Sausages in Jars

We've become huge fans of the "meat in jars" concept.  We started this last year when Dave got into making sausages, and we tried a pretty basic venison sausage recipe.  It's great opening a jar of meat and adding it to whatever you've got on the go - much quicker than having to think about taking something out of the freezer to thaw first.

This year, we played around a little with that basic sausage recipe, and came up with three new ones, two of which are in jars, and the last we made into freezer patties.  I'll give you the ingredients here for the mix, but please follow the directions from Hunter Angler Gardiner Cook's venison sausage recipe for the "how to".  Also, if your canning, please follow the pressure canning instructions for ground meat on the USDA's National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Dried Tomato & Fresh Basil Venison Sausage

4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
> 1 cup tightly packed fresh basil, chopped
1 head (small, about 8 cloves) garlic, peeled & chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup dehydrated tomatoes, chopped (we used 1/2 cup each of our dehydrated Black Plum and Principe Borghese tomatoes)
1/2 cup dehydrated bell pepper, chopped (we used our Red Ruffle peppers)
1/2 tsp dehydrated jalapeño pepper, chopped (more if you want it spicier)
1 tsp ground smoked sweet paprika
< 1 tbsp sea salt
1/2 cup cold grape juice

After making this into sausage, we canned it.

Curry Ginger Apple Venison Sausage

4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
1 tbsp smoked sea salt
1 1/2 tsp curry powder (my own mix)
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup dried tomatoes (Black Plum), chopped
1/2 cup dried bell pepper (Red Ruffle), chopped
1/2 cup dried apple (Gravenstein), chopped
2" fresh ginger root, grated
1 head (medium, about 12 cloves) garlic, peeled & chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cold grape juice

After making this into sausage, we canned it.

Fruit & Maple Breakfast Venison Sausage


4 lbs venison
1 lb pork fat
1 tbsp smoked sea salt
1/2 cup each, chopped: dried cranberries, dried blueberries & dried apples

2 tbsp dehydrated bell pepper, chopped (Red Ruffle)
1/2 tsp dehydrated jalapeño pepper, chopped (more if you want it spicier)
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp ground white peppercorns
1/2 cup cold maple syrup

After making this into sausage, we froze it into patties on wax paper-lined baking sheets, then cut the wax paper around the patties and vacuum sealed them into freezer bags.

There's Always Room for Jell-O

OK, not actual store-bought Jell-O, not when you've got a pantry full of beautiful canned fruit juices, straight out of your garden. This is the best fruit gelatin you'll ever have, and I doubt you'll want to go back to that awful chemical stuff once you've tried it.

Fruit Juice Gelatin

Each tablespoon of gelatin should gel 2 cups of liquid. The original recipe from Joy of Cooking calls for a total of 1 cup water (1/4 cup cold, 3/4 cup boiled), and 1 cup of juice. I use all juice, what the heck!

Soak:

1 tablespoon gelatin

in

1/4 cup cold fruit juice

Dissolve it in:

1 3/4 cup boiled fruit juice

You might wish to add up to:

1/2 cup honey

for sweetening, depending on the juice you're using (e.g. unsweetened cranberry juice, you might wish to try 1 cup of Sprite or 7Up or ginger ale to the 1 cup of fruit juice, or perhaps all juice with more honey).

Let set in refrigerator about 4 hours or more. If you want to do this in a jelly mold, make sure to chill and wet the mold before pouring the jelly into it. I've not tried that, but it would be neat!

If you want to add pieces of fruit, wait for the jelly to set mostly (but not entirely) so that the fruit will stay suspended.

You can also replace 1/2 cup of the juice with 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt for a bit of a different flavour.