Smoked Venison Salami

Working from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s new Charcuterie book Salumi, we made two different efforts at the Smoked Venison Salami recipe, both of which came out excellent. The venison salami recipe is different from traditional salami recipes in 2 primary of ways: First of all, it uses ground venison mixed with fatback  instead of whole muscle pork. Secondly, the meat is smoked instead of dry cured. Beyond that, you end up with a fine product that could easily share the table with the world’s finest Charcuterie plates.

The ingredient list itself is very short, using commonly available ingredients, though you will need a speciality, beef middle casing. Because the meat is smoked, you do not need a curing chamber, however we did allow our second experiment hang for several weeks just to see what would happen (texture firmed up, but no noticeable taste improvement) . Basically, any hunter with  a grinder, stuffer (you can even hand stuff this sausage) and smoker is easily capable of making this sausage. This is excellent use of your venison trim and stores easily in your fridge, wrapped in butcher paper. Give it a try this deer season.