Butt fat? Fat butts?

[jaustin]

Provocative title, of course...  Nothing like a little click bait.  Not necessarily accidental butt fat references and juvenile nudges throughout...   (Total number of "butts" = 10.  It could have been MUCH worse) 

So I went to Costco last weekend and picked up a twin pack of shoulder butts for what I consider a fair price - especially for boneless:

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• jaustin
• Feb 17, 2017

Decided to cut 'em up and make what I call "Sausage mix" out of them - cubed and fat-adjusted, then simply bagged and refrigerated or frozen until I decide to grind and whatnot.  Now, I normally buy bone-in butts as they're a bit cheaper by $0.20 or so, but these seemed like a bargain and saved me a fair amount of labor getting that damn oddball bone out of 'em, so went ahead and picked up a pack.

While cubing the first one, I realized just how LITTLE fat there was on this thing.  I guess it's understandable, as when I'm buying a pork roast to simply cook for my family I, like many, don't WANT a while lot of fat on my butt.  However, when planning sausage, it's good to have that planned butt fat in there that you would normally get with a bone-in.  Ended up adding around 30% fat by weight to both of these to get the fat in the butt right where I like it - in a bowl:

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• jaustin
• Feb 17, 2017

Adding fat

Wound up with right at 19 pounds of sausage mix for my efforts.

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• jaustin
• Feb 17, 2017

Sausage mix

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• jaustin
• Feb 17, 2017

Added some more to bag on the left, so different weight now...

So this all begs the overall question for us n00b sausage makers:

How fatty do you like your butts?  Based on this experience, if I have sausage planned it looks like I have to add an additional 10% more fat to my butts if bought boneless, while if I get a "natural" bone-in butt, I only need to add around 20% to get it to the mix I like to use.

Thoughts?  What's your preferred fat to meat ratio for general purpose sausage making?

No offense intended to those that don't like the word "butt," and if it ever stops raining, I'll make some sausage out of these.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Really depends on the type of sausage I'm making. Some I like leaner, some fattier. Some I add hand cut back fat too.

 

[JckDanls 07]

my ratio is whatever comes on a bone in butt is good for me...

 

[ab canuck]

I am in the same boat, I seldom add extra fat, Just what is in the butt, However when they are deboned I find they are also trimmed of some fat as well. 

 

[SmokinAl]

I look for bone in butts with a nice fat cap.

No extra fat needed for us.

Al

 

[DanMcG]

Depends on the sausage you're making, butt I rarely have to add fat. Butt I also always check out the fat cap before I buy it to be sure it looks like enough.
Most times I'll just cube it and grind it with out any issues. Depending on the sausage I'll sometimes I break it down to lean and fat to get the ratio I want. I broke one down yesterday for some kielbasa and after removing the bone, soft fat and tendons which equaled 8% the remainder worked out to 76% lean and 24% fat. I like 20% in my kielbasa so I got some extra for something else.

And I don't think you could offend anyone in here by saying Butt. :biggrin:

 

[jaustin]

Huh.  Based on the replies so far, I obviously like a fattier mixture than most.  I was just surprised at how lean the two pack boneless ones were and how much fat I had to add to them to get 'em to "look about right."  Is there a point where it's "too much fat?"  I've had no complaints so far...

Thanks to all for the input, BTW.

 

[JckDanls 07]

store bought is usually around 50/50 ...

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Depends on what your making. And yes you can have to much fat.

I just pretty much eye it these days.

 

[Bearcarver]

Most anything I use it for gets mixed with either 80/20 Beef or Venison, so whatever comes on a Butt is fine for me.

Wish I could Get Boneless Butts for that price!!! ($1.79).

Bear

 

[jaustin]

store bought is usually around 50/50 ...

I find that the bone in butts that I get from Albertson's are around 80/20.  These boneless ones from Costco looked closer to 87/13 or 90/10.  They were surprisingly lean, though as I mentioned, I wouldn't buy an overly fatty butt if I was just going to do a pork roast for dinner so I'd call it understandable from a retailer's point of view.

 

[jaustin]

@Bearcarver- You have a Costco around?  Sam's?  That seems to be close to "normal" member warehouse pricing for cryo pack boneless butts.

 

[Bearcarver]

 
@Bearcarver- You have a Costco around?  Sam's?  That seems to be close to "normal" member warehouse pricing for cryo pack boneless butts.

So far the closest Sam's is in Allentown---About 45 minutes drive, and the closest Costco is in New Jersey.

However I think they built one lately, but isn't open yet---Not very far from the Bear Den.

Bear

 

[oberst]

I was surprised how I ended up with more fat over time, as I started out favoring a lean mix thinking that would be healthier.  But then I figured if I was going to spend the time making sausage I should make something that was as close to excellent as I could get, and that meant more fat than I started out with.  Can't tell you the % as that's really hard to accurately calculate, but at times I do add diced fat if my mix isn't fat enough.

 

[browneyesvictim]

I've been keeping the fat trim from other loin roasts, bellies and such when I make them. I just keep throwing it in a bag kept in the freezer. Then, when I make sausage where I am weighing things out, it makes thing much easier calculating ingredients (especially cure) using even numbers. So I just cube the butt as you are, then adding enough fat to a round number according to the recipe.

 

[blaise]

I find the 25 to 30 % fat to be about right. By the way, the Poli sight says that freezing the fat beyond 60 days, doesn't prevent the enzyme breakdown that leads to rancidity. Don't know if that is true or not.

Blaise