Sausage & Family Traditions

Every year in February or January after hunting season, for as long as I can remember, my family gets together to make sausage. All generations come together, everyone working together in different areas. Today it is more common for people to take a deer to a processing place after they shoot it. My family does not. After we shoot a deer we cut it up ourselves. I will spare you the details of skinning it and the process of it. When we get together in February everyone brings their deer meat with them. The day starts with breakfast and then everyone gathers in the garage to cut up the pork we mix that with the deer meat. The pork is divided between all the families. We have a large white board that has all the weights and measurements written on it. I weigh out the deer meat of each family and add the pork. After it is mixed together some is weighed out for fresh ground meat and the rest is seasoned based on each families measurements for sausage. After the meat is mixed it all goes to be ground. After all is grounded you kneed the meat. The ground meat is weighed and packaged in vacuum sealed bags that are flattened out for easy thawing and storing. The ground sausage meat is sent to the stuffer. The meat is put in the stuffer and pushed into casings. The sausage is tied off with twine. At the end of the day all the sausage is taken to the smoke haus and hung. It seems like every year as the families grow it becomes more of a struggle to fit all the sausage into the smoke haus. Once all the sausage is hung my uncle gets a fire going and smoke billows into the smoke haus. He watches the fire throughout the night so it maintains a steady smoke and doesn't get too hot. In the morning the sausages are taken down and packaged. Some sausage is left hanging for dried sausage. After all is said and done we have enough ground meat and sausage for the whole year. The best part of the day though is spent with family. Visiting, catching up and enjoying each other's company. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner together. The cousins all get to play together. It is a weekend of family and traditions. The best weekend and its this weekend! I will share pictures with you Monday!

y uncle gets a fire going and smoke billows into the smoke haus. He watches the fire throughout the night so it maintains a steady smoke and doesn't get too hot. In the morning the sausages are taken down and packaged. Some sausage is left hanging for dried sausage. After all is said and done we have enough ground meat and sausage for the whole year. The best part of the day though is spent with family. Visiting, catching up and enjoying each other's company. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner together. The cousins all get to play together. It is a weekend of family and traditions. The best weekend and its this weekend! I will share pictures with you Monday!