I failed on a couple other recipes trying to mix beef with venison and its not enough fat, so I switched to pork. I only made 5# of it, but this was definitely a hit and good. The recipe and instructions is posted online here.
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I failed on a couple other recipes trying to mix beef with venison and its not enough fat, so I switched to pork. I only made 5# of it, but this was definitely a hit and good. The recipe and instructions is posted online here.
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I have been looking for a sweet italian venison sausage. Will copy this one for future reference. I make my own venison breakfast sausage, and use 1 lb of ground venison and 1 lb ground pork plus spices. I just make patties and freeze. When cooking them, I will smear one side of the patty with lard. I don't think the ground pork has enough fat in it.
Could cheap bacon be subbed for straight fat? Boost the fat content with more flavor than just lard. Local shops will sell 10 pound boxes of bacon trimmings for around $1 a pound.
jcren, yes, bacon substituted for fat makes wonderful meat. I used to work in the fall for a guy processing deer. ratio was 70-75% meat to bacon and he called it bacon-burger. It makes the best burgers and meatloaf you could imagine. For great recipes look for a book by Rytek Kutas. It's the bible for sausage making
I too have come to just use pork for fresh sausage. I use venison for summer sausage only. I use bacon for burger but rarely. Bacon today is 4-5 bucks a lb and pork but is 99cents
My dad worked up a recipe long long ago that was awesome.
50% Ground venison.
25% Fatty beef, cheapest fattiest you can find.
25% lean pork. He used mostly trimmed boston butt's, ie shoulder roasts.
His theory was that pork fat runs out of the meat.
Beef fat stays in it, makes it juicy and awesome.
I have seen nothing to disprove it.
He would grind each seperately with the large size, then mix, season, and grind them together with the fine size blade.
This was a staple of existance at our house. Went into mom's speghetti sauce, made chili, meatloaf, you name it. Some of it would get made into sausage but the vast majority was just frozen as hamburger, and used that way.
I think Ghosthawk is pretty close to the mark on using 25% beef. However, I think I have something just a bit better. We use 15-18% beef strip steak fat. Not strip steak, just the fat (that crescent moon strip of fat around the steak). I get the fat for free most places or pay .50cents a pound for it wrapped. I've tried other fats and believe it or not, not all fats off a cow taste the same or melt at the same temp. I got this from a butcher friend of mine years ago who made the best sausage I ever ate. I get a whole deer put into his recipe every year. It's good with pork, but even better with just venison and strip steak fat.
go put a fire under me and I made up 25lbs of brats yesterday. All pork but. Picked it up the other day for 99cents a lb.
Where are you finding this cheap pork at? I don't trail around grocery stores much but never find anything cheap. Walmart never,e ver has anything on sale. Local grocery stores have some stuff but never much. My local Mennonite butch sell fresh off the hog pork butt for $1.99 a pound with no injections, which I love and I'd love it twice as much if I could find it cheaper.
My wife doesn't like Venison straight so I but 50% with beef for bologna and pork for sausages. Between the spices and cutting the meat she doesn't mind it.
That's pretty good looking Italian bud! I just ate dinner and it still makes me a little hungry.
If you use bacon ends be mindful of the salt content of your mix. It piles up fast. Depending on how much sausage you plan to make, it might be worth your time to go ask you local meat cutter at a small grocery store about a box of 50/50 pork trim. Depending on his supplier and his boss he may be willing to cut you a deal on a whole box. When I ran a retail counter I did a brisk business 60-80 lbs a box at 10-15% over cost. Your local locker is good source for trim fat of both species as most rendering companies charge the locker to take it now.
I am using straight pork fat and pork cut for cutting my venison and adding fat. My one butcher also carries uncured bacon and I could by pork belly, but that is waste when pork fat is $0.50 a #
Have to watch the circulars and coupon shop, but the meat deals are still out there. Costco is decent most of the year for bulk if you don't want to watch the ad's.Quote:
Originally Posted by archeryrob
the local stores all do 99cent a lb a couple times a year. One here localy that still has a butcher that actually cuts meat will give me buts at 1.19 a lb about any day if I talk to him personaly.
I do bulk breakfast sausage, I use pork butts at about 20% with venison 80%. It works for me. I usually can't find the pork as cheap as LLoyd but it is about the cheapest cut of meat there is around here.
This is really my favorite way to make venison sausage but I like to do 1 lb bulk. Everybody in the house eats it and it is used to make just about any kind of dish.
Our local Save-On food stores have been getting whole pork hind quarters every January for $0.99/lb. That's with worthless Canadian money here in British Columbia. We usually buy 4-6 depending on how much freezer space we have. We break them all down to make sausage and freeze some of the chunks for later use. We use it neat or mixed with Moose or Mule Deer. My buddy and his wife bought 10 quarters this year. We are "meatatarians", it's a life style choice.