Meat to fat ratio when grinding Sausage.

[venture]

I like my "regular" sausages in the 25% fat range.

At 80/20 it is a little lean for me?  But that is a preference issue.  Look for the texture you like!

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[up4smoke]

 sorry... so if I wanna make venison and pork sausage, say 10 lbs, and wanna use pork butt, how much pork to deer ratio would I use? I recently made my first batch and may have made it too fat. (6#pork butt/4#deer)

 

[DanMcG]

Son of a ....... 

How'd ya do that. Oh never mind I don't want to know.

 

[DanMcG]

 sorry... so if I wanna make venison and pork sausage, say 10 lbs, and wanna use pork butt, how much pork to deer ratio would I use? I recently made my first batch and may have made it too fat. (6#pork butt/4#deer)

That really depends on how much fat is on the butt and how fat you like it. I learned to know what I like by looking at it after the grind.

a 6 pound butt at 30% fat,  has about 2 pounds fat.

add 4 pounds of venison.

you'll have 10 pounds of sausage with 2 pounds of fat, or 20%

some will say that's to lean, others to fat.
 

 

[alelover]

I get extra fat at the grocery store. Talk to the butcher. They toss a lot of fat away when they trim the meat for butts, CSRs, steaks and what ever else. I got 3 pounds free from the Food Lion here.

 

[up4smoke]

That's what I wanted to know. Thanks.I didn't figure my fat/lean content on the butt when figuring weights so i got lucky...

 

[venture]

Nothing is free here.  Pork fat is now more than we paid for butts a couple of years back. 

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[sausageboy]

Nothing is free here.  Pork fat is now more than we paid for butts a couple of years back. 

Good luck and good smoking.

Yeah, the butcher I talked with last night wanted $1.50 a pound for fat back, which is ridiculous!!!! I won't pay that!

What I'll continue to do is cut the coppa out of the butt and make cottage ham with that....and I'll make sausage with what's left of the butt, which will have a higher fat percentage with the coppa removed.


:sausage:

 

[venture]

Actually, I was in the store tonight.  Poor guy was asking for dog bones.  "Butcher" behind the counter said that would be .99 per pound, please?

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[sib55]

Ditto with ShortEnd,

I am in Nebraska, Sams is where I get my pork busts, come 2 to a package.  I have tried Fareway, similar to SAMs.  Ask them to pull them out of the box they came in and they will have the fat on them.  

 

[duckybud]

I have found that intermuscular fat in shoulders imparts a taste that is not pleasing to me.  I trim all the fat from a shoulder that I can get out of it and add backfat to the desired amount.  I guess I am lucky because I have a butcher that gives me pure backfat for nothing, 20lb at a time, just need to let him know ahead of time needed.  I also like the way the fatback grinds, it seems to stay in more uniform pieces and mixes much better with the lean meet.  Usually add 25% fat, but as others have said, it is a matter of finding what you like.

 

[daniels]

DanielsS

I'm from Iowa too. I usually get my prok butts from Walmart ot Sam's Club. Walmart's come individually KryoVac packed and Sam's come 2 to a KryoVac pack. The 80/20 ratio is usually pretty close. I've had good luck with them. I tried Hy Vee's pork butt, but I found them to be over trimmed and I had to add some fat to it, so I try to avoid theirs if I can. Not sure about Fareway's as I haven't gotten any pork butts there.

I've got a Salter digital scale that I got from Bed Bath & Beyond. It works very well for me and is reasonably priced.

ShortEnd
 

Hi ShortEnd.

I found some very good reviews on the OXO scale so I picked up one a couple days ago but thanks for the reply.

Around here Hy-Vee meats are so-so.  I'm sure it depends upon the particular store but I went into one looking for a pork roast and all of the roasts were well beyond the last sale date.  Same with baloney, hot dogs, dairy products, etc.  I avoid Hy-Vee if I can.  I see Hy-Vee managers I know shopping for groceries at Wal-Mart so that tells you something.

If I can I get stuff at COSTCO.  We have a very good one near where I work.  I walk over there at lunch time some days.  I can't beat that.

Anyway, I've got a ton of stuff to learn.

Thanks again,

Dan
 

 

[shortend]

Hi ShortEnd.

I found some very good reviews on the OXO scale so I picked up one a couple days ago but thanks for the reply.

Around here Hy-Vee meats are so-so.  I'm sure it depends upon the particular store but I went into one looking for a pork roast and all of the roasts were well beyond the last sale date.  Same with baloney, hot dogs, dairy products, etc.  I avoid Hy-Vee if I can.  I see Hy-Vee managers I know shopping for groceries at Wal-Mart so that tells you something.

If I can I get stuff at COSTCO.  We have a very good one near where I work.  I walk over there at lunch time some days.  I can't beat that.

Anyway, I've got a ton of stuff to learn.

Thanks again,

Dan
 

Dan, glad you found a good scale. OXO makes good quality products. Your gonna use it constantly and won't know how you ever got along without it. Sorry to here your Hy Vee's aren't too good down there. Not too bad here, but a bit pricey and not many cuts I usually use for sausage or smoking, although, I do like they're Eye of Rounds for Dried Beef and Jerky. We don't have a COSTCO, but I have heard they are similar to Sam's Club. Lots of smokin' folks I know shop there for their meats and seem to be satisfied You should be good to go.

ShortEnd
 

 

[Ada]

80/20 dont add fat to the butt. its already 80/20

Welcome to SMF Bobby.How about swinging over to roll call and introducing yourself so we can give you a proper welcome and dont forget to fill out your profile

Good luck and happy smoking

Joe

 

[Ada]

What about using extremely lean meat with little animal fat and using coconut oil?

 

[Rings Я Us]

:D
Oh, sausage! Oops!

 

[tallbm]

What about using extremely lean meat with little animal fat and using coconut oil?

Hi there and welcome!

I'm quite sure that would not work because the coconut oil would begin turning into a liquid at temps where fat would not. Same goes for using butter.

I use very lean meat (venison) and buy trimmed pork back fat or use trimmed beef fat from briskets. I mix the meat and the fat in 80% meat to 20% fat ratio and consistently make great sausage or sandwich meat from it.

I hope this info helps :)

 

[JMcGraw47]

Here's a great visual of what you want for a grind. I got this from Len Poli's site which is one of the best out there for sausage info.

Ok I spent a half hour of my life trying to post a pic off his web site, way to long . (I'm not real puter smart.0 so here's the page and it's only down a little from the top/

look for 4 pipctures of different grinds. that will show ya what ya want ....then read the rest of the site and you'll more then ya need to about sausage making

http://lpoli.50webs.com/page0001.htm

Holy moly I felt like I was sharing the pipe with Chef JJ for a while there... I need a drink

Good read Dan, Thanx!