Who Uses Venison Fat When Processing?
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processhead I Happened to get a Univex Fat Analyzer a few years ago on eBay for $35.00. They sell new for nearly $800.00 with shipping.
While it would be hard for the home processor to justify this kind expense, if you have the opportunity to get a cheap used one like I was fortunate enough to find, I would recommend go for it.
The variability within a cut and between packers is enormous. I used to always follow my recipes, but sometimes my sausage was dry and sometimes too fatty. I can now adjust after a quick 5 minute test.
Some guys out there may be better at estimating the actual fat content, I’m not that good. Maybe their suppliers are more consistent than mine were. What I was producing was from 18 to 34 %.
What I buy lately seems to be as variable if not more so. At least I have the opportunity to calculate just what I need to get a consistent product.
Chef and processhead Back before boxed beef became the norm and we were only cutting hanging beef, we ground all of our ground beef with our trim and then brought the leanness up by adding boneless beef. This came in frozen in 60lb blocks. We called it bull meat but I believe the majority of it came from old dairy cattle. We did this strictly by eye.
The district meat supervisor would come in occasionally with a tester to check our burger. The tester was very primitive and was in a briefcase, the same tester the state used to do spot checking. It consisted of a small hot plate over a funnel that dripped into a test tube. After a 2 oz sample was cooked down you slid a gauge down the test tube to where the liquid fat had separated from the water and this would tell you the fat percentage.
If you had done the morning grind and you saw the supervisor coming back with that briefcase in hand it definitely increased your pucker factor. My grind got checked one day and one of my grinds was 2% too fat over the label. The supervisor was getting ready to chew me out and I asked him how he judged his grind when he was a meat cutter. He said well by how it looked. Before I could respond he smiled and said I honestly thought your grind was lean enough but I would prefer that you err on the side of caution. Of course after he left the meat department manager who was only worried about his bottom line told me you better not ever make it too lean.
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Chef and processhead Back before boxed beef became the norm and we were only cutting hanging beef, we ground all of our ground beef with our trim and then brought the leanness up by adding boneless beef. This came in frozen in 60lb blocks. We called it bull meat but I believe the majority of it came from old dairy cattle. We did this strictly by eye.
The district meat supervisor would come in occasionally with a tester to check our burger. The tester was very primitive and was in a briefcase, the same tester the state used to do spot checking. It consisted of a small hot plate over a funnel that dripped into a test tube. After a 2 oz sample was cooked down you slid a gauge down the test tube to where the liquid fat had separated from the water and this would tell you the fat percentage.
If you had done the morning grind and you saw the supervisor coming back with that briefcase in hand it definitely increased your pucker factor. My grind got checked one day and one of my grinds was 2% too fat over the label. The supervisor was getting ready to chew me out and I asked him how he judged his grind when he was a meat cutter. He said well by how it looked. Before I could respond he smiled and said I honestly thought your grind was lean enough but I would prefer that you err on the side of caution. Of course after he left the meat department manager who was only worried about his bottom line told me you better not ever make it too lean.
marzig20 Great story. Thanks for the post. Interesting enough, Pork fat is now about the same price if not more than pork butt; at least near the Houston market. Might just be the market and time of year. Many hunters are looking for pork fat.
For the customers I cater to, % fat is not the real issue, it is the taste. My customers don’t care about anything except how does it taste. Many just grill it. At farmer’s markets, one sample of a slice of my sausage usually results in “I’ll take 2 pounds of it”.
Works for me…
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marzig20 Great story. Thanks for the post. Interesting enough, Pork fat is now about the same price if not more than pork butt; at least near the Houston market. Might just be the market and time of year. Many hunters are looking for pork fat.
For the customers I cater to, % fat is not the real issue, it is the taste. My customers don’t care about anything except how does it taste. Many just grill it. At farmer’s markets, one sample of a slice of my sausage usually results in “I’ll take 2 pounds of it”.
Works for me…
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processhead our early season deer are really fat before they run it all off during the rut. Like you I trim off all the fat. It’s just not a good flavor. I blame it on the acorns but not really sure if that’s the reason it doesn’t taste good or not.
cdavis I think a lot of it boils down to what we have gotten used to, with some exceptions. I always thought on the bucks, the very limited little I tried just to see, the stronger flavor was just due to them being bucks, about like any other animal before it has been cut. On the others, perhaps the diet. I never tried any of that little bit of hard fat. There again though, on mine there was just not that much fat to deal with & try anyways, they were always extremely lean, so there was not much to try & experiment with.
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Chef Pork fat is extremely hard to find. Confinement raised hogs have been bred to have very little exterior fat.
marzig20 said in Who Uses Venison Fat When Processing?:
Chef Pork fat is extremely hard to find. Confinement raised hogs have been bred to have very little exterior fat.
Agree. Processors have figured out new and creative ways to incorporate fat into other marketable products.
Years ago, there was a bigger market for rendered lard which helped use up the surplus fat. That market has diminished so pork fat ends up in other value-added products.
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marzig20 said in Who Uses Venison Fat When Processing?:
Chef Pork fat is extremely hard to find. Confinement raised hogs have been bred to have very little exterior fat.
Agree. Processors have figured out new and creative ways to incorporate fat into other marketable products.
Years ago, there was a bigger market for rendered lard which helped use up the surplus fat. That market has diminished so pork fat ends up in other value-added products.
processhead I try to help the demand of pork fat by making my tamales.
Tamales have turned out to be one of my biggest sellers. Guess it it just too much work for many people.
Not sure about other parts of the nation, but here in Southeast Texas, it is a major player.
For so many people, it is what a Christmas meal is all about.
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I hunt central illinois corn & soybean fed whitetails. For the most part, the doe carcasses are covered with fat & the bucks are extremely lean. We trim off as much fat as is feasible.
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marzig20 said in Who Uses Venison Fat When Processing?:
Chef Pork fat is extremely hard to find. Confinement raised hogs have been bred to have very little exterior fat.
Agree. Processors have figured out new and creative ways to incorporate fat into other marketable products.
Years ago, there was a bigger market for rendered lard which helped use up the surplus fat. That market has diminished so pork fat ends up in other value-added products.
processhead We’ve been using you recently rendered lard in various ways from taking the leaf lard to make pumpkin pie crust on Thanksgiving, oiling the skillet for frying eggs, and greasing a pan before baking. The flavor and texture that the pork lard imparts is far better than any coconut, olive, or veg oil I’ve had yet.
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processhead We’ve been using you recently rendered lard in various ways from taking the leaf lard to make pumpkin pie crust on Thanksgiving, oiling the skillet for frying eggs, and greasing a pan before baking. The flavor and texture that the pork lard imparts is far better than any coconut, olive, or veg oil I’ve had yet.
Ridley Acres said in Who Uses Venison Fat When Processing?:
processhead We’ve been using you recently rendered lard in various ways from taking the leaf lard to make pumpkin pie crust on Thanksgiving, oiling the skillet for frying eggs, and greasing a pan before baking. The flavor and texture that the pork lard imparts is far better than any coconut, olive, or veg oil I’ve had yet.
Yes, hard to beat it. Lard gets a bad rap these days, largely undeserved.
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processhead I try to help the demand of pork fat by making my tamales.
Tamales have turned out to be one of my biggest sellers. Guess it it just too much work for many people.
Not sure about other parts of the nation, but here in Southeast Texas, it is a major player.
For so many people, it is what a Christmas meal is all about.
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In another thread here there is discusses about lean to fat ratios for deer sausage. I had made some comments about adding more pork fat to bring the lean to fat ratio up to about 75/25.
What I did not consider in that discussion is that some people may be including deer fat in their meat block when they make sausage.
I do not do this, and will trim and discard almost all the trimmable deer fat off of the carcass and primals when I am butchering since I do not care for the flavor or the stability of deer fat.So the question is, who of you include the deer fat with your venison trim for grinding? Depending on the individual specimen, some deer carcasses can be really fat.
processhead I trim all deer fat off. It has an off flavor that I do not care for.
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Deer in my area fatten up on soy beans and corn in the fall. Does their feed make any difference in the fat?
marzig20 I would say no but I have come to believe that it takes some of the gaminess taste out of the meat. When I was younger deer in my area tasted a lot like wild game. Now since there has been corn and soybeans on the horizon for a long time they have lost most of the gaminess. People who would never eat deer in past years no eat it because it tastes different.
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processhead My wife’s uncle doesn’t add much pork or fat to his sausage at all. That comes from him just being a complete cheap-o and thinks he makes a great link. To me it’s not great at all, he has been lied to by too many people, so he keeps on making it.
HerbcoFood There is a difference from those that are on our side and those that support us. Supporting someone means telling the truth, even if that is not what someone wants to hear.
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processhead and Ridley Acres speaking of lard. One year at the NRA annual meetings in Phoenix we ate at the Heart Attack Grill when it was still in Chandler AZ. It’s now in Vegas. They have all you can eat “Flatliner Fries”. Fresh cut fries fried in 100% beef lard. I ate so many I only ate half of my burger.
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Speaking of deer fat, here in the buckeye state, I have never seen such a fat cap on deer. I’ve processed 2 this season. Mid Nov buck (northern Ohio) and last sat mature dry doe (central Ohio). I do not use the fat, but there was a ton of it. Older hunters than I would tell you the thickness of fur and fat cap would tell you what kind of winter to expect. I’m expecting blizzard this year!
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Speaking of deer fat, here in the buckeye state, I have never seen such a fat cap on deer. I’ve processed 2 this season. Mid Nov buck (northern Ohio) and last sat mature dry doe (central Ohio). I do not use the fat, but there was a ton of it. Older hunters than I would tell you the thickness of fur and fat cap would tell you what kind of winter to expect. I’m expecting blizzard this year!
smokinbubba That is what I was always told also, you better get the warm clothes out.
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processhead and Ridley Acres speaking of lard. One year at the NRA annual meetings in Phoenix we ate at the Heart Attack Grill when it was still in Chandler AZ. It’s now in Vegas. They have all you can eat “Flatliner Fries”. Fresh cut fries fried in 100% beef lard. I ate so many I only ate half of my burger.
marzig20 Beef lard is what originally made McDonalds French fries famous. They did that until 1990. They have not ever been the same since. And in reality, they were healthier than what the serve now.
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processhead and Ridley Acres speaking of lard. One year at the NRA annual meetings in Phoenix we ate at the Heart Attack Grill when it was still in Chandler AZ. It’s now in Vegas. They have all you can eat “Flatliner Fries”. Fresh cut fries fried in 100% beef lard. I ate so many I only ate half of my burger.
marzig20 That is some real tasty eating, about anything with beef lard used to cook it in, not that healthy probably, but God awfully tasty. I used to love going into some of those little mom & pop Mexican restaurants when on assignment down in the valley of Texas & they would use a lot of beef lard in there cooking, that taste is unmatchable, especially paired with hot black coffee in the early morning.
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marzig20 Beef lard is what originally made McDonalds French fries famous. They did that until 1990. They have not ever been the same since. And in reality, they were healthier than what the serve now.
Chef hmm, a would not have thought so, but in some ways not surprised, kind of like the butter - margarine thing. It did not take us long a long, long time ago to figure that one out.
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marzig20 Beef lard is what originally made McDonalds French fries famous. They did that until 1990. They have not ever been the same since. And in reality, they were healthier than what the serve now.
Chef I miss those French fries. When I got back to the US after my first deployment as a young Marine over 35 years ago, my sister and her family offered to take me out to lunch and asked what I wanted. I said McDonald’s double quarter ponder with cheese and a large French frie. Life was simpler back then. I could actually eat at McDonald’s then, not so much now.
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