beef sausage question

[dannylang]

can you make a decent sausage out of straight beef, wheather it 70/30 or a 80/20 ?

 

[worktogthr]

I have made quite a few sausages out of straight beef. Beef kielbasa comes out great, beef hot links, all beef hot dogs! Beef pepperoni sticks are another great snack.

 

[dannylang]

how about summer sausage, anyone have a great recipe for that?
dannylang

 

[jimmyinsd]

search summer sausage recipe at the top. I started with a batch called Goetborg that was shared by gearloose and he took it from Rytek Kutas's book and modified it himself. any particular reason you dont want to use pork or pork fat to cut your beef?

 

[dannylang]

no, i just thought i could buy ground beef, and make it alot easier to get my fat ratio correct, i have quite a bit of vension left over, and i mix it with ground pork, doesnt seem like i get my meat to fat ratio right, one time its good, next time its seems drier, same smoking procedure, just thinking outside the box to figure a easier way to do things. might not be the best way.
dannylang

 

[jimmyinsd]

no, i just thought i could buy ground beef, and make it alot easier to get my fat ratio correct, i have quite a bit of vension left over, and i mix it with ground pork, doesnt seem like i get my meat to fat ratio right, one time its good, next time its seems drier, same smoking procedure, just thinking outside the box to figure a easier way to do things. might not be the best way.
dannylang

you will struggle with consistent results anytime you go with a straight roast grind. going with straight back fat to mix with your venison would be the simplest way to get ensure your getting the same fat ratio in every batch, but wheres the fun in that? you could try separating your pork butts into lean meat and fat and then weighing both prior to grinding so you know exactly what your pork fat ratio is. I just grind my pork butts/trim and let it fly, but I am not looking for consistent results, I just like making sausage so if its a little different its not bad thing IMO. for my venison summer sausage i think I went 4 pounds venison, 4 pounds pork (roughly 75/25) and 2 lbs ground beef ( probably about 90/10).. the pork or beef could have been a little fattier because my end result wasnt dry.

anyway if you want consistency, I say switch to back fat and if you are still having fluctuations in end product I would be looking at your process to see if you are losing moisture/fat that way.

 

[dannylang]

the reason I asked this question is that all my vension is already ground, and really don't want to go threw all the work of cleaning up a grinder, just to grind up some pork fat, can I buy pork fat ground, or use bacon, or use ground pork to mix in with the vension, if so at what rate per vension to ground, if I would of though of it, I would of ground pork fat into it while I was processing it, never as smart as I want to be...
dannylang

 

[jimmyinsd]

the reason I asked this question is that all my vension is already ground, and really don't want to go threw all the work of cleaning up a grinder, just to grind up some pork fat, can I buy pork fat ground, or use bacon, or use ground pork to mix in with the vension, if so at what rate per vension to ground, if I would of though of it, I would of ground pork fat into it while I was processing it, never as smart as I want to be...
dannylang

when we cut up our deer we grind it and package it into 2lb packs right away and then later we grind a case of pork butts or pork trim and package that separately as well. then as the winter progresses we will take out enough ground venison, goose, pork, or beef and mix up as the recipe suggests. Typically we end up with 40 to 50% ground pork (for the fat content) and then mix in either of the other 3 meats for the rest depending on what we are making in the end. I keep some ground pork fats separate as well as some ground beef fat from briskets, but typically we just start with the ground pork butts/trim and calculate those as 25-35% fat depending on what we started with. You should be able to buy ground pork and mix that right in. Or ask a local butcher shop if they will grind you up some fat back for a stronger venison flavor to your sausage if you like.