Pork or beef fat?

[Twanger]

I usually grind up fatty pork shoulder, at about $1.50/lb, to mix 50/50 with venison to make sausage, but recently found that I can get pork or beef fat for free from a local butcher! Hard to beat free!
So what's you preference? Pork or beef fat?
Does it depend on what kind of sausage you're making?

I'm thinking 20% fat / 80% venison for sausage recipes. What do you think?

[ncboman]

for sausage, pork fat.

We have used free beef fat at about or <10% for deerburger but usually just add the fat gleaned from the deer itself without beef fat.

Production animals are all fed medicated food and while we eat it, we try to keep our venison as chemfree as possible.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

one year we had some exceptionally fat hogs and I did not trim at all. I mixed at a 50/50 and the sausage came out very "mushy" and although it was good it did not have a "sausage" texture. I have never used beef fat with venison but I can see how it would certainly enhance it. Perhaps if you got the fat very cold or frozen so that the grinder would cut it instead of just mashing it. Good luck.

Alan

[SeniorCoot]

I use pork shoulder in my sausage- about 30% to 70% deer/moose/etc-i like flavor of meat as well as fat-for burger i use beef fat 10%-I trim all deer etc. fat from meat-remember not ALL beef/ pork/ veal etc has chemicals in it-I get mine from organic farmers- and any chems are from their natural eating like deer etc who might pick up some from fields they live in/near.

[Twanger]

Thanks guys.
I'm not at all fond of the taste of deer fat and I'm militant in trimming it prior to grinding.
It would be good to find a use for the deer fat though... seems like such a bummer to chuck it away.
The foxes get the carcass and fat, so maybe that's not really a waste.... the local fox-hunting club probably appreciates me feeding them.

[Waidmann]

Twanger,

I use Pork Butt or Pork Shoulder for all my venison sausages in about 70/30% mixture. Works fine. I've never tried beef fat or suet, so I can't comment on that. I do have a buddy who used to put the deer fat into his venison sausages, and, truth to tell, the few I tried I couldn't tell from the taste that it was deer fat. Course, he makes really spicy sausages. This past year he used Pork Butt, and fed it to his family without telling them. They ate it, and thought it was good, so maybe that was an improvement.

I haven't done it yet, but what about using the deer fat to make soap? I'm sure it would rend just as well. We have a neighbor who makes home-made soaps, and sells them for $4 a bar at flea markets and other outdoor shows. People like them because they are not as harsh as commercial soaps. She tells me that her cost in fat, lye and scents is usually about 20/25% of the sale price, so it might well be financially worth it. Especially if you end up with 20 or 30 pounds of fat. One of these years I may try it.

Waidmann

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

... seems like such a bummer to chuck it away.


Uh..... Pardon me Mr. Twanger, but I can help you with that little problem!

Boone

[Twanger]

LOL!

[Bill Gunn]

It would be good to find a use for the deer fat though... seems like such a bummer to chuck it away....

Small birds and some woodpeckers eat it during the winter months.

These guys eat it like crazy at our house, and they beat the heck out of any small bird that tries to get any, when they are there !!

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/1363903/383905499.jpg

[LE]

Good scraps are ok to use, but some scraps have so much needed trimming it isn't worth the savings. I prefer to buy some cheap pork from the meat counter and consider it money well spent.

[Twanger]

I just made a big batch of chili this weekend and used 1lb of beef fat to help brown about 8 pounds of meat and add some smoothness to the chili.
I just chopped the fat up and put a little in the skillet, melted it, and then threw in some venison.
Small batches.
90 minutes later I had all of the venison browned.
The chili turned out great!