johnsbrewhouse Need to get out more, it’s a great big country!

Jonathon dumb question, 2 pm what time zone?

Thanks, that is good to know about Choice Meats. I do have a couple local butchers here but lately I process most things by myself when I can.

Thanks Jonathon. I was actually in Redding CA which is 8 hours north. Weather was hot, bear was huge, and it was all I could do get it chunked up and run into town and get sausage made. There are some decent butchers in that area but many of them will not handle bear, so I didn’t have much choice. That is actually what spurred me to take up sausage making, I figured I could do better than that butcher, and it turned out I can!

I am in L.A. of all places. I found a local butcher shop that processes wild game. They regularly order fatback so that they can make sausages for their customers. They wouldn’t sell what they had, but they would order for me from their source, just took a day or so to get. I think they charged me $3 lb but I use only 20% fat rather than 50% pork butt at similar prices. Plus I am trying to use my meat, not buy more meat that I don’t want or need.

That sucks. What an amazing bear he got. I killed a bear and didn’t have a local butcher so I went to Yelp. Initially the guy insisted that he could only give me cooked product because of trich danger. I told him to give it back fresh and put a sticker on it, like you get on every package of meat you ever buy. I wasn’t impressed with his Italian sausage. I wish I had butchered it and made sausage myself. Lesson learned, never again.

I am just a hunter, but this is what I have understood. There was a study many years ago that estimated that 13% of black bears in California carry the parasite. For that matter, wild pigs can carry trich too. It is not something to be messed with. I did bear summer sausage last year, and cooked to IT of 160. Unless you do anything other than cook the meat to 160 degrees per CDC guidelines, you could have some risk. Do your own research, I would not take anyone’s word that their process is safe.

Here is the CDC on trich. https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/hunters.html#:~:text=How can I prevent trichinellosis,of doneness for game meat

Steve Rinella and his crew got it on a black bear hunt. He talks about it on a MeatEater video, which is on YouTube. Hank Shaw also has a great blog post: https://honest-food.net/on-trichinosis-in-wild-game/

As for uncooked bear meat products like salami, is more complicated and I don’t yet understand how/if that could be done safely.

jsboettcher Yes you just add it in the specified quantities on the label. You do not need to adjust your recipe. Waltons has it.

I was chatting with a guy in the Upper Peninsula, who was quite surprised to be talking with a Californian who hunts. Like me, he had recently taken a bear. He shared the meat with his friends, and they all went and bought bear tags. In discussing the bad reputation that bear meat has, he pointed out that back in the old days the local dumps were not fenced, and so the bears in the area were of course all eating at the dump. For anyone who is “on the fence” about eating bear, I would recommend this very balanced post by Hank Shaw. https://honest-food.net/pelmeni-and-the-eating-of-bears/

Jonathon Hey thanks! I am not yet a bear hunter, but I do hunt bear. We are overrun in California with black bears, and very few people hunt them. Contrary to widespread belief, bear meat can be delicious.

Bears can differ, and you could cook up a bit and see how it tastes to you. Definitely get off all the bear fat. I got a good, tasty bear, and made a great batch of summer sausage, using pork fatback.

I was having similar problems, even though I was following the book carefully. In my last batch of venison, I added Sure Gel and it came out perfectly. I cook to internal temp of 152, and use sous vide if it ends up taking overly long. Ice bath at the end.

Thank you. I was actually a bit short on fatback so I chucked in some bacon, maybe that was part of it.

Back to summer sausage, I get small holes in the sausage, which you can easily see in the photo. Doesn’t bother me, but is that typical?

I only use pork fatback. I have old hunting buddies who have been using deer and elk fat in their grinds for 50+ years and never had a problem, but I don’t take the risk that it could go rancid.

I killed a black bear 2 years ago and it had tons of back fat, which I chucked. I am always reading that bear back fat can be fantastic for cooking, when it is rendered. If I am lucky enough to get another bear this season, I am going to try that.

I sent another one by FedEx ground from L.A. to Maryland on Monday. They estimated 5 days, and it was delivered in 5 days, ice packs frozen solid and meat cold. I am seeing lots of news that FedEx and UPS are refusing to take some packages and USPS cannot do that, so it may not be a fair comparison. But it got there as promised.

Well, in the cook last night I used Sure Gel, and no fat out at all. Seems to work!

73% Arizona elk, 27% fatback. This was the first time I used Sure Gel and it seemed to help. The recipe was mine, plus hot pepper cheese. Looks great and tastes even better. Once I package it up, I will take around town as Christmas presents.

Here is - not - a news flash. Two weeks ago, I sent a batch off from L. A. to Knoxville, TN, USPS priority mail (estimated 3 days), it ended up taking 9 days. Frozen, with styrofoam shipping box and ice packs. It was all room temp when arrived, but it was for my mother in law and she insisted on eating it.

When I got an email from USPS telling me it had been delivered, I replied very nicely telling them it took way too long. I assumed no one would actually read it. But I quickly got a real person who responded, said “I am so sorry to hear that. With the unimaginable and unprecedented package volumes this year, we are averaging a 10 day delay despite forcing employees to work 16 or more hour days.” That’s terrible, I definitely feel for them. But I do wish they had told me that before I shipped with them…

Merry Christmas to you all. John

Elk and back fat. I have made it about half dozen times and improving each time, but then I tweak things. The amount of fat is frankly small but it was there, maybe a teaspoon or so; I wipe it off so that the recipient doesn’t think it is mold or something. Is it a reasonable goal that there be zero fat out? I saw Jon’s livestream yesterday as I was processing and I thought he said that at these cook temps there always be some fat out.

Jonathon how do you package?