I know most folks add pork fat to improve texture, flavor, and moisture of their sausages. But I'm curious if any of you have had success without using pork fat or other animal fat. In my case, I'm working with venison. Below I'll share some experiences/failures and then one recent success.
I have to admit my first time making sausage I didnt do any research and I used deer fat I saved during butchering. WHOOPS. Never will make that mistake again. That was years ago and I still get a waxy sensation in my mouth when I think back on it. I refused to throw it out so I just heated it up on the stove and ate it while it was hot and the fat was less waxy (haha). 10 pounds of that builds character.
Next I tried an olive oil-red wine emulsion (blended and mixed while nearly frozen) but that was an oily mess and the olive oil leaked out from the meat during smoking and puddled up in the casings.
Next I tried pureeing different vegetables and mixing that into meat and it turned out so-so. Could have tried some different permutations of that recipe but I wanted to try something different altogether.
Most recently I had a success by adding applesauce, apple juice, a little red wine and ultimately nonfatdry milk at rate of 3% of "total pounds of stuff". Plus spices and morton tenderquick. Hand mixed for a few days, added the nonfat dry milk on the last day, mixed thoroughly, and shaped into logs (~ 3" diameter and 8" long) - no casings - and placed in my low-tech Big Chief smoker. Two batches of apple wood smoke at 30-45 min per batch. Transferred to house oven with door open on lowest setting and finished to internal temp of 155F after about 6 hours. Wow was it good! Moist, not at all crumbly, smokey, and some of the sweetness from the apple poking through. The smoke created it's own casing (im calling it bark) on the sausage. I'm definitely going to be using this recipe more and experimenting with the ratios of applesauce/juice/wine. The NFDM was the ticket though for locking the juices in. Not a single drip from the logs during smoking/cooking.
Any other successful zero-pork fat sausage experiences/recipes to share?
First time poster, long time reader.
Geobum
I have to admit my first time making sausage I didnt do any research and I used deer fat I saved during butchering. WHOOPS. Never will make that mistake again. That was years ago and I still get a waxy sensation in my mouth when I think back on it. I refused to throw it out so I just heated it up on the stove and ate it while it was hot and the fat was less waxy (haha). 10 pounds of that builds character.
Next I tried an olive oil-red wine emulsion (blended and mixed while nearly frozen) but that was an oily mess and the olive oil leaked out from the meat during smoking and puddled up in the casings.
Next I tried pureeing different vegetables and mixing that into meat and it turned out so-so. Could have tried some different permutations of that recipe but I wanted to try something different altogether.
Most recently I had a success by adding applesauce, apple juice, a little red wine and ultimately nonfatdry milk at rate of 3% of "total pounds of stuff". Plus spices and morton tenderquick. Hand mixed for a few days, added the nonfat dry milk on the last day, mixed thoroughly, and shaped into logs (~ 3" diameter and 8" long) - no casings - and placed in my low-tech Big Chief smoker. Two batches of apple wood smoke at 30-45 min per batch. Transferred to house oven with door open on lowest setting and finished to internal temp of 155F after about 6 hours. Wow was it good! Moist, not at all crumbly, smokey, and some of the sweetness from the apple poking through. The smoke created it's own casing (im calling it bark) on the sausage. I'm definitely going to be using this recipe more and experimenting with the ratios of applesauce/juice/wine. The NFDM was the ticket though for locking the juices in. Not a single drip from the logs during smoking/cooking.
Any other successful zero-pork fat sausage experiences/recipes to share?
First time poster, long time reader.
Geobum
