Wild Hog sausage question

[bnew17]

I have a 60lb sow I shot last night. It's cleaned and quartered in the cooler for me to make link sausage with in a few days. I have made deer sausage a good bit, but its been a while since I made wild hog sausage and I was hoping to get a few pointers and answers to some questions I have.

I have some Leggs #10 seasoning mix that I plan on using. My main objective is to have a moist sausage. I was planning on mixing my meat 60/40 meat to fat. Should I use straight pork fat or pork shoulder? I assume if I use pork shoulder it will be much leaner.

Since the hog is so small I am going to use everything, including the loins, for the sausage. My question is on the rib area. There is such little meat between the ribs. When you process them do you take everything between the ribs and grind it? Just seems to me that the meat in that area is so small and it would be extremely tedious to clean the sinew out like you do on the roasts of the ham and shoulders. (just was not sure if this rib meat is just cut off and thrown in the grinder).

Also has anyone heard of adding small amounts of vegetable oil to the ground meat before putting it in casings to help with the dryness when cooking?

 

[Mauritius]

I usually aim for 20-30% fat depending on what I'm making. Pork shoulders are around 25% fat, so they're fine if that's all your using, but in my experience it helps to add straight if you're using lean game meat. You can also use belly and/or bacon, that's closer to 50% fat so a 50/50 mix gets you to around 25% fat total.

Make sure you're adding liquid, if you follow a package directions that should have it on there, I use around 3 tbsp liquid per pound of meat or a cup per 5 lbs. The other thing is to make sure you are grinding and mix everything well while it's still really cold, as close to freezing as you can manage. You need a sticky mass that's bound together. If you do this and your sausage is still dry, you might just be over cooking it.

I don't usually mess around with rib meat. I either cook the ribs whole or if there's hardly anything there, leave it. Some states require you to harvest it, probably not for hogs though. I do know some deer hunters who cut the rib meat out and mix it into their grind. I don't like all that fat, it needs a long slow cook to render out before it's tasty in my opinion.

 

[browneyesvictim]

Depending on what fat content she had you may not get the 60/40 you are looking for as a whole hog. If you separate the loins and such out that can help with your ratio. But I wouldn't add oil. You would be better off with a moisture retention additive such as soy powder, NFDM or Phosphates etc.. Most recipes will call for a certain amount of water to your mix as well. Pork shoulder on its own is said to be about 80% lean (again depending on the animal). Generally you can pick up whatever added pork fat you need from a butcher. They often have an excess of it, except around hunting time when it is more in demand for mixing with venison.

Unless you spend a bunch of time separating out the fat and lean and weighing and grinding separately, it is real hard to gauge what ratio you actually have.

Of course you can spend all the time you want chiseling out the carcass (i.e. ribs) for as much grind as your hear desires. That may also turn out to be more work than you care for, and could also be set aside for ribs to smoke independently. So it just depends on how much effort you want to put into it.

 

[daveomak]

Do not add liquid oils... It will run out of the sausage.. Add bacon ends and pieces from the market...

 

[bnew17]

I should have specified. I will not be using fat from the hog. I do not like to use any fat from hog, deer, etc. I am planning on adding all the fat to the hog. I don't care about cooking the ribs separately. I have never found deer ribs or hog ribs to be "meaty" enough to justify that. I am after getting all the meat possible to grind to make sausage with.

 

[bnew17]

I think i answered my own question. Although this is on a deer, he does a great job.

 

[indaswamp]

USDA recommends deep freezing wild hog and bear for a minimum of 30 days prior to further processing or consuming to ensure trichinosis is killed. I do this for every wild hog we get. USDA recommends INT of 154* for minimum of 12 minutes for wild hog smoke sausages with cure #1.

Most wild hogs will be leaner than domestic pork. I actually prefer to go 25~30% fat with wild hog sausages. I pick up boston butt fat caps from the local meat market for $0.69/lb. I would not go less than 25% fat. The extra fat really goes a long way with the wild pork.

Wild hogs (except for late spring sows) will range anywhere from 5~15% fat. The little 40~80lb. pigs we have been getting are on the high end having been feeding on corn, acorns and pecans during the fall.

 

[indaswamp]

Can't go wrong with 60/40 meat to fat with wild hog.

I would use the fat off a 60lb. sow and not think twice about it, but I'm basing that decision off the hogs I get which are very clean sweet meat.

 

[indaswamp]

What Dave said- no oil added to the sausage.

I actually save the ribs and smoke them. Whole lot more flavor in then vs. domestic. I actually prefer them.
Too tedious to worry with trying to save for sausages.

You doing fresh or smoke sausages?