At my old job in the restaurant, I used to make a dish that involved cubed andouille sausage. I kept it in a nine pan on my station, and it made the perfect mid shift snack- salty, smoky, spicy and fatty. When I had a second between tickets, I’d duck out of sight and eat a handful, crouched next to the trash can. 

I don't work in a restaurant anymore, but andouille is still one of my favorite sausages. I still eat a lot of food with my hands, but these days hiding behind a trash can isn’t part of my normal eating routine.

We make these andouille sausages with whitetail meat and liver. The small amount of liver adds depth and holds up to the heavy spice, but does not impart too much of that “livery” taste. This recipe uses fresh liver- if using frozen, thaw, cut into pieces, and allow to drain before grinding.

Because we smoke these sausages, casing them is a must, and so is the instacure #1.

Venison Andouille with Liver Recipe

As always, we use metric measurements and go by percentage weight for our sausage recipes. We do this to make the recipes easy to scale and replicate exactly, batch after batch. If you’re thinking of getting into sausage making and don’t own a kitchen scale, please do yourself the favor of buying one. They’re inexpensive relative to the cash outlay of all the other equipment you’ll need to pick up, and will save you a lot of effort in terms of scaling recipes into imperial measurements. To measure your ingredients, first weigh the meat you are using, and then calculate the weight of all the other ingredients based on the weight of the meat.

Prep time: 3 hours

Ingredients:

100% venison, trimmed, cubed + venison liver, cubed (6:1 ratio)

35% pork fat, cubed

2.5% salt

0.4% instacure #1

0.6% cayenne

0.6% paprika

0.06% fresh thyme, minced

0.15% nutmeg, ground

0.15% clove, ground

0.06% allspice

0.2% mustard powder

9.5% diced onion

0.8% fresh garlic, minced

Method:

Mix all ingredients, and grind through the coarse die of your meat grinder. Grind again through small die. Mix well with a wooden spoon or in a stand mixer, 1-2 minutes on low-medium speed. Stuff into hog casings and twist into 8-12” links. Prick with sausage pricker or sterile needle.

Place uncovered in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, ideally hanging or placed, evenly spaced, on a wire rack so the air can circulate around them & allow them to dry. 

Preheat the smoker to low heat (165-180F), moderate smoke.

Smoke until internal temp reaches 150F, then immediately chill using an ice bath. Allow to hang or set on a wire rack to drain and cool completely. Add to soups, stews, or anything that involves hominy (preferably Manning’s hominy)