Hi Mountain Kit

I am still using the moose meat my friend gave me. I was seeing her today so I spent the last couple of days making this sausage so I could share it with her.

As I was short of time, I didn’t have time to research a recipe and went to our local outfitting store, Mountain Man Outdoors, and bought a Hi Mountain Hunter’s Blend Summer Sausage kit. It comes with the cure, the seasonings and the fibrous casings. Fibrous casings are a synthetic casing that lets smoke through but is inedible so has to be peeled off before you eat the sausage.

I wanted to make two chubs (each takes 3 pounds of meat) so I could give one to my friend.

The kit calls for a mixture of beef or venison and pork so that there will be some fat content. I used moose and pork. The recommended amount of pork for two chubs is 1 1/2 pounds of pork shoulder and 4 1/2 pounds of beef or venison.

It is important the meat and all your equipment is cold when making sausage. It just grinds better and gives you a better textured sausage. So, I put all my grinding and stuffing equipment outside (it is still cold here in the mountains).

I thawed the pork and moose until there was still some ice crystals on it. If you are using fresh meet. Put it in the fridge overnight to make sure it is cold.

I cut it up into cubes that will fit in my KitchenAid grinder attachment.

I put the chilled grinder attachment with a medium grinding plate on the KitchenAid and ran the meat through it.

I mixed the cure and seasonings in the amount recommended in the instructions. They use cup, tablespoons, etc. I really wish they’d also list the weights. It is just a more accurate way to measure.

I sprinkled that on the meat and then poured cold water on it.

I mixed it thoroughly by hand, about 4 minutes. It is critical to get it well mixed.

I then ran it through the grinder attachment again.

I put the casings in warm water to soak.

I put the meat in the fridge for 1/2 hour to make sure it is cold.

While the meat was chilling, I cooked some if it to make sure the seasonings were right. It was a little salty for me and I didn’t realize that Hunter’s Blend meant spicy. However, I like my food less salty than most people and the seasoning was very tasty with a nice bite.

When you test fry meat, you have to remember the flavours will mellow out and change with the cure. This is just to make sure it isn’t totally off balance.

When the meat was well chilled, I used my LEM stuffer to put it into the casings and tied the ends off. If you are using a probe from a remote thermometer, I like to tie it in one of the ends so you don’t have to puncture the casing.

I put it in the fridge overnight to let the seasonings and cure blend.

I used my smoker to cook the sausage. There are instructions in the kit for doing it in the oven.

The next morning, I put it in my Bradley Smoker for one hour at 120 F without smoke. Then I turned it up to 140 F and started pecan smoke. I let this run for an hour. I turned the heat up to 160 F for 1/2 hour and then to 180 F. I cooked it at 180 F until the internal temperature was 156 F (that took another 4 1/2 hours for a total cooking time of 7 hours).

I rinsed the chubs off in cold water and let them sit on a rack on the counter for about 2 hours and then into the fridge overnight.

I cut a test slice the next day.

The Verdict

While this was a bit saltier than I like it is a very good product. I would have no problem buying the kit again. The texture and spice mix is excellent.

However, making your own blend makes it easier to adjust just the way you want it and I will likely do that when the kit runs out.

The Old Fat Guy