New Cookbook: The Art of Venison Sausage Making

We’re excited to announce the release of our new cookbook, The Art of Venison Sausage Making! It is a comprehensive, approachable, and flavor-forward guide to transforming wild venison into handcrafted sausage in your own kitchen.

Whether you’re a lifelong hunter, an adventurous home cook, or a fan of field-to-table food, this book is the ultimate resource for making flavorful and satisfying venison sausage.

Why We Wrote This Book

First off, SAUSAGE IS AWESOME! 

Second, over the years, we’ve heard countless questions from readers, podcast listeners, and fellow hunters:

• How do I make venison sausage that’s not dry?
• What’s the ideal fat-to-meat ratio?
• What kind of casings should I use?
• How can I experiment with international flavors using wild game?
• How much salt do I use?

This book was created to answer all of those questions and more. The Art of Venison Sausage Making brings clarity, creativity, and confidence to the sausage-making process. It’s the book we wish we had when we first started making sausage — and now, we’re sharing it with you.

What’s Inside the Book

This isn’t just a recipe collection. It’s a complete field-to-freezer guide to making exceptional sausage with wild venison as the star ingredient.

Sausage-Making Fundamentals

You’ll start with the essentials: grinding, seasoning, mixing, stuffing, and cooking. We walk you through tools, meat safety, casing types, fat choices, salt ratios, and how to avoid common mistakes. Whether you’re using a basic kitchen setup or a professional-grade sausage stuffer, this book meets you where you are.

Over 30 Venison Sausage Recipes

From traditional hotdogs, andouille, and bratwurst to bold international recipes like merguez, chorizo verde, mala sichuan, and truffle sausage, you’ll find something for every taste. We also include recipes for summer sausage, snack sticks, liverwurst, and even blood sausage because using the whole animal matters.

Storage, Smoking, and Serving Tips

You’ll get guidance on smoking techniques (hot, cold, and no smoke), storage methods for long-term freezing, and how to cook and serve each sausage for maximum flavor.

Designed for Wild Game Lovers

While many sausage-making books focus on pork or beef, this one centers on venison. Every recipe is adapted to the lean nature of wild game, ensuring you get juicy, well-textured sausage every time without losing that rich, unmistakable flavor of the hunt.

Meet the Authors

The lead author, Justin Townsend, is the Founder/CEO at Harvesting Nature, host of the Wild Fish and Game Podcast, and a lifelong hunter and wild food educator. Justin’s first book, Eat Wild Game Like a Chef, has helped thousands of readers get more creative in the kitchen with wild game. His passion for connecting the outdoors to the dinner table is at the heart of this new book.

Adam Berkelmans, also known as The Intrepid Eater, is a cook, forager, gardener, hunter, writer, angler, recipe developer, traveler, and avid eater. His unique approach to cooking wild food borrows from international flavors, ancient traditions, and contemporary food science. Adam lives between Quebec and eastern Ontario, Canada, with his partner Kathy and small münsterlander Arrow.

Adam Steele is a professional craft butcher, charcutier, salumist, and wild food enthusiast. He owns and operates an abattoir in Central Florida, specializing in processing wild game and heritage livestock breeds. Adam enjoys bringing old-world food preservation and preparation techniques into modern cuisine. When he is not creating food, you can find him chasing snipe, calling turkeys, and teaching others about the outdoors.

Highlights from the Book

Here’s a closer look at a few standout venison sausage recipes from the book. Each one brings bold regional flavor to your table while keeping wild game front and center.

Cajun Venison Boudin

Rooted in Louisiana’s culinary traditions, this Cajun-style boudin blends cooked venison, rice, aromatics, and a medley of Creole spices into a rich, savory sausage you can stuff or serve loose. It’s perfect for grilling, steaming, or pan-frying and even better with a dash of hot sauce or mustard on the side. If you’ve hunted hogs or ducks in the South, you know boudin is a rite of passage. This version pays homage to that tradition, using venison as the hero.

Hatch Green Chile Venison Sausage

This Southwestern-inspired sausage features the earthy, slightly smoky heat of roasted Hatch green chiles paired with onion, garlic, and just enough fat to keep things juicy. It’s ideal for breakfast burritos, tacos, or sliced on a platter next to grilled vegetables. This sausage delivers flavor and heat without overwhelming the natural taste of the venison, making it a versatile favorite for every season, especially after a trip out West.

Venison Hot Link

If you like bold, spicy, and unapologetically flavorful sausage, the venison hot link is for you. This recipe packs red pepper, smoked paprika, garlic, and a healthy dose of cayenne to give it that signature heat. Designed for the smoker but just as good off the grill, these links are perfect for game day, backyard cookouts, or slicing into stews and sandwiches. It’s the kind of sausage that lets the wildness of venison shine through the fire.

Why Make Your Own Sausage?

If you’ve ever dropped off a deer at a processor and gotten back bland, overcooked sausage, you know the disappointment. Making your own venison sausage at home allows you to:

• Control every ingredient and avoid preservatives or fillers
• Customize the flavor to your preferences
• Use your harvest more effectively and respectfully
• Save money and reduce waste
• Elevate your meals with something truly handmade and personal

This book gives you the tools and confidence to do it right, even if it’s your first batch.

Who This Book Is For

• Hunters looking to add value to their harvest and explore culinary creativity
• Home cooks who want to make their own high-quality, small-batch sausage
• Wild food enthusiasts seeking to deepen their field-to-table skills
• DIYers who appreciate the satisfaction of crafting food from scratch
• Families who want to stock the freezer with clean, healthy, protein-rich meals

This book is for you if you care about where your food comes from and how it’s made.

Order Your Copy Now

The Art of Venison Sausage Making is now available in hardback and paperback editions. This book is more than a collection of recipes. It’s a movement toward better wild game cooking, one sausage at a time.

Be Part of the Wild Food Revolution

At Harvesting Nature, our mission is to make wild food more accessible, delicious, and celebrated. With this book, we invite you to take part in that mission—to slow down, savor your harvest, and share it proudly with the people you care about. Tag us in your sausage-making adventures using #HarvestingNature and #VenisonSausageBook, and let us know what you’re cooking. We love seeing the community grow, one wild link at a time.