My son bought a cheap slicer and we decided to give a try. I was using my typical LEM Summer Sausage recipe prepared as directed. The results looked something like this. The larger slices were a lot more versatile than typical 1.5" summer sausage slices.
After eating a few packs of the bacon, I got to like the larger slices and thought something similar in size to a loaf of SPAM would be perfect. Since then, deer spam is all I've made. It saves me the time of stuffing the meat into casings and the overnight refrigeration that is required. With an early morning harvest, I can have deer spam in the freezer before bedtime.
Here is 25 pounds of the LEM summer sausage recipe on the smoker. I put the meat into baking pans to get the approximate size needed. Then placed the meat right on the smoker racks. Since casings are not involved, the meat really takes the flavor of the smoke a lot better. These were coated with Montreal Steak seasoning for additional flavor. I imagine a glaze of sorts might be interesting as well.
The finished product fresh off of the smoker.
From there, I just cut the slabs into spam sized blocks and package them for the freezer. Here are frozen packs of bacon and spam.
Now the part we've all be waiting for...
Mmmmmmmmm!
You won't find this on a McDonald's menu.
If you need to find an alternative way to put away a lot of ground meat, give this method a try. This is one thing I can turn ground venison into that everyone loves. Once it is thawed out and sliced, I've had it last almost a week in a sealed container in the refrigerator before it is consumed, so it doesn't have to be eaten the same day. We've never had a package last long enough to go bad. I'll probably still put summer sausage in casings each season, but probably only one batch. Making spam is easier for many reasons and to me the end product comes out with better flavor.
