Just did a batch of semi-dried Polish out of Kutak (p 373) and based on the last batch, I decided to up the fat. Now I wonder if I went overboard. Out of a 10 pound batch, I included 1 pound of diced fatback and also 4 pounds of pork butt, with the other 5 pounds very lean venison. Here's what the stuffed sausages look like; you can see the fat back cubes easily:
Here's what the raw mix looked like:
Here we are after 4 hours in the smoker, with another 12 hours cold smoke slated, to be followed by several days of drying. These look pretty good, but the fat content is nagging me a bit.
Lots of commercial sausages are as much as 80% fat; this batch will be close to 45-50. (Although pork butt isn't all fat by any means so I'm not sure if I'm calculating the % correctly.) Based on experience, what do you think?
Thanks!!
Here's what the raw mix looked like:
Here we are after 4 hours in the smoker, with another 12 hours cold smoke slated, to be followed by several days of drying. These look pretty good, but the fat content is nagging me a bit.
Lots of commercial sausages are as much as 80% fat; this batch will be close to 45-50. (Although pork butt isn't all fat by any means so I'm not sure if I'm calculating the % correctly.) Based on experience, what do you think?
Thanks!!