Problem With Fat

[checkerfred]

I am having a problem with my fat in sausages and I can't figure it out.  I am making sausage with venison and mixing fat in.  I get my fat from a local grocery and it is trimmings off of pork butts. 

Anyway, the first problem is when I grind it, it comes out through the plate in long strings....I grind it almost frozen.  This keeps it from mixing well with my meat.  Should I only grind it with the deer so it mixes better? 

Second, when I finally get it into my casings, natural or collagen, it's rendering out at low temps.  I fermented some last night using bactoferm, in the oven with just the light on.  The temperature got up to 109.  There was fat coming out of the casings on it was in the bottom of the oven.  When I smoke the sausages, of course it comes out worse and makes the sausage dry.

I don't know if its the type of fat or how I'm handling it or what.  I don't see specs of fat like I should...it's just mixing and smearing with the meat. 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[rexlan]

I just had a similar experience and mine rendered out in the smoker!  The smoker never got above 170 degrees, sausage got to 150 degrees and I've never had the issue before.  It "generally" takes a temp close to 240 to render the fat out ... or so I thought.

I'm using beef now but when I had moose I would I would cut my meat and the BEEF suet (fat) in grinder size chunks and chill it.  If I made sausage I used the beef fat and I also added at least 25% pork (butts or pork trim ... not just fat).   I ran the whole batch together, adding suet/pork a little at a time and then a quick hand mix and back in the cooler.  When it got good and cold again I ran it for a final pass through a 1/4"-3/16" disk and it seemed to work pretty good for me.  If it gets warm it will smear for sure.  this left a nice coarse texture which is what I wanted.

It may be that the pork fat is much softer than the beef and you may need to actually use the butts instead of just the fat.  Beef fat is pretty hard and the pork is a lot softer I'm using beef now but I always mix about 40% butts with it.

I always tried for 20% suet in the mix.  With Venison I would assume you are not using any of the fat and that it is probably 95-98% lean.  If you want a 10# batch of finished product you would need 8# of Venison and 2# of pork fat or 7# of Venison and 3# of butts.  That is how I did the moose but I'm sure there are a zillion different methods.

 

[boykjo]

It sounds like the fat is getting mashed instead of ground through the grinder and your adding (fat) mush to the meat and its not evenly mixing with the meat. Check your grinder and always use a Calibrated remote temp probe wherever your sausage is when cooking. You should not be rendering fat below 170 degrees

Joe
 

 

[diggingdogfarm]

There's a lot of "soft" garbage hog fat available today because of the low quality cheap feed fed to commercial hogs.
Use backfat if you can get it.
Grind the fat along with the lean meat, it'll go through the grinder better without hanging up and smearing.
Frozen fat tends to hang up in the grinder and smear, just chill the fat until real cold, but not frozen.


~Martin

 

[checkerfred]

Thanks for the replies...It seems like it's just the kind of fat....my grinder is fine...I have a 1hp cabelas commercial grinder and its brand new with brand new blades....and they are installed correctly...I don't really know how to explain the problem but it grinds up fine, except it comes out like noodles...in long strings...it doesn't break up into particles.  I even froze it completely to grind but it does the same thing...the grinder doesn't bog down it just won't mix well or break into particles.

.....the problem may be that I ground it once and put it in those ground freezer bags...I dunno....I just made some summer sausage and re-grinded the fat with the venison and that helped some but it still seems too gooey....it's like the fat is just a greasy non-firm type of fat. I may have to just do like Rexlan said above and use pork butts and add it to the meat....maybe I need to leave the fat in chunks until ready to use and then grind it with the meat?

Where do you get pork back fat from? Seems like I asked a few stores about that and they said they didn't have it or couldn't get it...I'm in a small town....I don't know what the fat trimmings off of the pork butts is called but thats what I get from the local grocery for free

 

[daveomak]

Fred, evening.... On occasion I buy the bacon trimmings the big box stores sells.... I will take out the "good pieces" of bacon and grind the belly fat with stuff.... It is more expensive than free but it works well and the bacon flavor can enhance certain products....   Dave

 

[diggingdogfarm]

....maybe I need to leave the fat in chunks until ready to use and then grind it with the meat?

Cut the fat into small pieces and grind with the meat.



~Martin

 

[checkerfred]

Thanks guys!  Dave, when you say big box stores, do you mean big chains like Publix or Wal-Mart etc.?  I may have to go to some supermarkets in the bigger cities and check around

Martin, that's what I'm thinking I need to do.....I'll partially defrost my deer and then grind it with the fat chunks

 

[daveomak]

Fred, evening....  Yes.... I buy the vac-packed bacon ends and pieces or what ever ther call them....  When doing sausage I look for the real fatty packages....  At times I look for the meaty packages for beans etc and re smoke them for more smoke flavor..... I use this stuff instead of high quality breakfast bacon I would normally fry....   Just being cheap I guess....  

Dave

 

[smokinhusker]

I've done the same thing that DaveOmak does with the ends and pieces of bacon. We especially like it ground with elk meat...makes great burgers. When I grind my elk or deer for sausage, I like the chilled meat in strips that will fit in the grinder and I alternate the elk with whatever fat I am using. 

 

[boykjo]

Just a pic of fat going into some dear meat

 

[checkerfred]

Thanks guys!  Boykjo, that's the same grinder I have!  My fat looks similar to that but it just seems to smear when I mix it......Last night, I mixed up some semi-dry landjager, and I used almost frozen deer and the frozen (already ground) fat, then I reground everything together.....it worked much much better!  Maybe it's a combination of the type of fat and the fact that I ground it and froze it?  I dunno if doing that breaks the fat down when you do that or not?

 

[BGKYSmoker]

When fermenting the mix or links the temp should be between 75-80* Any higher and the fat will render and cavitate inside the meat when smoking. Even at these low start temps of 130 the fat that has begun to render will start to fat-out early.

Bactoferm can take 48 hours to ferment. It has a hard time fementing sugar, thats why dextrose is used.

What dave does is fine but remember with the bacon ends most the time they are cured so you will be adding some cure into the cure you already have in your mix. Its prob not allot, just sayin.

Try a double bowl with ice.

 

[diggingdogfarm]

What Bactoferm was used?

The extra fast cultures LHP, CSB and F-PA are fermentd at 85 to 115 degrees....HPS at 90 to 115 degrees.

The fast cultures 70-90 degrees.

Slow cultures, below 75.


~Martin

 

[checkerfred]

When fermenting the mix or links the temp should be between 75-80* Any higher and the fat will render and cavitate inside the meat when smoking. Even at these low start temps of 130 the fat that has begun to render will start to fat-out early.

Bactoferm can take 48 hours to ferment. It has a hard time fementing sugar, thats why dextrose is used.

What dave does is fine but remember with the bacon ends most the time they are cured so you will be adding some cure into the cure you already have in your mix. Its prob not allot, just sayin.

Try a double bowl with ice.

So is there anything you can do to keep it from rendering or is that a part of it?  Seems like even if you kept the sausage cool, and then put them in the smoker, the fat would still render since the smoker is hotter.  I'm confused as to what keeps it from rendering out.  I thought it wouldn't render unless the internal temp. was above 160 or so.

I didn't think about that with the bacon......I'm going to try some today and mix the meat with either ground beef or ground pork butt instead of just straight fat and see what happens....and also going to try not grinding the fat until I'm ready to use it and grind it with the meat

What Bactoferm was used?
The extra fast cultures LHP, CSB and F-PA are fermentd at 85 to 115 degrees....HPS at 90 to 115 degrees.
The fast cultures 70-90 degrees.
Slow cultures, below 75.
~Martin

LHP is what I have now.....the sheet that came with it says optimum temp. is at 95 degress....so I always shoot for that but sometimes I get it up to 105 and I will open the door and/or cut off the oven light to balance it out.