Spicy Maple Breakfast Sausage - the outcome

[ThunderLund78]

Well, for what it's worth - I didn't soak the pellets - that would be disastrous.

BUT - the Sausage turned out GREAT!  A very simple but effective recipe and it's a good base to experiment with.

3 lbs - venison
2 lbs - ground pork
3 TB - kosher salt
3 TB - course ground pepper
2 TB - crushed pepper flakes
1 TB - garlic powder
1 TB - rubbed (powdered) sage
1 tsp - cure #1
1 cup - ice water
10 TBS - Pure maple syrup (or 2 TB per pound of meat you want to flavor)

Mix ground venison and pork thoroughly.  Mix all the dry ingredients with the ice water and dump it on the meat then mix some more until the mixture is tacky and the spices are evenly distributed.  Put the mixture through the course plate one more time and put it in the fridge overnight to cure.  The next day, before stuffing, dump in your syrup and mix well. stuff into hog casings and put in the smoker.  I did about 90 min at 140 deg with no smoke (vents half open).  Cranked it up to 160 and added smoke for another 90 min (vents slightly open).  Then I finished at 185 until the inside temp of the sausage was 150 (vents closed). Gave the sausage a quick cold water bath to stop the cooking and then put them in the fridge overnight.

Cooked one up the next morning - AWESOME STUFF - but it's got a kick.  I'm the only one in the family that will be eating this batch (and that's fine by me!).  But the next batch I will pull the red pepper back to 1 TB (or maybe even a half). The maple smoke combined with the maple syrup really give this a nice sweet finish and compliments the heat well.  Didn't take great pics, but the finished product is below.

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[Rebel SS]

Hold on....I'm on my way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Boar]

awsome, might uavento try this withkut the kick, bet its awsome with american hashbrowns and over easy eggs and waffles. great jobm

[mike89]

old good lord that is so good sounding!!!!

[snow1]

I'd give it whirl with some good ole kraut as well,looks great.

[Reinhard]

Yes, it turned out great.  I was looking at the ingredients and when I saw the 2 TB of crushed red pepper I knew there would be some heat.  I put 3 TB's of crushed red pepper flackes in a 25 pound batch [but they are heaping not level] and it has just the right kick for me anyway.  Nice work!!!  good luck.