Pheasant Breakfast Sausage

remy3424

remy3424

Well-known member
Last year KEO got me hooked into buying a meat grinder and trying a couple different ways to eat pheasants. The "pheasant-bacon-ranch" is a real good one. I do like breakfast sauage and I got a recipe from him for that also...I tweaked it a bit and had a blend that I really liked. Well, a buddy bought some commercial seasoning for breakfast sausage that ends up being similar to Jimmy Dean (which I love). I used some of his last season and this year I ordered my own supply. It is cheap and a lot easier that the 10 or 11 spices I was using. It is "Leggs #10", google it and you will find several butcher shop supplier outfits that sell it...I ordered 3 paks, enough for 75 pounds of meat, the seasoning was less than the $12.99 for shipping. I use 1:1 pheasant breast to pork butt. Get the fattest pork you can find. Last year I use pork sirloin roast I think, they we cheap, but not enough fat, had to add oil when cooking. The reason I only use only the breast meat is that I might be inclined to share the sausage. I can almost be certain there are no shot left in the breast (I split the filets to thin them and hold up to a bright light...like an Xray). A good way to make sure a person who hasn't eaten any wild game doesn't again, is biting into a lead pellet. I have 20 pounds in the freezer from this season already. I will find other uses for the thighs. I vacuum seal them in 1 pound paks, it make a big paddy twice for me (Saturday and Sunday mornings). Give it a try....order an extra pak or 3 of the seasoning, as gifts for your hunting boys. Just like it so much, I thought I would share.
 
Hope I’m not stealing your thread too much. I love sausage and will do the breakfast sausage.

I found this recipe online for chicken cheddar jalapeño sausage. I tweaked it a bit by adding 12 ounce bacon to my 3.3 lbs of pheasant thigh meat for a 4 lb batch. Grilled it up tonight after making it last night.

Pics are out of order. Breast filets were seasoned with carne asada seasoning and then needle tenderized. Was good, but a saltwater brine for an hour would like help.









 
Those look awesome! I have not done any casing work...yet!

***maybe we could add another area and call it "Rooster Recipes" or "Cookin with Coc_s"...OK, maybe not the last one. Not really a good place for these posts.
 
I bought a grinder as well to use with shot up breasts, thighs, etc. I would love to try the casings for those cheddar jalapenos ones. I know my grinder came with the casing attachment, any recco's for a novice who might try this recipe?
 
wapete said:
I bought a grinder as well to use with shot up breasts, thighs, etc. I would love to try the casings for those cheddar jalapenos ones. I know my grinder came with the casing attachment, any recco's for a novice who might try this recipe?
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I used bacon for my fat. I think straight pork fat and a bit more would have been a better choice. It wasn’t bad by any means. I think straight pork fat would have been better.

I make a lot of deer sausage. Keep things cold. On the verge of frozen. It all goes through the grinder better, especially when trying to stuff with the grinder.

I didn’t break out my big grinder for this, just used the grinder attachment on the wife’s kitchen aid mixer. It works ok for small batches like this.

I tried using the stuffer attachment on the kitchen aid grinder. After two links I said screw it and grabbed my 7 pound stuffer out of the garage. It is soooooo much easier to stuff with a stuffer.

That said, I’ve used a 3/4hp #12 grinder to stuff and it’s doable. Lots of people do it every year. A dedicated stuffer is a God send though.

1. Keep stuff extremely cold/partially frozen.
2. A second set of hands to fill the grinder/stuffer as you’re handling the stuffed cases is nearly required to keep from dirtying up everything in your kitchen.
3. I used collagen “BeardedButcher” cases from Academy because it was a last minute idea and Academy is local to me. They were fine. Online I use Waltons for buying about everything related to processing.
5. For that recipe I posted above, I think next time I’ll cut the onion and garlic powder back by 1/3.

This is the 7# stuffer I bought on clearance 15 years ago. I think mines actually a Cabelas label, but Weston made it.

Weston 7# Stuffer on Amazon

Pretty sure them and Waltons and Vevor are all buying the same one with a different paint scheme. I stripped a gear set trying to do tiny snack sets. Bought the Walton replacement (even though their tech support chick was a bitch and said it wouldn’t work) and it was an exact fit.
 
cheesy said:
I used bacon for my fat. I think straight pork fat and a bit more would have been a better choice. It wasn’t bad by any means. I think straight pork fat would have been better.

I make a lot of deer sausage. Keep things cold. On the verge of frozen. It all goes through the grinder better, especially when trying to stuff with the grinder.

I didn’t break out my big grinder for this, just used the grinder attachment on the wife’s kitchen aid mixer. It works ok for small batches like this.

I tried using the stuffer attachment on the kitchen aid grinder. After two links I said screw it and grabbed my 7 pound stuffer out of the garage. It is soooooo much easier to stuff with a stuffer.

That said, I’ve used a 3/4hp #12 grinder to stuff and it’s doable. Lots of people do it every year. A dedicated stuffer is a God send though.

1. Keep stuff extremely cold/partially frozen.
2. A second set of hands to fill the grinder/stuffer as you’re handling the stuffed cases is nearly required to keep from dirtying up everything in your kitchen.
3. I used collagen “BeardedButcher” cases from Academy because it was a last minute idea and Academy is local to me. They were fine. Online I use Waltons for buying about everything related to processing.
5. For that recipe I posted above, I think next time I’ll cut the onion and garlic powder back by 1/3.

This is the 7# stuffer I bought on clearance 15 years ago. I think mines actually a Cabelas label, but Weston made it.

Weston 7# Stuffer on Amazon

Pretty sure them and Waltons and Vevor are all buying the same one with a different paint scheme. I stripped a gear set trying to do tiny snack sets. Bought the Walton replacement (even though their tech support chick was a bitch and said it wouldn’t work) and it was an exact fit.
Click to expand...
thanks! I'll give it a shot. appreciate the advice
 
I second, or third, the idea of grinding pheasant for sausage as my wife will eat it that way. I also cut it up for chili supplements and have made pheasant pot pies that turned out very good.
 
I've made venison breakfast sausage twice. I buy a pork butt and make it about 3:1 venison to pork ratio. Both times I have used the LEM Breakfast sausage seasoning. Turned out very well.
 
remy3424 said:
Last year KEO got me hooked into buying a meat grinder and trying a couple different ways to eat pheasants. The "pheasant-bacon-ranch" is a real good one. I do like breakfast sauage and I got a recipe from him for that also...I tweaked it a bit and had a blend that I really liked. Well, a buddy bought some commercial seasoning for breakfast sausage that ends up being similar to Jimmy Dean (which I love). I used some of his last season and this year I ordered my own supply. It is cheap and a lot easier that the 10 or 11 spices I was using. It is "Leggs #10", google it and you will find several butcher shop supplier outfits that sell it...I ordered 3 paks, enough for 75 pounds of meat, the seasoning was less than the $12.99 for shipping. I use 1:1 pheasant breast to pork butt. Get the fattest pork you can find. Last year I use pork sirloin roast I think, they we cheap, but not enough fat, had to add oil when cooking. The reason I only use only the breast meat is that I might be inclined to share the sausage. I can almost be certain there are no shot left in the breast (I split the filets to thin them and hold up to a bright light...like an Xray). A good way to make sure a person who hasn't eaten any wild game doesn't again, is biting into a lead pellet. I have 20 pounds in the freezer from this season already. I will find other uses for the thighs. I vacuum seal them in 1 pound paks, it make a big paddy twice for me (Saturday and Sunday mornings). Give it a try....order an extra pak or 3 of the seasoning, as gifts for your hunting boys. Just like it so much, I thought I would share.
Click to expand...
I have added to the Pheasant Bacon Burger, I have started to use french onion soup packages, 1 pack per 2lbs of meat and I have used pepper bacon with the pheasant with no other seasoning. I use 1lb of bacon per 3 lbs of pheasant burger, I also use breast and thigh meat. Use these burgers for my tailgate lunch on guided grouse trips and the hunters just loved them.

On grinding, like many have said make sure your meat is very cold and I put my grinding parts in the freezer as well. I will wash and refreeze parts if they get to warm. Seems to work very well.

I would also recommend some sort of fat with the sausage. My wife and i did sausage links with a bunch of pheasant a few years back and they were good but lack fat as we didn't add anything. I used my sausage stuffer with natural casing, nice to have an extra set of hands and took a while to figure out how to twist them up.
 
Question on the freezing of birds... I store all my game vacuum-sealed in deep freeze chest freezers. When I finally grind my venison, I have no issues with thawing it, grinding it into whatever and re-freezing it. I know I can have red meat in there for 2 years easy with no freezer burn or off tastes, even with a thaw and re-freeze. I've never done it with birds though. Am I better off grinding fresh, or will I be able to avoid any flavor/taste issues by thawing old packages to grind up and then re-freezing them for a few months till they are gone?
 
MNMEAD, I do the same. I filled the birds after the hunt then vac-pak and freeze until I have my possession limit, then I get my pork, sometimes it has also been froze, grind, season and mix. Then vac-pak the finished product. Sausage from over a year ago still tastes great! I think the thawing/freezing thing will mess with overall texture of the meat, but being ground, it doesn't seem to be an issue.
 
remy3424 said:
MNMEAD, I do the same. I filled the birds after the hunt then vac-pak and freeze until I have my possession limit, then I get my pork, sometimes it has also been froze, grind, season and mix. Then vac-pak the finished product. Sausage from over a year ago still tastes great! I think the thawing/freezing thing will mess with overall texture of the meat, but being ground, it doesn't seem to be an issue.
Click to expand...
Perfect thats what I wanted to hear!
 
MNMEAD said:
Question on the freezing of birds... I store all my game vacuum-sealed in deep freeze chest freezers. When I finally grind my venison, I have no issues with thawing it, grinding it into whatever and re-freezing it. I know I can have red meat in there for 2 years easy with no freezer burn or off tastes, even with a thaw and re-freeze. I've never done it with birds though. Am I better off grinding fresh, or will I be able to avoid any flavor/taste issues by thawing old packages to grind up and then re-freezing them for a few months till they are gone?
Click to expand...
All my birds are vacuum sealed and have been in the freezer for a year or more then I grind into burgers and refreeze them in patty form no loss in flavor.
 
Glad to see more guys getting in on the meat grinder game!

I bet pheasant brats (or any cased sausage) are very good. Id treat them like deer and cut 50/50 with pork butt and use natural hog casings. I have a commercial stuffer so making sausages are super easy, i am not sure how well a grinder attachment would work with the soft bird meat.

Being soft, i bet pheasant hot dogs or bologna would be good.. you could definitely do that with a grinder stuffer, the more emulsified the better.
 
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