Summer Sausage Newb Question

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wnc goater

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jan 25, 2015
38
10
Western NC
Going to try some summer sausage this weekend.  

My intent was to use some left over Boston butt and some lean beef, 50/50 with a Lem seasoning kit.

But a friend just gave me some fine looking venison burger.  So I thought that would make some good SS too.

So, would it make sense to grind the beef/pork 50/50  then add the venison burger? (I don't know the ratio of fat added to the venison in the burger.)

So in a nutshell, what I'm thinking is,   50% venison burger to 50% beef/pork.  Will this work?

(First attempt at SS and I don't want to waste the venison burger)
 
Last edited:
If I were you, I would go with a 50/50 venison and pork. In looking at your original plan, only 25% of the mixture is going to be pork and if that pork is 80/20 or so then you're only looking at about 5% fat in the mixture if the beef and venison is super lean. I don't think this will result in something that you're looking for in SS. Even going 50/50, it's still on the leaner side but still should have a nice texture. Leave the lean beef out and make some of Bear's case less pepperoni sticks 
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If I were you, I would go with a 50/50 venison and pork. In looking at your original plan, only 25% of the mixture is going to be pork and if that pork is 80/20 or so then you're only looking at about 5% fat in the mixture if the beef and venison is super lean. I don't think this will result in something that you're looking for in SS. Even going 50/50, it's still on the leaner side but still should have a nice texture. Leave the lean beef out and make some of Bear's case less pepperoni sticks 
banana_smiley.gif
That makes sense.  I didn't even think of that.  The beef IS very lean as I intended to make the SS with the lean beef and 50% butt.  So I'll leave the beef out and try that later.  As stated, I don't know the ratio of fat in his venison burger but just looking I'd say pretty low.  I'll ask but he uses a commercial outfit to process his deer and I doubt he knows.

Thanks for the help!
 
 
That makes sense.  I didn't even think of that.  The beef IS very lean as I intended to make the SS with the lean beef and 50% butt.  So I'll leave the beef out and try that later.  As stated, I don't know the ratio of fat in his venison burger but just looking I'd say pretty low.  I'll ask but he uses a commercial outfit to process his deer and I doubt he knows.

Thanks for the help!
That's a good plan. I've never used venison, but from reading and seeing people use it on here, I've always understood it to be very lean. With that said, even if the venison is 10%, you're still going to get a nice finished SS as long as you control your smoking temps well. When I did my SS, I used 80% butt and 10% lean beef and it was awesome. Here's a shot. Be sure to provide the q-view of your process!

 
Man that looks great, Wish I had some

Gary
 
Hopefully, I am posting this in a spot to get a answer. I apologize in advance if it's in the wrong thread. I had a similar question regarding summer sausage/snack stick mixture. So a buddy dropped off a huge bag of pork fat. I mean STRAIGHT UP GROUND PORK FAT! I have never used that for sausage and I am not sure how to mix it in there. I will attach a picture with what it looks like. Its all white with no pork meat in it. Has anyone used this before? If so what did you mix it to? Normally I do 60/40 for my snack sticks. 60 Deer/ 40 ground pork from fareway. That has always turned out great.

I would imagine using something like this would be a 80/20 mix if anything. As its straight fat. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

brandon
 
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