# Fat Content for Summer Sausage?



## jimmyinsd (Feb 5, 2018)

I am going to try summer sausage for the first time and want to use up some venison as part of the product.  I have ground pork that is roughly 75-80% lean,  as well as ground beef that is likely in the 85-90% lean,  can anybody offer a good mixture from what I have on hand or should I be looking to get some beef or pork fat to grind in with it?  

Also any good basic recipes would be great.  I want a traditional SS taste, but I dont want to get into peppers or cheeses at this time.   

Any help would be appreciated.  I borrowed a mes 30 to hang them in,  ordered a Amazen 5x8 to throw in there so I can get better smoke than what most fight with the factory chip design.  ( if this goes ok I plan on buying a mes40 and will likely do some sort of mail box mod.)


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## tallbm (Feb 5, 2018)

I like the 80/20 meat to fat ratio for making sausage (which would include summer sausage).
It makes consistently great sausage, the math is simple (4 pounds meat + 1 pound fat = 5 pounds sausage; 8 pounds meat + 2 pounds fat = 10 pounds of sausage; make 5-10 pound increments from there)  and if you ever need to experiment you can buy 80/20 beef already in those proportions.

Almost all of my sausage comes from the 5-7 wild animals I take each year during hunting season so I do a lot of venison sausage.  Because of this I simply just buy Trimmed Pork Back Fat from the butcher to mix with my pure Venison or pure feral Hog meat (rarely much fat on them) grinds.

I am biased because it makes the math simple, uses only my hunted meat, and creates a good consistent sausage every time, SO I lean towards buying fat separate and then going 80/20 meat/fat and making the sausage that way.  It never goes wrong, unless there is a mess up with the seasoning or cooking lol!

If you want to use what you have on hand, I would use the fattiest cut you have.  If you are already at 80/20 and you add more meat you will be modifying the ratio.  I wouldn't drop below 15% fat and I personally wouldn't exceed 25% fat in my sausage unless is was one that called for a lot of fat like Mexican Chorizo.

I don't have any recipe info for you so others can chime in there. 
I hope this info helps! :)


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## crazymoon (Feb 5, 2018)

JI, I would use the pork and go about 4 parts venison to 1 part pork, maybe a hair more on the pork.I cheat and use a SS mix from the Sausage maker and add fermento.Hit the search bar above to see all kinds of tips/recipes for SS. Have fun !


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## PerazziMx14 (Feb 5, 2018)

Please delete


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## archeryrob (Feb 6, 2018)

I mix 73% with deer making it about 14% and that is pretty good, but could be higher. I used 80% making it batch 10% and that was too dry. I would stay at 15% - 20%


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## RQ23 (Feb 6, 2018)

i use 80/20 mix using pork fat to venison.i finish at 152. not dry at all


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## jimmyinsd (Feb 6, 2018)

I am thinking I am going to go 5# Venison,  5# of ground pork (20-25% fat) , and 2# of ground beef (10 to15% fat)  it will be 10#,  but I will end up with about 1 to 2 pounds left in the stuffer neck and tube so I am hoping for about 10# of cased product with a fat content of approx 13% for my first go at it.

anybody got a simple goto recipe for me to try?  I have the buttermilk powder, but no citric acid stuff.  what about milk powder,  yes or no in the SS?


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