fatty peperettes

[JONNYK]

Good morning all. Finished 2 batches of goose pepperettes yesterday and starting 3rd today. After first "disaterous" attempt, using 8 lbs of fat to 10 lbs of breast, we adjusted the fat/meat to 6 lbs fat to 19 lbs breast. Started with room temp links and dried at 130 d for 1 hr 20 m. Smoked at 150 for about 2 hr till 150 internal temp. Then 175 till 152 internal temp.Into the deep freezer for 20 min.  Hung in basement with fan blowing on them as it was warm here yesterday. Still have fat pockets in links. My buddy dehydrated the first batch and got rid of fat, looks like the same for these. My question is is this normal? Are we still using too much fat?
I have an OBS 4 tray with sliding heat control so adjusting temp is guessy. I have 130 d empty marked on slide, and 150 when full. Should I mark 150 empty instead?  I hung my meat probe through the vent at one point, and later found it showed 158 d when OBS thermometer showed 150 d. Don't know how accurate the probe is as far as measuring air temp inside.  Many of you have said the fat breaks down after 152 d. Could this be the problem that the 158 d temp is breaking it down?

[KyNola]

What is a pepperette?

[ragweed]

I have an OBS w/slider too and before I got my PID, I had as much as 30* F temp swings.  That made it tough to do sausage as it doesn't take much above 155* F to get a fat out.  I would trust your meat probe rather than the Bradley door thermometer.  As far as fat proportions go, the highest I use is the 15% in 85/15 burger for snack sticks.  Most of the sausage I make is less than that.  Not Gospel, just my opinion.  Good luck, keep after it.  It'll come together!!

[JONNYK]

Thanks ragweed. New goose season starting so will get more and further refine. Am going by probe today so see what happens.

KyNola. Canadian : pepperettes      U.S: slim Jims, snack sticks

[tskeeter]

Jonny, if you are finding your pepperettes too fatty, you can certainly cut down on the fat you add.  In your last batch, you added enough fat so that the content from added fat was nearly 32% before you considered any fat added by the duck.  So, you were at the high end of the range for fat content.  Although I'm not a duck expert, the cooking shows on TV lead me to think duck has a fairly high fat content on it's own.  So, your overall fat content might have been pushing 40% or more.

Flecks of fat in your sausage is common.  And it is the hallmark of some varieties of sausage.  If you don't want to see flecks of fat in your sausage, the meat needs to be ground to a more fine consistency.  And may need to be emulsified.  I like fairly rustic looking sausage, including flecks of fat, so two passes through the grinder with a medium plate is fine for me.  A couple of passes through a fine plate might be enough to break down the fat in your sausage to the point where you can't see it.  If you need to emulsify the meat, which will give you the consistency of a hot dog, many home sausage makers run the meat through a food processor in small (like one pound) batches.

If the fat you are seeing has obviously melted, and then congealed, you problem is your temperature control.  The sausage is getting too hot.

As Ragweed recommended, don't rely on your door thermometer to tell you what the temp is in different parts of your smoker.  A while back a member did some testing of heat distribution in his Bradley.  I don't remember the temperature range, but the distribution pattern was hottest in the bottom in the back, over the heating element.  Coolest in the front at the top.  And temps dropped as you moved from the back to the front and from the bottom to the top.  This would indicate that the door thermometer would be reading one of the cooler areas of the smoker.  So, your finding that a temp reading from the center of your smoker is 8F higher than a reading at the door isn't terribly surprising.

         

[JONNYK]

Thanks tskeeter. The goose we use is wild and only the breast meat with no skin.  I agree tho we will try cutting back once again maybe to 20%. We used a medium plate, one to grind fat, one for meat. then hand mixed with seasoning and cure and then stuffed . I m fine with the texture and at this point am in full agreement with the temp control. There are fat pockets which I am assuming is melted fat and it does congeal, usually at the bottom or along sides where casing constrict to meat.  Will buy another probe to monitor the cabinet temp and keep that within the parameters.  I did move my my racks around, as I read this a few of the dozens posts I read, but thank you for the reminder. Thinking this will help. If not onto plan F :o. First tho is banging more geese, we're out of supply. Yeehaw.
Thanks again all.

[tskeeter]

I agree, when you're seeing pockets of fat at the bottoms and sides of the casing, it sounds like melted and congealed fat from getting the sausage too hot.

Backing the fat content down to about 20% should help keep your sausage from seeming greasy.  And reducing your temps should eliminate the fat out you are getting.

[KyNola]

Thanks!  Apparently I don't speak Canadian. ;)

[JONNYK]

Our first pepperettes, aka snack sticks, Have sat in the fridge almost a week now in plasctic bag. Fat seems to have reabsorbed into meat and drying out.