When making sausage?
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When adding water do you all dissolve your seasoning in the water or just add both at the same time?
Abu65 I mix my seasonings and cure with water but I put the binder in dry
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Abu65 You can do the seasonings if you want but I almost always add the cure to the water for better dispersal.
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iv always had good luck with my water cure and seasonings in a blender mix for 1 min and poor over the meat as it is mixing in my mixer.
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when making summer sausage and using pork butts hoping there 80/20 knowing theres meat with that fat what is the spot on mix to get 25% meat to fat.for 15lb and 20#batches.is it 50/50 or 60/40 or 70/30.i know its not 80/20.thanks jim.
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when making summer sausage and using pork butts hoping there 80/20 knowing theres meat with that fat what is the spot on mix to get 25% meat to fat.for 15lb and 20#batches.is it 50/50 or 60/40 or 70/30.i know its not 80/20.thanks jim.
farmer jim that’s a good question I’d like to hear the answers to that…I’ve been doing a 50/50 blend of butts to meat, but I use 90/10 burger quite often when I don’t have deer to use…so not sure if I’m close to the 25% fat to meat ratio or not
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when making summer sausage and using pork butts hoping there 80/20 knowing theres meat with that fat what is the spot on mix to get 25% meat to fat.for 15lb and 20#batches.is it 50/50 or 60/40 or 70/30.i know its not 80/20.thanks jim.
farmer jim That is a hard question to answer, you should definitely leave the fat cap on the butt. A pork butt/shoulder does have some intramuscular fat but once you cut that fat cap off it is a relatively lean cut of meat. By your question I gather that you are mixing this with deer, which is definitely lean meat. My guess is doing a 50/50 blend and leaving the fat cap on you should be somewhere in the 20-25% fat range, but that is just my guess based off of my experience, which I might add is limited to the last two years of making sausage. As Jonathon always says, it is best to add straight pork (or beef if you prefer that) fat to your mixture, that way you can precisely control the lean to fat ratio. I buy pork fat from a local butcher shop and have found that is the best way to do it. I also pick up pork butts anytime I see them on sale, currently have a freezer full of venison, 4 pork butts and about 15-20 lbs of pork fat. I usually wait until after deer season to start processing my meat so now that it’s over I’ll start making sausage. Depending on what I am making I may do 50/50 blend of venison and pork butt or I’ll add the pork fat to venison to precisely measure out my lean to fat ratio and that usually works out for me.
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farmer jim That is a hard question to answer, you should definitely leave the fat cap on the butt. A pork butt/shoulder does have some intramuscular fat but once you cut that fat cap off it is a relatively lean cut of meat. By your question I gather that you are mixing this with deer, which is definitely lean meat. My guess is doing a 50/50 blend and leaving the fat cap on you should be somewhere in the 20-25% fat range, but that is just my guess based off of my experience, which I might add is limited to the last two years of making sausage. As Jonathon always says, it is best to add straight pork (or beef if you prefer that) fat to your mixture, that way you can precisely control the lean to fat ratio. I buy pork fat from a local butcher shop and have found that is the best way to do it. I also pick up pork butts anytime I see them on sale, currently have a freezer full of venison, 4 pork butts and about 15-20 lbs of pork fat. I usually wait until after deer season to start processing my meat so now that it’s over I’ll start making sausage. Depending on what I am making I may do 50/50 blend of venison and pork butt or I’ll add the pork fat to venison to precisely measure out my lean to fat ratio and that usually works out for me.
AdamCA i just did a test on this, although there is no flavor difference the appearance of 50/50 was much better on summer sausage. Snack sticks there was no visual difference since your not pulling the casing off like you do with fibrous summer sausage casings. I just like the thought of getting more yield out of my venison with 50/50
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AdamCA i just did a test on this, although there is no flavor difference the appearance of 50/50 was much better on summer sausage. Snack sticks there was no visual difference since your not pulling the casing off like you do with fibrous summer sausage casings. I just like the thought of getting more yield out of my venison with 50/50
twilliams If I’m making snack sticks or summer sausage I do a 50-50 blend, for the same reason as you. I want to stretch that venison as far as I can. When I make fresh sausage I usually just add pork fat. To me you can taste a difference but I also think that is influenced on how the deer was processed. The first deer I got this year I butchered myself, and it doesn’t have a strong wild game taste. My daughter’s deer and the buck I got were processed at a local meat locker and that meat has a very strong wild game flavor. So for those I have soaked the meat in a salt water brine for about an hour before I cook them or if I’m using the burger I rinse it very well prior to using it and that has helped. Also I tend to use stronger flavors with that meat. The next weekend I have available to make some sausage I plan on making brats so I may just try doing a 50-50 blend on that to see how it comes out.
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twilliams If I’m making snack sticks or summer sausage I do a 50-50 blend, for the same reason as you. I want to stretch that venison as far as I can. When I make fresh sausage I usually just add pork fat. To me you can taste a difference but I also think that is influenced on how the deer was processed. The first deer I got this year I butchered myself, and it doesn’t have a strong wild game taste. My daughter’s deer and the buck I got were processed at a local meat locker and that meat has a very strong wild game flavor. So for those I have soaked the meat in a salt water brine for about an hour before I cook them or if I’m using the burger I rinse it very well prior to using it and that has helped. Also I tend to use stronger flavors with that meat. The next weekend I have available to make some sausage I plan on making brats so I may just try doing a 50-50 blend on that to see how it comes out.
AdamCA that is the exact reason a learned to process my own. Not all processors but most, especially during gun season stack deer like cordwood. Imagine what the ones on the bottom of the pile are gonna be like. Also they batch mix and only give you 40 lbs of meat back since that is the average of what supposedly a deer puts out. You dont know whos deer your getting or how it was even taken care of from gutting to hanging in what temperatures. I hunt where the deers diet is corn, alfalfa, and beans. I could be getting someones pine needle fed deer from up north. There is really no way to know. And what i have seen i dont trust processors.
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AdamCA that is the exact reason a learned to process my own. Not all processors but most, especially during gun season stack deer like cordwood. Imagine what the ones on the bottom of the pile are gonna be like. Also they batch mix and only give you 40 lbs of meat back since that is the average of what supposedly a deer puts out. You dont know whos deer your getting or how it was even taken care of from gutting to hanging in what temperatures. I hunt where the deers diet is corn, alfalfa, and beans. I could be getting someones pine needle fed deer from up north. There is really no way to know. And what i have seen i dont trust processors.
twilliams as a butcher its sad to say your spot on some shops. just pile up the deer.but most of them have to have a tag on them so it can be cut up the way that person wants it.but where people get screwed is when they want all summer sausage they mix it all up togeather in 100lb to 500lb batches so they can get it done and out the door quicker.my 2 cents.
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AdamCA that is the exact reason a learned to process my own. Not all processors but most, especially during gun season stack deer like cordwood. Imagine what the ones on the bottom of the pile are gonna be like. Also they batch mix and only give you 40 lbs of meat back since that is the average of what supposedly a deer puts out. You dont know whos deer your getting or how it was even taken care of from gutting to hanging in what temperatures. I hunt where the deers diet is corn, alfalfa, and beans. I could be getting someones pine needle fed deer from up north. There is really no way to know. And what i have seen i dont trust processors.
twilliams yeah that’s why I don’t have them make anything, just butcher and grind into burger (although I know that most likely gets lumped together). In the future I’ll most likely just butcher my own that way I know exactly how it was handled and I can guarantee I have my deer. Where I hunt it is mostly Ag land with some timber stands so I know what the deer are eating for the most part of the year and then I supplement after the farmers harvest their crops.
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twilliams Most untrimmed butts are going to be closer to 75/25. Or the ones I checked one day all were, next time I am at sams or local supermarket I will check again. I just did it by finding out how mans grams of fat each serving had and then converting the total weight in a serving to grams.
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