Green Onion Sausage is one of those things that brings back childhood memories. I can recall being excited whenever I would come in the house and smell Mom cooking up a batch in a skillet on the stove. When Dad would cook on weekends, it was always on the smoker, almost as if the smoker would no longer work without its presents on the grill. Green onion sausage was not hard to find because it was the most common recipe most people used when making deer sausage. Oftentimes the sausage was given out in bulk or links to friends, neighbors or anyone who did you a favor.

It wasn’t until I left Louisiana that I realized green onion sausage was a uniquely Louisiana thing.

I would ask for it whenever getting game processed, only to have a quizzical “what the hell are you talking about” look given to me. When I started to process my own game, I began to research the sausage and quickly began to realize just how uniquely regional it really is.

Green onion sausage came to Louisiana from the Spanish settlers who were trying to make Chorizo. Missing several of the key ingredients need to make the flavorful Spanish sausage, they had to adapt by using the ingredients that were available to them. There was an abundance of wild onions growing in the swamps and they had pork. The sausage they made was called Chaurice. Over time the name Chaurice began to be replaced with simply with Green Onion Sausage. This hearty sausage packed with a ton of flavor is a favorite of mine and I am sure will become a favorite of yours.

We use RecTec pellet smokers/grills for all of our outdoor cooking and all of our wild game is processed using Made With Meat equipment.

Recipe by Chef Lance Lewis

Ingredients: 

• 5lb Wild Hog quarter (either shoulder or hind) Also works great with Game Meat of your choice.

• 1.5lb pork fat (this is for a 30% ratio) you can go as high as 50% if working with pork
• 1 medium yellow onion fine dice
• 3 stalks of celery fine dice
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• ¼ cup flatleaf parsley fine dice

• 1 large bunch of Green onion finely chopped
• ½ cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1TBSP pink salt/cure#1/ Prague Powder
• 1cup Cajun seasoning (recipe on Fromfieldtotable.com) or your commercial brand of. choice
• ½ tsp ground thyme

• ½ tsp ground rosemary
• ½ tsp granulated onion
• ½ tsp granulated garlic
• 15 feet Natural pork casing (not needed if not intending to make bulk sausage)

Method:

• With large die, run meat through grinder alternating between meat and fat. It is important during this step to work quickly and have your equipment and meat very cold, so the fat does not warm up and render out.
• After first grind run through again adding diced onion and celery using fine die.
• If you notice the fat becoming too warm during the second grind, add few ice cubes as you run mixture through grinder. This will add moisture and help cool everything down.

• Once 2^nd grind is done, in a large tub/bowl or meat mixer add remaining ingredients and combine until well incorporated.
• After mixing make a small make a small test patty. Cook off and make sure the flavor is to your liking. Adjust seasoning to desired taste.
• Once you have achieved your desired level of seasoning, load into sausage stuffer and make links approximately 8 to 10 inches. If not stuffing, package label and date. For both freeze within 5 days.

Chef Tips:

• Curing salt is very powerful and goes a long way. The ratio is 1tsp per 5lb of meat.
• Curing salt slows the growth of botulism spores.
• Nonfat Milk Powder acts as a binder. It also aides in moisture retention.
• Store grinder parts in freezer for a few hours before grinding.

• When Freezing, always label and date your product.