Venison Mititei Sausage

Mititei means little one or small one in Romanian. These caseless sausages are just that, small rolls of seasoned ground meat. Legend has it that they were invented in the famed La Lordache Inn in Bucharest. Well-known for its sausages, the story goes that the Inn ran out of casings one busy night. Using what he had on hand, the chef mixed up some ground meat, probably beef, pork and lamb, into a spicy blend that he rolled by hand and cooked on the grill.

Since they are caseless, the sausages can use a bit of added fat to help them hold together. To accomplish this, we blend ground bacon with the venison in a 75/25 ratio. Cheap bacon is best, the more fat the better. I like to double grind the meat through my Weston grinder using the medium plate. If your venison is already ground, run the bacon through once, then run the venison and bacon through together for the second grind.