wild game Archives · Jess in the Kitchen

A few weekends ago, I was at my sissy’s house when her husband was making some venison breakfast sausage. Our family has been making Italian sausage inspired venison for a number of years, but I had never thought to season venison with breakfast sausage seasoning. I gave it a try, and WOW! It was so dang tasty and better than I expected, to be sure. He had purchased a seasoning mixture at a local smoke shop, but I was determined to do it myself.

Luckily, the Mr shot a deer shortly thereafter, and we had fresh venison to grind (we do the processing all ourselves). I started looking at what seasonings go into breakfast sausage, settling on

Fennel
Kosher Salt
Thyme
Sage
Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes

To give it a test, I took ¼ pound of ground meat and mixed it with ¼ teaspoon of the seasoning mix and ½ tablespoon of lard from a half of a pig we purchased last year. While the seasoning mix wasn’t perfect, I was impressed with how it turned out. As were my babies.

A little more tweaking went into the seasoning and we found a perfect mixture that everyone in our house loved. Before we knew it, the Mr and I put up 20 pounds worth of venison breakfast sausage in 1 pound packages, and I couldn’t be more excited to eat it throughout the year as well as share it with all of you!

If you are ready to make your own sausage, keep reading!

Your Ingredients for 10 pounds of Venison Breakfast Sausage

10 pounds ground venison
5 tablespoons fennel seed
8 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons black pepper
5 teaspoons dried thyme
2 ½ teaspoons dried sage
1 ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 cup lard, room temperature (preferably purchased from a meat market)

Your Steps to Venison Breakfast Sausage

Combine the dried spices in a mason jar, cover with a lid, and shake until well mixed. Place the ground venison in a large, large metal bowl. Add approximately half the seasoning mix, sprinkling it evenly. Add half of the lard, adding it by about a half of a tablespoon at a time to help disperse it. Mix by hand until well combined. Add remaining seasoning mix and lard in a similar fashion and mix again.

From here, you can package it in one pound packages in quart freezer bags to be frozen as bulk sausage. The Mr and I formed them into patties using a canning ring and an old lid and it worked perfectly. A regular mouth lid made a two ounce patty, so 8 patties (a typical package) comes out to be about a pound. How sweet is that?

If you choose to go the patty route, I recommend lining a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Place the patties on the paper, possibly layering them as needed. Par-freeze the patties and once frozen, remove and place in freezer safe containers or bags in the amount you care to have them.

Venison Breakfast Sausage

A handful of spices and lard combine with fresh ground venison to make delicious venison breakfast sausage perfect for any morning!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 0

Course Breakfast, Homesteading, Meal Prep

Cuisine American

Servings pounds

Equipment

Ingredients

10 pounds ground venison
5 tablespoons fennel seed
8 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons black pepper
5 teaspoons dried thyme
2 ½ teaspoons dried sage
1 ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
1 cup lard room temperature (preferably purchased from a meat market)

Instructions

Combine the dried spices in a mason jar, cover with a lid, and shake until well mixed. Place the ground venison in a large, large metal bowl.
Add approximately half the seasoning mix, sprinkling it evenly. Add half of the lard, adding it by about a half of a tablespoon at a time to help disperse it. Mix by hand until well combined. Add remaining seasoning mix and lard in a similar fashion and mix again.
From here, you can package it in one pound packages in quart freezer bags to be frozen as bulk sausage.
Alternatively, a regular mouth canning lid and ring make a perfect mold for forming 2 ounce patties.
If you choose to go the patty route, I recommend lining a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Place the patties on the paper, possibly layering them as needed. Par-freeze the patties and once frozen, remove and place in freezer safe containers or bags in the amount you care to have them.

Keyword Breakfast, breakfast sausage, Ground venison, homemade fries, homesteading, venison, venison breakfast sausage, venison recipe

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Looking for other great venison recipes?

These are a few of our favorites around our household! You can also check out my canning and preserving page for other ways to preserve your venison!

If you’ve been around since the summer, you know that I love growing, harvesting, and preserving my own food. I live for the garden in the summer and filling the freezer and shelves with homegrown produce brings me such joy. But as the garden gives way to fall, a new type of preserving takes over our kitchen: that of wild game. The Mr. loves hunting; our main protein source is deer. We process our deer ourselves and end up with chops, ground venison, various flavors of canned venison, and this delicious blend of ground Italian venison.

I haven’t thought this was much of a recipe to share, but I tell friends and family about it, and they always seem happy to learn more, so here we are. This is a great recipe if you aren’t a sausage maker (we aren’t…yet), but want to add another way to use the ground venison you have.

We love putting together a batch or two of this ground Italian venison to have for options when we eat pasta (strong Italian roots here!). I don’t know if you’ve tried yet, but ground Italian sausage is far superior to ground beef in your bolognese. However, we like to know where our protein comes from and the Italian sausage from the store just doesn’t cut it. This is a great alternative and gets us closer to sustainability.

Ready to get Started?

The recipe is simple enough: equal parts pork shoulder slices and venison slices. Then, based on how much meat we have, I create an Italian sausage seasoning mixture from Tastes of Lizzy T. She does a recipe for 2 pounds of meat.

Typically, we do a large batch (at least 10 pounds of each protein). The math teacher in me will share how much you need for every TEN pounds of meat. If you have different increments and don’t want to do the math, check out Tastes of Lizzy T for the 2 pound measurements. It’s great!

Your Steps to Ground Italian Venison

For every TEN pounds of meat, combine the following:

3 tablespoons dried parsley
3 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
2 ½ tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 tablespoon paprika
1 1/2 -2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons salt
5 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced onion

Measure and grind 10 pounds each of venison and pork shoulder. In a large bowl, combine both proteins and mix well. Add about ⅓ of the spice mixture and mix the meat, being sure to pull from the bottom. Add another ⅓, mixing again. Finally, add remaining spice mixture, being sure to grab all the meat from the bottom, mixing thoroughly.

Using a food scale, measure meat in one pound increments. Place into freezer bags, flattening and removing air as you seal them. Wrap with freezer paper and label.

Tools of the Trade

These are some great tools that you will need to create this Italian Seasoned Venison.

Ground Italian Venison

Looking for different ways to use your home processed venison? Give this ground Italian venison a try to change it up!