Cooking

Deer Sausage

Big Red Barn Blog

Hunting has been a long standing tradition in mine and my husband’s families. Deer hunting specifically brings a lot of meat into our house and screams for recipes to be used in. One of my favorites to date has been my husband and father in law’s deer sausage recipe.

This time in particular it was an 8 hour process, but their labor of love produced 75 pounds of sausage. They made Cajun bratwurst, beer bratwurst and polish sausage this go round. Below I’ll give you the recipes and walk you through the process they used!

Deer Sausage Recipe:

  • 18 lbs deer meat (neck and shoulder meat)
  • 7 lbs of pork trimmings
  • PS Seasoning and Spices packet
  • 8 ounce jar of diced pickled jalapenos
  • PS Seasonings Natural Hog Casings
  • String to tie off the sausage
  • 2 IPA beers of your choice

Instructions:

  1. Start by grinding your deer meat. If you do not own a meat grinder you can take it to a meat processor. You can also purchase one from a store like Cabella’s or Academy. When we initially harvest a deer we run the meat through a meat grinder twice.
  2. When we begin to make the sausage we run the pork trimmings through the grinder.
  3. Then mix the ground deer meat, seasoning, jalapeños, beer and the pork trimmings by hand until well combined. Then run through the meat grinder two more times to ensure it is mixed thoroughly.
  4. Once the ingredients are combined you will start feeding the meat into a sausage stuffer. This part really takes two people, one to feed the sausage and one to tie off the links.
  5. Once the sausage is tied off you can throw the Cajun brats and polish sausage onto a smoker to bring the internal temperature up to 155 degrees. The beer brats do not need to be pre cooked since they have a salt cure packet in addition to the seasoning packet from PS Seasonings.
  6. Vacuum seal into packet sizes of your choosing. We recommend 3-4 sausages per pack.
  7. Freeze until ready to use. When ready, cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Mixing the ingredients well will give you a more consistent finished product.
The beer of choice around here!
When you tie off the sausage you want to ensure you twist the sausage one way on the first sausage and the opposite way on the next. You will repeat until finished.
They like to use the Traeger smoker to get a good flavor on their sausage links!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Please comment or email with any questions. Happy hunting this season!

Collecting

Collecting 101

Big Red Barn Blog

Everyone thinks collecting is expensive. Not so! I’m a collector and it’s the foundation of the Big Red Barn. Some of my favorite collections are primitives and rustic decor.

Yardsticks were given away by department stores, hardware stores, the general store, grocery stores, and more. They tell an interesting story of the history of your town or state. I paid no more than $1.00 or $2.00 for each one.

Rolling pins were an important tool for making bread, noodles, pies, etc. For example, my mother-in-law (Cristie’s grandma) had a rolling pin made of a cedar tree that belonged to her grandma. It was used for making many delicious treats and staples for her family. If you look, you can see my Pioneer Woman rolling pin right in front! I love mixing old and new. The large spools were used on industrial sewing machines.

I love seeing the ingenuity and innovative thinking that went in to creating these tools and implements that were used many, many years ago. The biggest crock (in the photo) was used by my grandpa during Prohibition to make beer. This beauty is over 100 years old and is such a family treasure.

You can start your collection at garage sales, auctions, EBAY, thrift stores, antique shops, and more. Start slow with your collection and you’ll be surprised how quickly you get the collecting fever!

Cooking

Fresh Salsa

Big Red Barn Blog

In Oklahoma, October usually marks the end of the garden season. Tomatoes seem to hang on and grow in fits and spurts. Never yielding enough for canning. Peppers seem to flourish during this time of year.

We have found it’s fun to make fresh salsa with whatever the garden yields for the week.

Garden Fresh Salsa Recipe:

  • 10 tomatoes any variety diced
  • 1 small onion (red, white or yellow) diced
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
  • 3 hot peppers chopped
  • 3 sweet peppers chopped
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 Tbs salt
  • 1 can tomato paste
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 Tbs sugar
  • Juice of 1 lime

Instructions:

Put tomatoes in a food processor and pulse. Add the remaining ingredients and blend to consistency of your liking. Taste the salsa and add more sugar, salt or lime juice to make it the way you like. Put salsa in a bowl and seal with a lid. Put in the refrigerator so the flavors can meld. Enjoy with all of your favorite dishes. Lasts about one week in the refrigerator.

What do you like to make with the final veggies in your garden?

Crafting

Halloween Wreath

Big Red Barn Blog

As the leaves change colors and the air gets a little cooler, we start to get excited for Fall and Halloween. Fall is such a great time to start a festive craft for the season. We are definitely in love with this Halloween wreath!

Purchase a grapevine wreath from any craft store. We purchased this one at Hobby Lobby as well as the decorations. We spray painted it black with a metallic purple overlay, but you can experiment with colors – green, orange, or any Halloween color. We love to use Krylon spray paint because it dries quickly and gives your project a nice even shine!

You can purchase the decorations several months before Halloween as they tend to put out seasonal items well in advance. You can also purchase after Halloween for a deeper discount for next year! We went with an orange and black theme for our decorations for a Halloween look but we are also Oklahoma State Cowboy fans so it serves a dual purpose.

The ribbon for the bow was purchased from Joann’s. We always select wire edge ribbon for a crisper bow. The decorations were laid out and then hot glued or twist tied on. We used bread sack twist ties and used a Sharpie to color them black to blend with the wreath.

It’s that easy! Now you just have to hang your wreath and accept all of the compliments you get! Follow our blog to get more holiday ideas and so much more!