Honey Garlic Sausage Recipe
A mild, tasty sausage, Venison Honey Garlic Sausage is sure to be a favourite family recipe.
This sausage recipe uses 25lbs meat. It can be scaled up or down based on the size of batch you want to make. I’ve listed the proportions I used for this batch of sausage (60% venison 40% pork). If you like very lean sausage use 100% venison. Adding pork adds fat to the sausage which makes a juicer final product. You can also play around with the type of pork meat you use – lean pork (more meat) vs. fatty pork (more fat). I use lean pork as it does improve the texture of the sausage over straight venison, while not increasing the fat too much. If you grind your own meat, use a medium to fine blade (grinding once) or a coarse blade (if grinding twice).
Spices can also be adjusted to taste. After mixing the batch of sausage I always fry a small patty to see if I like the amount of seasoning. The flavours will develop more in time but you will get a sense of whether you need to add more of any particular spice. This is part of the beauty of making homemade sausage. You can season the sausage to your own tastes. One word of caution – if an ingredient in a new recipe looks like a lot, start by adding less than the recipe calls for. You can always add more after you have fried a sample, but you cannot remove spice once it is in the meat you can only add more meat to ‘dilute the spice’.
The Recipe – Venison Honey Garlic Sausage
Ground venison – 15lbs
Ground pork (lean) – 10lbs
Salt – 4 Tbsp
Pepper – 4 Tbsp
Honey – 1 ¼ cups
Garlic – 4 cloves (crushed or pureed) [A Stainless – Steel Rasp from Lee Valley Tools makes short work of this task]
Cayenne pepper – 1 tsp
Sage – ¼ tsp
Water (hot) 3 cups
In a bowl dissolve the honey in the hot water. Stir in the salt, pepper, cayenne, sage and garlic. Add to meat mixture. Mix thoroughly.
After the sausage is well mixed, stuff the meat into natural casings (available at your butcher’s store) as seen in the photo below. I sometimes simply treat this like ground meat and pack it in 1lb plastic bags or brown butcher paper and freeze. Then I can use in it in spaghetti sauces, or make sausage patties for frying or barbequing. It’s versatile, and tasty however I prepare it. Plus, I have the great satisfaction of knowing that the deer I took this fall has been processed, by me, into a fantastic supper that I’m serving to my family.
Is it 1/4 teaspoon of Sage???
Seems really low quantity for a 25lb batch?
Hey Mike, thanks for your question. Yes, it’s a small amount of sage. Sage is an aromatic spice, and I add it to round out the flavour yet not dominate the sweetness of the honey. Think of it as a supporting role rather than the star in this recipe. Before casing any new recipe, I always fry a sample. If you think it needs more sage, by all means, add it. That’s half the fun. 🙂 Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.
My 10 years old son and I have made 30lbs of these sausages so far. They are delicious. Next time I’ll bump up the spices and honey a bit. Trust me…take these to any cookout ant they will dissappear.
I use most sausage recipes as a starting point and then season to taste. I’m glad to hear you’ve found a winning combination, Richard.
Cheers,
Lowell
I’m going to be using a mixture of goat and pork. Pretty excited to try your recipe, will keep you posted.
Hi Sherri, I’m keen to hear how the sausage turned out. I just finished a fresh batch too. It’s one of my favourites.
Hey, it’s March /22 must be the time of year because I decided to make your recipe again.. 😉 The sausage turned out great using goat instead of venison, it was a real hit especially since it was our own honey, goat and pork this year..
It’s funny. Even with dozens of recipes, there are always a few favourites we make every time; and this is one of them. Thanks for letting me know this Honey Garlic sausage recipe has become one of yours.
I am new to making sausages. Would it work to use 100% fresh ham? I got one from my Dad and do not want to brine and smoke it. Could we use this sausage recipe with 100% fresh ham? We prefer our sausages on the leaner side. Should I add fat? Thank you!
Hi Janelle,
You can use whatever ground meat you have available. I assume you’re referring to a pork ham, in which case the meat has more fat than vension. To keep it lean, I wouldn’t add any extra fat. Good luck. Let me know how it turns out.
Lowell
Did you use a binder?
I don’t use a binder in this recipe. Just follow the recipe and mix well. Good luck.
Do you have anymore venison sausage recipes to share?
Thanks, Nick. I’ve got more recipes in the works. Watch for them this fall.
Recipe sounds awesome. I’m new at all this but excited to try this recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Good luck, Barbara! I know you’ll love this sausage.
Black pepper or hot red pepper?
black pepper
I tried this recipe and loved it! I did have to use a whole head of garlic tho. I just love garlic! As to the curing salts. They must be used if you’re planning on smoking the sausage to prevent botulism. For fresh sausage just make sure they’re cooked all the way through.
Love the recipe! Will keep using it in the future!
I’m glad you liked it, Kevin! I hope the rest of your friends and family love garlic too! 😉
Do you not use any cure in this recipe, I would like to try it but have been told I should use curing salt.
Tks
No curing salt needed, Blaine. Although there are many different sausage recipes that call for curing salt this one doesn’t. It’s a fresh sausage so treat it like you would any raw meat until cooked.
I was just wondering….. Did you mean four cloves of garlic or four whole bulbs?
Thanks
Hi Martin. The recipe is correct at four cloves (toes) of garlic. Raw, pureed garlic imparts a lot of flavour to the sausage – a little goes a long way. Four whole bulbs would too potent for me. The best thing to do would be to start with four (or six if you like stronger garlic flavour) cloves and fry a small sample. If the garlic flavour is not strong enough for you, then add more. Good luck.