meat processors - pork or beef

[rivrat]

Anyone else do it yourself? I used beef this year, pork the last few years, does anyone have any prefenence or logic? I usually add about 15-20% fat to my burger, sausage, and pepper sticks - a lot of cooks out, does the flavor leave when I drain off the fat?

I havnt heard this topic on O.D. before-

[ironartist]

burger

I add 20-25% suet for my burger then add it 1/1 to good breakfast sausage, then eat good all winter!
John Root/Visions Steel
http://www.visionssteel.com/

[JRex]

when to use beef or pork

This is from a meat processor's literature I use for purchasing processing supplies here in PA. The even offer sausage making classes. You can check them out at www.yeagerspice.com Hope the info helps. When I buy beef fat I just ask the butcher for back fat. Usually cost around .20/pound.

When preparing venison or other wild game for sausage production, it is important to REMOVE ALL FAT when trimming the meat. Venison fat will become rancid in a few as 5 days. Replace the venison fat with beef or pork back fat. Do not use kidney fat (suet) or caul fat. Which sausage product being made will determine the replacement fat chosen, and how it will be consumed. For example, ready to eat snack sticks are often all beef, but if it is an Italian product, you would likely use pork trimmings. Ring bologna would have beef fat added as it is eaten cold as a snack. Pork fat melts at a lower temperature and tends to coat the inside of your mouth with a greasy film. The fat chosen should be a matter of individual preference.

[BrownBear]

We use beef backfat in our venison burger, but only about 5%.

For bulk sausage and raw link sausage we have taken to buying the boxes of bacon ends and pieces. Sometimes you can find them pretty cheap, and it adds greatly to the flavor. 10% by weight for that.

For pepper stick and such we use as little beef fat as we can get away with and get the texture we want. Usually between 10 and 20%.

[sheep man]

meat

Our family has totally done away with the fat,,,,and we love it,the only time we have any trouble with it is when we cook burgers on the grill,,when we do that we add eggs and crackers to keep the meat from falling apart. try it...

[Brian M]

Our family has totally done away with the fat,,,,and we love it,the only time we have any trouble with it is when we cook burgers on the grill,,when we do that we add eggs and crackers to keep the meat from falling apart. try it...

I'll second that notion. I've always had my burger done by AK Sausage with 15% fat added. This year I went in with my brother and bought a professional grinder. We made our burger with 0 fat (and a lot of spices) and it turned out amazingly well! When making burgers we just add a little bit of olive oil and they stick together just fine. I was really skeptical about the lack of fat, but I'm a believer now.

-Brian

[AlleninAlaska]

I mix burger meat with bacon. 1# of the bacon of your choice to 5# of ground meat.

[Snyd]

No added fat. I just run it through the grinder, moose, caribou, sheep. I have no problem cooking burgers on the grill. Just be carefull when you flip em. Wouldn't do it any other way.

[AKDSLDOG]

On burger I use 7% only! It's just enough to stick it all together and if you know how to cook a burger it will not dry out. Breakfest sausage is mixed 30% suet and 70% game meat. I just don';t like alot of fat in my stuff.

[profishguide]

I add the cheapest ground beef I can buy, its around 20% fat and mix 10lbs beef with 40 lbs of venison. My family loves these burgers, very mild game taste, beleive me it helps if the wife really loves the stuff.
When I used to mix fat with my burger, I would only use beef as pork goes racid much quicker than pork.

[Sockeye Salm]

I make a lot of caribou burger and add absolutely nothing. Run it through once with the coarse screen then run it through again using the fine screen. Myself, my son and my granddaughter love it, we live on it year around, it holds together just fine.

[Wapiti57]

Pork Shoulder

Rivrat - I process all my own deer back home here in Nebraska. Mostly make burger, breakfast sausage and summer sausage from everything I don't steak out. For the past several seasons, I've been using ground pork shoulder. I try to wait for it to go on sale, then order it from the butcher a bunch at a time and freeze it until I need it. He grinds it, so it makes it easy to add to my ground venison. I generally go about 3-to-1 venison weight to ground pork shoulder. Sometimes it is closer to 50/50, especially for cased sausage products. I make sure there is zero venison fat and silver skin on all my trim. I like the flavor pork shoulder adds to my creations. Summer sausage is my favorite thing to make and like to experiment with different ingredients. I make a lot of garlic/cheese summer sausage, which everyone seems to like. It's moist and flavorful. I just use the boxed kits from Cabela's and add my own stuff to make it different. For any type of sausage, the key is to use enough water - most guys don't use enough water or fat and the stuff ends up dry. Extra moisture will smoke/cook out, so I always take care to use enough water in the mixture to keep that from happening.

[Ak Steve]

forcemeats

The New Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of American contains a cursory treatment of forcemeats (aka "sausage"). Forcemeats are actually an emulsion of lean meats and fats. The ingredients must be forced through a seive or grinder to properly emulsify. As opposed to a mixture, an emulsion will hold together properly and have a rich and pleasant taste when eaten.

Most of us are familiar with straigh forcemeats, basically a 50/50 game/pork fat mixture that is ground progressively throught finer dies. 5/4/3 forcemeat (meat/fat/ice) is used for hot dogs and knockwurst. There are a number of other forcemeats within the classical method.

As the fat content is reduced, the emulsification will be less significant, and the product will be more like ground meat rather than forcemeat. I made 75 lbs of sausages this fall, most of which were very low in fat content becuase I prefer lean meat. You can make your sausages as lean as you like, but they will tend to fall apart more easily and be less rich. Perhaps next year (after my gall bladder has been removed!) I might make some richer examples.

Needless to say, charcuterie is my favorite area of the culinary arts. Feel free to make your sausages any way you like. A 100 percent ground meat product would likely work fine for stuffed sausages. Additionally, there are alternative binders that can be used to hold patties together. However, if you intend to prepare pate en croute, then it's likely that a significant fat component would be necessary to ensure an appropriate texture.

Bon appetite!

[twodux]

fat

I usually grind my deer burger with deer fat. I do it pretty lean, but with enough to hold the burgers together. If I do add non-deer fat, I usually throw in bacon. It holds things together, and you have instant bacon burgers.

[rivrat]

Thanks guys

I appreciate all the opinions, I am going to try some burgers without adding any fat next time, and the backfat stuff. I didnt know there was a difference from suet- This year I individually wrapped some pattys and put in the freezer - so I can toss one on the grill without any other prep.

thanks