Venison SS fat content ?

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onytay

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Nov 23, 2011
141
10
Southern IL
From reading all the various other post in this section it seems as you want at least a 20 percent fat content in your summer sausage. My question is I am planning on trying out a couple of different recipes until me and my hunting buddies find our "Favorite" am planning on working in 15 lb batches, and was thinking of using  10lb lean deer and 5lb pork butt. will this contain enough fat? When I used to take my deer in for processing they offered a 50/50 deer/pork mix and a 60/40 deer/pork mix, we like the 60/40 ratio better, but without knowing how fatty the pork was they added its hard for me to decide how to mix my own. I know with trial and error I will find a mix that I like, but our harvest wasn't as plentiful as it has been in the past and I don't want to burn through what little venison we have trying to pin something down, any suggestions?????
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I use 3 lb beef fat and 12 deer for a 15 lb batch.  I use a 20% ratio for all my deer meat.  I used to use pork, but beef tallow/fat tastes better. You can go to a grocery store and ask for the beef fat.  I am lucky since I know a butcher at store.
 
I called my buddy that just had some venison SS made. He said they used fatty pork with beef fat added, but didn't know the ratio. They wouldn't tell him, said it was a plant secret. I have eaten the SS and it is good. However I don't care for the way they do the SS. They only do it in huge batches mixing every ones venison. This is one reason I want to get into making my own SS.
 
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20% fat of a 5 lb shoulder is 1 lb fat and 4 lbs lean pork. So we have a total of 14 lbs of lean meat and 1 lb fat.  20% of 14 is 2.8 minus the 1 lb fat from the shoulder. So I would add 1.8 lbs of pork fat to keep the 20% ratio.

 I am not a whizz at math so if someone see's something wrong with my calculations please step in

Joe
 
I do not like a bunch of fat with my venison so I only add about 10% to it. You just about to have that much to hold it together good..I just like the venison taste not to be over powered by another animal.
 
It is trial and error.  I have been processing my own deer for 5 years now.  The 20% ratio is what I got from my butcher friend who processes deer on the side.  Everyone who has my sausage is very impressed.  It also comes down to what you prefer.  Try some with pork butt and some with beef fat and see what you like.  As I mentioned earlier, I started with pork butt but definitely like the beef fat better.  
 
Ontay, evening.... How about you and your buddies getting all the stuff together and making 1# chubs.... You can make various combinations of fat/spice ratios, and have a party, and try each variety and rate it.... narrow them down and make more of the selected varieties with the next deer and do the same until you have a couple mixes you love and call it good....  Of course with my crew we would need cold frosted beverages to test with also..... Just a thought..... Dave
 
Ontay, evening.... How about you and your buddies getting all the stuff together and making 1# chubs.... You can make various combinations of fat/spice ratios, and have a party, and try each variety and rate it.... narrow them down and make more of the selected varieties with the next deer and do the same until you have a couple mixes you love and call it good....  Of course with my crew we would need cold frosted beverages to test with also..... Just a thought..... Dave

That's what I would love to do, I'm so new at this though and I'm afraid to stray away from recipes in fear of wasting meat. Every pre mixed blend of SS seasoning I've found is for at least 15 lb of meat, and any homemade recipe were for 5 lb and I don't know if the recipe would turn out OK if I scaled it down to 1lb. I was planning on trying 2 of our local butchers SS spice blends and Hi mountain spice blend, and pick the one we like most out of those, then once I get some more knowledge on recipes I can come up with one myself.
 
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