No luck buying fat ...how much pork butt to mix in the venison for an all-round meat mix?

[rexlan]

I have tried everyplace possible to buy pork or beef fat.  All say no or they want $2.50/lb for it.  Yes crazy.  No local butcher shops or processors so I am stuck.

Just got 100# of venison .... so what are my options?  I want to make the salami, breakfast sausage, summer sausage, brats and sticks.

All I can get reasonably is pork butts for $1.59/lb.  What is a recommended ratio of that to add to the venison?

Would I be better off with a different cut?

Thanks

 

[smokinfireman]

Hi Rex. I used to work in a butcher shop many, many moons ago where we processed a lot of deer. Never did the sausages, but mad a lot of venison burger. We used to add about 15% beef fat to the venison and ground it in with the venison. You will def need to add the fat or your venison will be dry.

Good luck.

 

[shoneyboy]

Rexlan, I have been mixing 50/50 and have been pretty pleased with it.....

 

[rexlan]

Rexlan, I have been mixing 50/50 and have been pretty pleased with it.....

Does that still leave a pretty good bite on the meat.  I don't want it to taste like pork but I do need to get some fat in it and the butts appear to be about my only source. 

I had to beg for this deer meat and surely don't want to make it less than excellent!

 

[BGKYSmoker]

I use a pork cut in at 20%

And i have used 73/27 ground beef which mixes very good with venison and you wont get the pork taste.
 

Where did you get 100 lbs of venison this time of year

someone do a freezer clean out.

Anyways congrats on a good score

 

[DanMcG]

Can your sources get ya fresh belly? that would be the next best source of pork fat., but if they get 2.50 for back fat the belly is probably more. Butts use to be considered 30% fat but the ones I've seen are trimmed clean to the lean lately.

You might want to consider the 2.50 Back-fat. after all it will be a 20-30% of you sausage and quality will make a big difference in the final product.

 

[nozzleman]

I too have used the pork butt and ground beef, both work good but they make a totally different end product. Don't go less than 30% and dont get the good ground beef, stick to the cheap stuff. The closer you get to 50% mix the more tame the taste, try mixing a small batch and do a fry test to give you an idea of what you prefer. Let us know how it works out.

 

[rexlan]

I use a pork cut in at 20%

And i have used 73/27 ground beef which mixes very good with venison and you wont get the pork taste.
 

Where did you get 100 lbs of venison this time of year

someone do a freezer clean out.

Anyways congrats on a good score

I had to come back up to Virginia to take care of things (just moved down to Florida last year).  I asked my UPS driver to put the word out on the venison and he showed up 2 days later with 11 hams!

All the guys here hunt like crazy and kill 4-8 deer every year and can't eat most of it so I lucked out I guess.  All of it too is last seasons and in whole pieces so it should be in good shape, corn fed stuff with cool weather.  It isn't moose but hey ..... I'm a beggar now.