugar    
• 3 tablespoons black pepper    
• 6 teaspoons coriander    
• 6 tablespoons paprika    
• 3 tablespoons dried oregano    
• ¼ cup minced fresh parsley    
• 3 tablespoons fennel seed    
• 5 tablespoons crushed red pepper    
• 1.5 tablespoons onion powder    
• 1.5 tablespoons garlic powder    
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic    
• 2 cups chilled red wine such as Passalacqua’s Radici della Famiglia Sedici