Meat grinding / Sausage making question

[daveally]

I got a meat grinder for Christmas and am wondering about making sausages. I have a brisket and a pork butt in the freezer along with a lot of venison steaks. My question is this...if I defrost the brisket, pork butt and venison steak, grind it up and make sausages...can I refreeze them or should they be smoked or cooked right away? I've heard that defrosting and refreezing meat will give it a bad taste. I don't have a smoker so that is out of the question. What do y'all suggest?

[DrenalinJunkie]

I suggest hitting up Travis (MesquiteCountry) on here................ he is the sausage makeing guru!

[daveally]

Thanks Forrest. I'll have to send Travis a PM when I get a chance.

Anyone else have any ideas?

[mesquitecountry]

You're always taking a chance using frozen meat giving it an off flavor. I prefer to use fresh only. The venison would be fine. But the pork and brisket may be iffy. Pork and poultry turn rancid fastest in a freezer. Then beef. Being that butts and briskets have a lot of fat, the fatty tissue will turn faster. I'd pass.

[Rick]

For venison, as I am processing my deer, I put all the "scraps" aside (front shoulder, rib, neck meat, etc) and freeze it in gallon bags. Then at the end of the season, i get out all the scraps and grind for hamburger and sausage at the same time. It has always been fine for me. I have never thawed beef or pork and refroze.

[Saxet Nomad]

I always freeze my meat first. Usually catch the pork butts on sale earlier in the year, and put them in the deep freezer. Also the deer gets processed throughout the year, and then in Jan we thaw it all out and make the sausage. We make some smoked for boiling, and some unsmoked for putting on the grill. We vaccum pack them and I've never had any taste freezer burnt unless you leave them in there well over a year. The fresh sausage usually gets eaten first during the summer months. A lot of grillin going on all the time. You should be safe. Two key points here though... "Deep Freeze" & Vacuum pack.

[LemmeOut]

If you want to make deer sausage, just thaw the venison and buy you some fresh pork. My family (back when we could afford a deer lease) and another family we were close friends with would do like Rick does through the season. Then sometime in mid-January we would all get to gether on a Saturday morning and turn all of our deer meat into tasty goodness. Some would get smoked for flavor, otehrs would be dried compeltely and some put up as pan sausage. None of us ever got sick or had bad tasting sausage but we didn't buy the pork until we were ready to make the sausage.

[edconnie]

i have smoked some and i have put some up not smoked they both came out good after you freeze them.

[daveally]

You're always taking a chance using frozen meat giving it an off flavor. I prefer to use fresh only. The venison would be fine. But the pork and brisket may be iffy. Pork and poultry turn rancid fastest in a freezer. Then beef. Being that butts and briskets have a lot of fat, the fatty tissue will turn faster. I'd pass.

Thanks Travis. You saved me having to send a PM. When you say pork and poultry turn rancid in the freezer, what do you mean? How long does it usually take for pork to go real bad in the freezer? Both the brisket and butt have plenty of fat on them so maybe I should pull them out and cook them before they go bad? They've been in there for a couple of months already. I have a pretty strong stomach so just how bad do you think they'll turn? You have me nervous now.

[mesquitecountry]

In our industrial freezer that holds negative 10 degrees we don't push raw meat past 4 months. That is a very good freezer. Your home freezer might do 0-10. Which is the absolute worst for rancidity and freezer burn. General rule of thumb is never keep raw meats past 6 months. Vacuum or Gas flushed packaging can extend that a little but not a huge difference.

[daveally]

In our industrial freezer that holds negative 10 degrees we don't push raw meat past 4 months. That is a very good freezer. Your home freezer might do 0-10. Which is the absolute worst for rancidity and freezer burn. General rule of thumb is never keep raw meats past 6 months. Vacuum or Gas flushed packaging can extend that a little but not a huge difference.

OK then. I guess I'll be smoking a brisket and a pork butt in the near future. Thanks for the info.

So back to the original question. If I buy some fresh pork and/or brisket, grind it with defrosted venison and make sausages...I should be able to vacuum pack and freeze the sausages without smoking them like some of the other guys said, right? I'd just have to cook them within a month or two?

[sweldo73]

So back to the original question. If I buy some fresh pork and/or brisket, grind it with defrosted venison and make sausages...I should be able to vacuum pack and freeze the sausages without smoking them like some of the other guys said, right? I'd just have to cook them within a month or two?

What a coincidence! I am in the EXACT same situation right now, so I'll be following along. The only difference I have is that I'm dealing with wild pork.

Another related question (hopefully not a hijack), what ratio do y'all recommend for blending to make the sausage and do you mix store bought beef/pork meat or fat?

[Joe H]

You will be ok using the meat. If you can buy fresh great. But the pink cure and mix it into your suasage as directions state.
Vacuum pack the sausages and they will be good a year no problem. As for the mix if you use wild hog treat as venison as using it straight will result in a dry sausage. I like to use not more than 50% venison to pork butts. If you are using shoulders or trimmings you can increase the percentage of venison as they are fatter but wouldnt go much over 60% venison.

[mesquitecountry]

OK then. I guess I'll be smoking a brisket and a pork butt in the near future. Thanks for the info.

So back to the original question. If I buy some fresh pork and/or brisket, grind it with defrosted venison and make sausages...I should be able to vacuum pack and freeze the sausages without smoking them like some of the other guys said, right? I'd just have to cook them within a month or two?

Cooked protein is different. You have 1 year.

[TEXAN1970]

The sausage should be smoked then you can freeze it my dad, brother and me have done this for 30 yr's without any problem's.