A Venison Salami Experiment, Part One

Step one: make the sausage--not a difficult process, but one that has taken me five months and approximately five and a half hours to accomplish. The first four months consisted of gathering the necessary starters and salts and sugars and cetera and of thinking that I really should grind the pounds and pounds of venison sitting in a garbage bag in my freezer. And then one day I did grind the pounds and pounds of venison and put them back in the garbage bag and back into the freezer. Another month went by and then today I spent four and a half hours regrinding the meat, grinding the fat, mixing everything together, stuffing said mixture into hog casings and finally tying them with string. The sausages are back in my freezer now awaiting transport to the dehydrator. Hopefully it won't take another month for them to get there.

If you decide to embark on a similar enterprise, let me offer you these small pieces of advise. One, don't do this alone. Second, don't use the KitchenAid meat grinding/sausage stuffing attachments. Yes, they do work, but not particularly well or efficiently. Third and lastly, really, don't do this alone. You'll want the company and the extra hands, promise.