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A friend of mine just gave me a double fore-quarter of roe deer to turn into smoked sausage. It'll be brined, and then the meat will have salt and cure #1 added (as well as a good amount of pork/pork fat, spices and some rusk) before being cold smoked for 24-48 hours, and then cooked (either in the oven, fried or on a charcoal grill.)

Unfortunately, it has been hung for a little longer than I would hang roe.

I know that it'll be OK to eat, I just wanted an opinion as to eventual flavour. Is well-hung meat suitable for smoking, or would I be better using it in a fresh sausage?

(& no "well-hung meat" gags, if you please )

I would vote with both hands for smoking it. I think the more mature flavor of the meat now will benefit from a strong smoke flavor right beside it. A fresh sausage would just be overpowered by the game meat.

Hi Wohoki

I make quite a lot of Bambi sausages and have done so with quite whiffy meat in the past, but there again I like that sort of thing (no jokes please). If I am making smoked sausage I would cold smoke for an hour or two and then just cook as normal. To somke or not to smoke that is the question, well I think it really depends on your taste. I like well hung game so strong flavours for me are the order of the day but smoked sausage is a wonderful thing!

Why no try a bit of both?

PS if you freeze the strong game sausage the taste will abate slightly.

Cheers WW

Thank you both!

I've decided to go for it, adding cure #1 and 1.5% salt should deal with the bacteria, and I'd happily roast/stew the meat so why not?

I'll post results, unless I die.

Go Wohoki go

Please post the results, that is if youre not stuffed in the great sausage in the sky!!


WW

Hi Welsh Wizard

How do you get the Bambi? Is it available in shops over there? If so how much?

George

Hi GB

Bambi is quite readily available from butchers here but it is very expensive. I have a friend who sells it to me at �1 a lb but for that I have to take the whole carcus then skin and butcher it, but this is not as difficult as it seems. Just think of the beast as a large rabbit and you wont be far away.

When this is done the butchers tend to sell it fot the following:

Strip loin c�18Kg
Haunch c�16Kg
Dice (meat off the shoulder) c�8Kg
Skirt, neck etc (if you can get it) c�5Kg

From this you can se �1 a Lb is very reasonable. However you do sometimes get a shock. Last month I asked if he had one hanging and he said he did but when I got there it was 127Lb ! My freezer is now full. If you want to have a go I suggust you go for a Roe deer to start c30Lb - 40Lb.

If you ask in a gun shop they will usualy have a smal list of deer stalkers in the area and just give one a ring and see if he would be prepared to sel you one, quite a few will as they are not always the easiest things to move on. Anyway good luck

Cheers WW

Game keepers are always worth being nice too as well. Round here they will often let you have vermin (bunnies, rooks and squirrel) for free, pheasants for a pound a brace, hare for �4, and roe for around �20-�40 a carcase, skinned and quartered. If you tried to buy a whole saddle of roe from a butcher it would cost more than that.
Jus phone the nearest shooting estate and ask if there is a surplus, it's a few extra quid for them (agricultural wages aren't good, and beer is expensive ) and a great meal for you