Ok, made lots of sausage in my life, but running into a conundrum here. Grandsons got carried away on does last year, so have alot of venison vacuum packed in the freezer .Normally just use Pork butts around 40/60or maybe even 50/50 if the venison portion is slim. Have so much venison, I was just going to use pork fat, and go down to 10-15 pork. But seems to be a shortage of pork fat up here in north TX. However, Fischers has beef fat. Therein lies my question. Anybody use beef fat in their sausage, breakfast, link, and summer? Change the flavor much? Change the texture? TIA

We used pork belly last year with good results. I found large packs at Costco.

If you are planning on drying any I'd make that a separate batch and not use beef fat in it.

I know I wouldn't have any problem using it in our summer sausage, as the smoking/cooking process would probably cover any differences. Just don't want to mess up my breakfast /link sausage. Don't smoke our link sausage, wife prefers it not, and doesn't bother me.

Fischer's should be able to got you pork belly, if you want to use that. I think it shows up on Monday and on Tuesday they cure it for bacon. If they are still on the same schedule.

Where about are you in north Texas? I'm in Muenster.

South of Lindsay. They are where I found the beef fat.

I usually get my stuff at Hess, but they had none.

Find a Mexican grocery store, Fiesta or similar they'll have straight pork fat.

Figure out when they cut pork sides and ask for "X" lbs.

If you'll ask the meat market at your local HEB they can get you pork fat. I guess they can order it and call you when they have it.

No HEB close to me. Think there's supposed to be one in Plano, not sure, good 70 miles.

OnlyForNow said:

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Find a Mexican grocery store, Fiesta or similar they'll have straight pork fat.

Figure out when they cut pork sides and ask for "X" lbs.

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This might not be bad advice. There is (was) a Mexican meat market in the old Fantasia skating rink building (on the northeast corner of radio hill road and 82 in east gville. They might have some.

Bring a translator.

Think they turned that into more of a restaurant, but now that you mention it, they did open another hispanic grocery on Grand in, I think it was the old TSC, several other iterations before that. May have been the original Gibsons.

If the folks at the butcher counter only speak
Spanish Ask for manteca de cerdo or cerdo lard

Or pork cuttings

Make sure they shoot enough deer for next year's sausage

We made the transition to beef fat about 3-4 years ago. We kept finding that after 6 months in the freezer our deer sausage would get a stronger unpleasant flavor and just got tougher to eat. Started doing some reading and messing with things. All that to say we now make sausage that is still excellent after a year in the freezer.

1. We used to debone our deer and freeze the meat, then post season get it all back out and make sausage. Quit that, started making sausage/burger 1 animal at a time within a week of killing it.

2. We started making a very concerted effort to keep the meat very cold. We don't have a cold room so at the mercy of ambient temps. Bought a stand up deep freeze and would keep the meat in freezer every minute it wasn't being worked. Debone a quarter, get the lug in the freezer to keep it chilled. Grind a lug and throw in freezer until ready to stuff.

3. Someone once told me the pork would turn flavor before venison so we gave that a try as well. We eliminated all pork and use beef fat for everything.

We make 90/10 venison burger and it has great flavor and will pass by as beef for most people. For our sausage we started using 15% beef fat and making the same recipe. It does have a bit more beefy flavor, the kind of beef flavor you would get from a ribeye. These changes have been huge for us and won't turn back. We have seen much better luck with asking specifically for fat from steak trimmings.

If you just go in Fischer's and ask for beef fat you're gonna get some suet in there and big chunks that don't render well, and you don't want those in your sausage. I found that out the hard way.

I'm also in the area, the Mexican meat market on Grand is great, but we normally just get the tablitas and pre-marinated fajitas. I believe it's called Mi Pueblita.

An option I tried one year was to use the boxes of bacon ends and pieces that most grocery stores have for my pork and fat. Worked fine but not as cost effective as pork butts.

I see that now. Haven't driven by and paid attention in a while.

That building was originally the Walmart. Before it moved to where the home depot is now. Before it moved to where it is now.

HTownAg98 said:

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I would look hard for pork fat. We used beef fat one year, and did not like it as much. If you're going to go straight fat, the whole fat ratio needs to be 20% minimum of the total weight of the meat. If it's less, you get a dry, grainy, chalky sausage (it's also why most people's 50/50 pork/venison sausage sucks, but that's another topic).

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Thread derail. If 50/50 pork/venison is dry or chalky then someone was using the wrong pork with not enough fat, or needed to mix it more before casing.

I used beef fat last year and did not like it as much. neither did my friends.

Have made it with pork fat and beef fat, but non-lean pork as the "filler" to add weight in both scenarios.

The year we made it with beef fat, we found that it ended up "drier" than usual after smoking and the taste was not what we expected.

A lot of factors could go into this, but our group (I was a teenager at the time) never went back to beef fat.

Typically our sausage percentage is 50/50 venison to pork
Shoulder plus 10% of total weight straight pork fat. Crazy thing is it's still nowhere as fatty as almost every store bought sausage. Never had the pork turn, but I have bought horrible "boar" tasting pork chops and I'm sure if I had gotten that dudes pork shoulder it woulda ruined a good section of the sausage to be made.

I really think it comes down to personal choice.

I understand your concern on the breakfast sausage side. I have found anything with a casing has not been an issue for taste whether it is pork fat or beef fat. But the meat cooks differently and changes the flavor slightly in breakfast sausage. I am very picky when it comes to making the patties or sticks but as long as I have pork butts anything in a casing could get either and taste the same.

agcrock2005 said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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I would look hard for pork fat. We used beef fat one year, and did not like it as much. If you're going to go straight fat, the whole fat ratio needs to be 20% minimum of the total weight of the meat. If it's less, you get a dry, grainy, chalky sausage (it's also why most people's 50/50 pork/venison sausage sucks, but that's another topic).

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Thread derail. If 50/50 pork/venison is dry or chalky then someone was using the wrong pork with not enough fat, or needed to mix it more before casing.

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The issue is pork butts used to come with a 1" or greater fat cap on them. Now that they're trimmed so close, pork butts are only about 20%-25% fat. So any lean you add to that puts you in the range of not having enough fat.
I'm going to repost my sausage making primer soon. It's that season.

HTownAg98 said:

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agcrock2005 said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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I would look hard for pork fat. We used beef fat one year, and did not like it as much. If you're going to go straight fat, the whole fat ratio needs to be 20% minimum of the total weight of the meat. If it's less, you get a dry, grainy, chalky sausage (it's also why most people's 50/50 pork/venison sausage sucks, but that's another topic).

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Thread derail. If 50/50 pork/venison is dry or chalky then someone was using the wrong pork with not enough fat, or needed to mix it more before casing.

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The issue is pork butts used to come with a 1" or greater fat cap on them. Now that they're trimmed so close, pork butts are only about 20%-25% fat. So any lean you add to that puts you in the range of not having enough fat.
I'm going to repost my sausage making primer soon. It's that season.

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I can see where you're coming from if your pork butts are too lean. I buy them by the case from Restaurant Depot and they're really fatty still so I've had a lot of luck with them. I also use a binder and mix the hell out of it to help keep it together. Love making sausages.

Here's 20# of roasted hatch chile and monterey jack cheese I did this past weekend.

Same here. I've been watching the Two Guys & a Cooler Youtube channel for their making sausage month. I'm going to try that gyro sausage.

ETA: I saw that post somewhere else. They look great! Did you use a Hi-temp jack cheese for that?

Have been using brisket instead of pork butt in my sausage for 3 or 4 years now. Much prefer the flavor over pork.

Still use pork for breakfast sausage.

schmellba99 said:

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Have been using brisket instead of pork butt in my sausage for 3 or 4 years now. Much prefer the flavor over pork.

Still use pork for breakfast sausage.

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A few years back I helped a buddy cook about 30 briskets...I kept him company and did very little. But after he trimmed there was close to 28lbs of really good fat and meat. I made sausage with it. I added 25lbs of deer and more pork fat also, but it was really good. I cannot afford brisket for sausage though. That was the sausage I wanted to bring to the clay shoot we had out at your place when you cut your hand, but you already had guys doing the food.

Ok, problem solved. Thanks, only for now, for the hispanic grocery suggestion. Went by the new local, called Pueblicita if I spelled that right. Took 3 tries to find someone that knew texican, but when Itold him what wanted, said wait a minute, came back, gave me a price per pound, which was reasonable, said give me 10 minutes. Next thing you know, I guess they're whacking the fat caps off butts and shoulders. Good stuff too. Plus, found some really good pastry thingies. I guess if they don't have it handy, they'll make it!

Thanks for the idea!

Fiesta in my hood is the go-to. Great folks!