Pork Trim or Pork Butt for Venison Summer Sausage

[jrsdws]

Title says it all. Does it matter? I have some pork butts cut up and frozen or I can go get pork trim from the locker to add to my venison summer sausage.

 

[indaswamp]

As long as you add extra fat to make up for the lean of the venison, it really does not matter where the pork meat comes from on a pig when making summer sausage.

 

[jbo_c]

Depends on how much you want to “dilute” the venison flavor.

Some folks pride themselves on “you couldn’t even tell it was venison”. If that’s you, use the butt. It’ll take more to get to a good fat level.

Some folks like venison and want to celebrate that flavor. If that’s you, use the fat trimmings and let your venison shine.

Jbo

 

[mike243]

I prefer beef fat my self, its all good in the end imo,

 

[smokerjim]

Usually I use straight pork fat, 10lb venison 2lb pork fat, if I use pork butt I go 6lb venison 4lb butt.

 

[jrsdws]

I haven't made any for a couple of years, but when I did I didn't have a grinder so I was using deer burger (locker ground) and store bought ground pork. I tried up to a 70/30 venison to pork mix but I never liked the texture of the finished product. I realize that could be recipe or process or combination of both. Alas, I'm starting over now that I have a grinder and also will be trying a sous vide finish.

 

[indaswamp]

I haven't made any for a couple of years, but when I did I didn't have a grinder so I was using deer burger (locker ground) and store bought ground pork. I tried up to a 70/30 venison to pork mix but I never liked the texture of the finished product. I realize that could be recipe or process or combination of both. Alas, I'm starting over now that I have a grinder and also will be trying a sous vide finish.

The texture issue was likely due to not enough fat in the mix. For example, If you go 50/50 venison to pork, but use the 70/30 ground pork in the mix, then you end up with just 15% fat in the sausage. It's even less when you up the venison portion. This is why it is preferable to add in some pork back fat for the lean venison portion to up the overall fat content of the sausage.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Hope it turns out for you some great pointers here for you.

Warren

 

[jrsdws]

The texture issue was likely due to not enough fat in the mix. For example, If you go 50/50 venison to pork, but use the 70/30 ground pork in the mix, then you end up with just 15% fat in the sausage. It's even less when you up the venison portion. This is why it is preferable to add in some pork back fat for the lean venison portion to up the overall fat content of the sausage.

I believe not enough fat to be the case, thus the question. So I definitely don't want to cover the venison taste, but obviously it needs that fat and I prefer pork over beef in my summer sausage. If my goal was a 70/30 venison to pork ratio....say for a 10lb batch for ease of math.....would I use something like 7lbs deer, 2lbs pork butt, and 1lb of back fat?

 

[zwiller]

Good sausage is a balancing act of a few things. Fat content is important but not the only thing. IMO getting the IT up to 150F is equally important for proper texture. Be sure to ice bath/crash cool after too.

 

[indaswamp]

Pork butt is 20-30% fat, depending on whether you buy a fatty or lean butt. so it is already 70/30 roughly. The added fat is to make up for the lean venison. If you are adding 7# of venison, then you need 3# of fat. 1# of fat will give you 12.5% fat with the lean venison.

With your ratios, about 0.5# added fat from the pork butt plus 1# back fat = 1.5# fat in mix. That is 15% fat....

 

[indaswamp]

The way to go about it is to figure out the amount of fat from each portion you are adding to the mix. Then add up the fat from each portion and write that down. Then add up the lean from each portion and write that down. Add those two numbers for your total mix. Divide the fat by the total for your percentage fat in mix. Do same for the lean. Now you have your percentages of fat and lean.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Get a chuck roast with some marbling and grind it, mix with the venison. Better than butt and you wont have that hammy taste in your venison.

 

[jrsdws]

The way to go about it is to figure out the amount of fat from each portion you are adding to the mix. Then add up the fat from each portion and write that down. Then add up the lean from each portion and write that down. Add those two numbers for your total mix. Divide the fat by the total for your percentage fat in mix. Do same for the lean. Now you have your percentages of fat and lean.

The math makes sense. Thank you very much. What is the desired fat content for good texture and flavor? Are we shooting for the 30% here?

 

[indaswamp]

IMO, no less than 20%. But it's totally up to you how much fat you want.

I found this for you:
https://www.themeateater.com/cook/recipes/cased-summer-sausage

 

[jrsdws]

So I finally got my small batch done and am overall pleased with the results. I went with a 70/30 meat to fat ratio and I think I'll reduce to a 75/25 on the next run. I experienced a little bit of fat out but nothing that hurt the product. I think the texture was great but overall the sausage was a bit bland for me. I did have a small chub that I hand stuffed with the mix left in the stuffer tube from 3 different seasoning blends. It was about 1/3 the size as the rest and it fatted out really bad, but tasted the best....and the texture was still good so I'm thinking I need to back the fat down.

The casings are also sticking to the meat pretty bad. These were old casings I had store in a bag in the fridge for a couple of years. I know it could be too much heat or bad casings causing this primarily, but smoker temp never went above 175 and it was a gradual increase of temperature to get there so I'll blame it on the old casings for now. The couple of chubs I finished sous vide did not have this issue, however.

Will too much fat "bland down" the flavor some?

 

[indaswamp]

Did you grind the meat and fat cold. as in just above freezing temps.? grinding warm fat can smear it and cause it to grease out when smoking.

 

[jrsdws]

Oh yeah....put auger, tube, plate and knife in freezer first too. Everything was way cold partially frozen.

All said I did 6lb total and for ease of numbers I used the following:

3lbs deer
2lbs pork butt (not trimmed just cut up....from Costco or Sams)
1lb pork back fat.

 

[jrsdws]

Curious if the old fibrous casings could really be the blame for the sticking to the meat. Perhaps my smoke schedule was too aggressive?

Hang at room temp for one hour
120* with all vents open for one hour
135* vents closed for one hour - add smoke and pan of humidity (beer)
150* for one hour
Remove smoke tube
175* until IT reaches 152*
30 minutes ice water bath
Hang to bloom at room temp for 4 hours