This weekend, my husband, Brian, mixed up a big ‘ol batch of moose sausage, then we tag-teamed stuffing it into casing and getting it in the freezer.

As Brian hand-mixed together different moose/bacon/pork fat/seasoning variations, he had a small pan on the stove to cook up sausage patties for taste testing. Quality control. Sausage making is serious business in the Hall family!

After adding more of this and that, he settled on a combination that he described as “generic and not original,” but I thought was incredibly delicious – moose, bacon and cheddar. It tasted like a classic.

Brian thought it was too salty, but I thought the amount of salt complimented the bacon flavor really well. If you recreate this recipe, I’d recommend trying it with less salt first, then taste testing for yourself.

Here’s the Moose, Bacon & Cheddar Cheese bratwurst recipe, a Brian Hall original.

Moose, Bacon & Cheddar Bratwurst Recipe:

• 16 lbs ground moose (ours averaged 10% moose fat)
• 4 lbs ground bacon ends and pieces
• 2 lbs ground pork fat
• 1 lb high temp diced cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup canning salt
• 1/2 cup sugar cure (they call it “sugar cure,” but it’s mainly salt – Brian taste tested it)
• 3/4 teaspoon cure spice (a little pouch that came with the sugar cure)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup mustard powder
• 1/4 cup ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons diced garlic

Brian ground up the bacon ends and pieces and the pork fat, then mixed in the ground moose and everything by hand in a big tub.

We have a 15-lb, stainless steel sausage stuffer. It’s pretty great.

Brian took a video of the moose sausage stuffing process. I’m still learning, and I burst the intestine casing partway through.

You can only see the sausage and my hands, but it shows the sausage stuffing process pretty well.

We ended up with a nice amount of brats/sausage rolls. I never thought I’d say raw meat looked pretty, but the moose meat tube spirals covering our counter tops looked quite artistic. Plus delicious.

After we got those giant tubes stuffed, we twisted some into brats and left some whole, vacuum sealed them, and tossed them into the freezer to enjoy later.