Venison & Pork Chorizo Sausage
In episode 1 of “Around the World with Manu” I headed down to South West England and spent an afternoon with Dorset Charcuterie owner Lee Morton. I helped Lee make his signature chorizo links, before cooking some of it up in a rustic grand veneur sauce for lunch.
If you have the time to make your own sausage you should definitely give it a go, it’s so different to what you’ll get at a weekend sausage sizzle!
Makes 18 – 20 sausages
INGREDIENTS
- 750 g venison, minced
- 750 g pork shoulder, minced
- 15 g table salt
- 10 g fennel seeds, toasted and ground
- 15 g smoked paprika
- 15 g fermented garlic, or fresh crushed garlic
- 2 – 3 metres sausage casing, flushed
METHOD
- Place all ingredients, except casings, into a large metal bowl and mix well with your hands. Pass mixture once through a sausage mincer using the largest sized blade. Tip meat blend back into the machine.
- Fit mincer with a sausage nozzle and guide the flushed hog casing all the way over the nozzle — keeping it moist so it doesn’t crack. Begin to feed through the mince and stop the motor as the meat reaches the end of the nozzle. Pinch off any mince that has come through then gently bring the casing over the end of the nozzle and tie a knot.
- Turn the motor back on and begin to fill the casing, moving it quickly so the skin isn’t too full and firm (you don’t want the sausages to split!).
- When the entire casing is full pinch and twist — starting from one end — to create a six-inch length of sausage.
- Pinch and twist again to create a second six-inch length, then a third six-inch length. Bring the second and third to sit side by side and twist to join them, creating a loop (the first sausage will be hanging at the end on its own).
- Bring another six-inch piece up (to make a fourth sausage), pinch it gently at the join of the second and third, then bring a section of the remaining length over the top and through the centre of the loop, twisting to make another loop of two more sausages.
- Repeat process — bringing up remaining length, feeding over the top, through the centre of the loop and twisting to secure, until you have a chain of links.
- Of course, if you saw the show you may have seen that I wasn’t so good at this technique the first time I tried it — so you can simply pinch and twist every six inches to make a long chain! With either method, you’ll want to make about 18-20 sausages.
- Hang the Venison & Pork Chorizo Sausages in the fridge over night to set and dry a little, then wrap to store. Sausages will keep for up to 1 week in the fridge, or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Cook on a hot oiled skillet or bbq before serving, or make the Chorizo with Grand Veneur Sauce that Lee and I ate for lunch that day.
TIP
If you can’t source venison you can use 750 g of pork mince as a substitute.
Don’t miss all of my destination tips from my time in England!
