Dove Sausage
Anyone who is serious about making sausage needs to order Rytek Kutas' book, Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing for all the info ever needed to turn out quality sausages.  Two weeks after reading that book my sausages look 100% better than before.  My biggest mistake was cooking the sausage at too high a temperature - at temps over 160ºF causes the fat to turn liquid and run - leading to a somewhat crumbly consistency.  And I never would have thought to give the sausages a cold shower immediately after taking them off the cooker, but it keeps them from shrinking and shriveling up.  Definitely worth the money for an amateur sausage maker.

Curing salt is another thing with which I had no experience.  It contains 6.25% sodium nitrate which gives meat that nice pink color you see with corned beef, ham, and store bought sausage rather than brown or gray.  It makes ham taste like ham instead of roast pork.  It's different

I'm also thinking about building a sausage cooker after reading Kutas' book.  I found a cat with an old stainless steel two-door Traulsen commercial refrigerator he's willing to part with for a reasonable sum that would be the foundation.  Gas or electric heat would be easiest, but you don't get to be the Texas BBQ King taking the easy way out.  I'll cook with hardwood coals just like the good Lord intended.  Although, I could put a gas-fired unit where the hot water heater is now for all-weather, year round smoking convenience... 

There were a bunch of dove in the freezer so it was time to clean things out.  Making dove kabobs is such a pain in the ass.  Either way you've got to cut the breast filets off the breast plate, so I figure it's time to make dove sausage.  I made the bratwurst last weekend, but got rained out Saturday and Sunday.  They were cooked first in the offset cooker.  I started the fire in my old Texas hibachi and shoveled coals into the firebox for lower, easier to control heat.  Then some dove sausage to mimic the ever popular bacon-wrapped, onion and jalapeno sandwiched between two breast filets and grilled dove kabob.  Finally, some habanero links with the left overs. 

I need to buy a kitchen scale.  With a butt or a brisket it's easy enough - just rub it and cook it.  But you need to put the right amount of spices in sausage for it to work.  Guessing will only get you so far.  So the bratwurst had too much mace, and the kabob links not enough jalapeno.  No more sausage making until I buy a scale.  They're all pretty good, but not what I had envisioned.  Dove is gamy tasting though, so maybe I didn't do as bad as I think.  I have a panel of experts lined up to critique.

But my links are looking much better.  Practice and a little knowledge may yet make perfect.