Fat Ratios When Using Pure Fat

Scott Marsden from Hartsel, CO asked:

I'm planning on making some elk summer sausage and breakfast sausage links, but have a question about fat ratios. In your DVD, you use an 80/20 mix with 50/50 pork for the breakfast sausage and an 80/20 mix of 50/50 beef and bacon ends for the summer sausage. I'm having trouble finding any 50/50 mix at any meat markets so far. Everyone is offering straight beef or pork fat. My question is: if I use straight fat instead of 50/50, would I use a different ration than the 80/20? Thanks in advance.


Hello Scott, Great question!

Yes your blend will be different. If you're going to use 100% fat, I always like to cut the amount back.

Let's start with the first step. Be sure you request back fat and specifically tell your butcher that you don't want "tallow". Back fat comes from steak trimmings on beef and pork chop trimmings on hogs. Tallow comes from the kidney fat inside the animal and under heat will render away to nothing but grease, and you don't want that inside the casing of your sausage product.

When adding pure fat, I will mix 9lbs of good lean game meat with 1lb of pure fat. Always be sure to cut the fat into very small pieces before grinding, this way you can get the fat blended well with the lean meat during grinding. If you grind the fat in large pieces, it takes a lot of mixing to get the fat blended into the lean game meat.

Always use pork if you're making a product that is primarily made of pork and beef if the product is primarily a beef product. For example, if you are making sausage, which is usually made from pork - add pork fat. If you are making hamburgers, which are a beef based product, use beef fat.

I never have trouble finding 50/50 trim. If you ask at a custom butcher shop, you should have no trouble. At a grocery store, they may not do enough actual processing and grinding to have 50/50 available. If you visit a local custom butcher shop they should be able to help you with some trim that has fat and good lean meat mixed together. These trimmings will usually come off the ribs or brisket on beef and from the shoulder and fresh side on hogs.

 Good luck with your products and let us know how it turns out!

 Brad

Fat Ratios for Venison Sausage

Matt from Bancroft, IA wrote:
I have been making sausage for the last two years and in both years they have been dry. The mixture is 50/50 venison and pork. What should I do to have it be more juicy?

Thanks for the question Matt,

Try using a blend of 50/50 pork trim. This blend will consist of 50% pork fat and 50% lean pork. This will increase your fat content and give you a much juicier and more flavorful product. You can also purchase 50/50 beef trim as well for beef based products. This is the blend I use for all my game meats. I prefer this over lean beef and pork as well as straight beef or pork fat. Look into 50/50 beef and pork trim and use it at a ration of 6lbs of lean game meat to every 4lbs of 50/50 trim. Try that and I believe you will be very satisfied with the results.

Thanks for the great question and good luck this season!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood

Adding Fat to Wild Game Products

Tom from Greenfield, Ma. asked:

When making burgers from venison, what's the best fat and ratio to mix in?

Tom,

The type of fat I mix with my product depends on the product I'm making. If I'm making hamburger, which is generally an all-beef product, I will add beef fat. If I'm making sausage, which is a pork-based product, I will add pork fat. This keeps the flavor and texture more inline with the product you are used to eating. If I'm making a smoked product, I follow the same theory. If I'm making brats, I will add pork because they are a pork-based product, if I am making snack sticks or ring bologna, I will use beef because these are generally a beef-based product.

I prefer to add 50/50 beef or pork trim to my products rather than 100% back fat. The reason I do this is to lessen the degree of error. When you use a product that is 100% fat, if you add a little too much, it can be WAY to much. If you don't add enough, you won't even know it's in there. With a 50/50 product you can be off on your ratio a little and the product is still going to be fine. When I say 50/50, I mean a blend of 50% lean beef or pork mix rather than a 100% fat mix. Some hunters will mix in straight pork butt which is very lean, up to 80% lean. In my opinion, this takes away from the aspect of actually eating game meat - it now becomes pork with a little deer mixed in. I hope this helps and below I will list some ratios for you.

50/50 trim: I add 6lbs of venison and 4lbs of 50/50 to make a 10lb batch of product
100% fat: I add 8lbs of venison and 2lbs of fat for a 10lb batch of product

Good luck Tom and thanks for the question!

"The Meat Man"
Brad Lockwood