Making smoked Javelina Sausage

Javelina - new world pig Tayassuidae 01/13/14 Archery Hunt Arizona

After well over 100 miles of backpacking and 13 days of archery hunting, I was able to call a herd of Javelina out of the 4 feet tall catclaw brush thickets with an old walnut Lohman mouth call.

Gear – PSE Pro-Series Diablo bow, Carbon Express Maxima Hunter 350 arrows, NAP Nitron 100 gr. broadheads, T.R.U. Ball release, Leica Ultravid 10X42 binoculars, Eberlestock Dragonfly 2900 CI to 7900 CI Rock Veil pack and Natural Gear camouflage clothes.

Javelina have poor eye sight and will come in close. They may be deep voice huffing and snapping their teeth as they come in. Be careful that you don’t get attacked. If they think they are trapped or cornered they will attack. They have a better sense of smell than a whitetail deer and have good hearing.

  

Watch out for cactus needles in the fur. Javelina eat cactus. Wearing nitrile gloves, sock skin the Javelina as soon as you have tagged and taken pictures of your pig. Do not touch the fir and then the meat. The musk on the fir will ruin the meat. (See last year’s post)  After skinning to the head and front feet, remove gloves and change knives. Now you gut, remove head and front hooves. 

As you can see the meat is all removed from the bone. Keep an eye out for agave needles, broadheads, pellets, buck shot and bullets in the meat. This pig was shot before by two different hunters and healed up completely from both. Trophy Elk are almost all packing broadheads or bullets. My friend’s bull Elk 11/13 was healing up from a bullet cut below the breast bone from a few weeks before.  

Save the tenderloins, chops and sirloins. The rest of the meat is tough on mature Javelina. I usually grind it as I do on trophy Elk, Coues Whitetail Deer and Mule Deer. It can be smoked until tender like Beef Brisket. This year’s Javelina was about 50 pounds on the hoof and was several years old. I got over 13 pounds of meat for grinding.

I use a Hamilton Beach coffee grinder that has a removal hopper to grind the sea salt and seed spices because it can be washed. I use the 4.5 mm grinding plate so the spices blend better.

Cure Recipe:

½ cup Italian Seasonings

¼ cup black pepper

¼ cup onion powder

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup sea salt (grind fine)

1 Tbsp. garlic

1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper (grind fine)

1 tsp. coriander (grind fine)

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup water

Put all the cure ingredients in a sauce pan and heat over low until very warm. This rehydrates the spices quicker so you don’t have to wait as long to smoke the sausage. I let it set for at least an hour while I grind the meat and get the smoker out.

My Cabela’s Pro 500 watt grinder overheated and quit running while grinding Elk. My wife’s KitchenAid mixer adapter grinder was better. I bought the Cabela’s ¾ Horse Commercial Grinder on sale for $380. This grinder is a beast. It is quiet and does not bog down when feeding it as fast as I can. I put pieces 2” by 12” long and it pushed them through with no strain.

Mix the cure into 13+ pounds of meat very very well. This year’s Javelina had enough fat that I did not need any lard. I’m only talking 1% fat. 

I diced up ½ pound of provolone cheese and added it to the last 3 pounds of sausage meat. This is the 1^st time I have made sausage with cheese. We have been talking about trying it for years.

I let the mixed raw sausage sit in the bowl for over an hour in the refrigerator. I got the fibrous casings out and getting them soaked for over an hour.

I like the fibrous casings that are pre-tied with a loop on one end. They need to be crimped or tied on the other end after filling. Fibrous casing store longer than natural casings.

Filling the casings is a lot easier with 2 people. I have done it alone but it is a pain. The blood dripping into the bowl is coming out of the casing as it fills.

I put the sirloins, tenderloins and the remaining chops roast rubbed with a 50% each black pepper, cayenne powder, onion powder and garlic powder seasoning in the smoker also.

Make sure that there is air space between the sausages. I had extra space in the smoker so I put 4 large washed potatoes on the top rack.

I started the smoker at 150* F vent open with mesquite chips and added chips after an hour and at 3 hours.

At two hours I increased the temperature to 200* F

At 3 hours I pulled the steak roasts. They had an internal temperature of 140* F. They were cooked through and still juicy.

At 4 hours I pulled the potatoes. They passed the toothpick test, but were not quite done to texture. I should have let them go for an hour more. I was sidetracked boiling out the Javelina skull which was just finishing the first boiling and needed to be stripped for the second boiling. The refries are great this morning.

At 5 hours I pulled the sausage and hung it on a rod held by 2 old ‘70s camera tripods. I put a pan underneath and poked a hole in the bottom of the casings to drain the excess liquid. It makes a better slicing sausage if you drain them. 

 

The sausage came out awesome. We cut into the cheese mix log last night and it will be a regular ingredient from now on.