Smoking deer sausage

[David Ward]

I brought some smoked Johnsonville sausage in to work the other day and they were a big hit.

Now one of my buddies has given me some deer sausage (uncooked in casings) and asked me to try smoking it.

He had grilled some on his gasser a while back and said it came out very dry. I know venison is a lean meat and was wondering what the best way to smoke this would be.

The Johnsonville sausage I smoked was for 2 hours 15 minutes at 275 (lid temp - so it should have been in that 225 range at the upper grate) sprayed with apple juice a few times through the smoke using hickory chunks in the WSM with Kingsford charcoal.

I saw a post about boiling venison in beer before smoking, but I want the smoker to do the cooking. I wonder about a overnight bath in beer with some injected into the casing prior to smoking. Or would it help to inject a little olive oil infused with onion extract? I would think the oil would act like a fat and difuse through the sausage from the inside while smoking for a few hours?

 

[Gary R Miller]

I have a kit for doing bratwurst and here is a run of the directions.
When ready to smoke, remove sausage from the refridgerator and let stand at room tempature for 2 hours. DO NOT SMOKE ICE COLD SAUSAGES.
Cook in smokehouse to an internal tempature of 156 degrees Fahrenheit by doing the following:
Lay product on screens or hang from racks.
120F for 30 minutes or 1 hour depending on the size of the product (product needs to be dry to the touch before starting the smoke)
160F for 30 minutes with smoke "ON"
180F until product reaches an internal temperature of 156F.
***Leave smoke "ON" for at least 2 hours - REMEMBER: to much smoke will produce an off taste. If your smoker will not reach the tempature required, leave sausage in the smokehouse until they are dry to the touch. Then turn on smoke to desired color and then finish cooking in your oven (180 - 200 degrees) un til sausages reach an internal tempature of 156F.
Smoke house tempatures will vary due to type of smoker, location, outdoor tempatures, wind, etc.
these are the instructions from Hi Mountain Kit I have. As for getting your temps down I read some where to figure 25 degrees per chunck of charcoal. So maybe try a dry run with like 6 to 8 chunks and see what temps you get.
Vensison is a very lean meat and you have to be very careful not to over cook it. I hope this helps.