I am going to try my hand at making some venison summer sausage and also some snack sticks.
I have 3 options on mixing the venison:
1) mix with beef fat
2) mix with pork fat
3) mix with pork butt
Any recommendations?
Thanks,
James
I firmly believe you should go with total pork fat. Your target should be 80% lean venison (that means absolutely no venison fat) and 20% pork fat.
Many old recipes call for the 80/20 percentage using pork butts. That was pretty much the industry standard. However, it is my opinion that today's pork is considerably leaner, and simply adding 20% of the weight in pork will leave you with a pretty dry end product.
After all, look at a pork butt next time you're shopping. How much fat really is on our new genetically modified piggies? I'd guess 15-20% and no more. So adding 100% lean meat with 80% lean meat is... (let's see, add the two, divide in half, carry the one, multiply by 4/5ths... ???)
Well whatever. I hope you get my drift. Go with the pork fat.
I have to side with Smudge on that pork fat thing. I like to use "back fat" if you can get your hands on it. It's a harder fat than belly fat and melts at a higher temp. Seems to make the texures just right. 80 / 20 meat to fat ratio seems to be about right most of the time for me too. Have fun. ;)
Thanks for the advice guys. I called my butcher and he does hogs on Tuesdays so I will be stopping by either tomorrow or the next week to pick up some hog fat.