Which fat? What percent?

ardrhi · Nov 26, 2018

My short answer is that I mostly just use whatever is easiest to get, but having tried almost everything here is my prognosis.
Uncured fat doesn't store very long and consequently adding it to ground meat reduces the time before it starts to change flavor in the freezer. I can use year old no-fat-added game burger without noticing any flavor change. So, I don't usually add any fat to plain ground meat, but beef would be my first choice because it will store longer. Cured bacon also works great if you can get it cheap since the cure adds storage life.
Fat really is pretty much necessary if you're curing (salami, jerky, etc) or planning to eat without mixing into a dish (brats, sausages, patties). For these preparations I prefer pork - and usually go with cured bacon to extend freezer life. Pork has less saturated fat than beef, which means it is softer and blends easier into the meat, and consequently fries better because it liquifies more readily.

1_pointer · Nov 27, 2018

I shoot for 20% fat in sausage, but nothing in the burger. We like the straight grind for that.

ltdann · Nov 27, 2018

20-25% Pork fat, slightly frozen. Most frequently, Bacon bits and pieces...easier to find.

bmt99 · Nov 27, 2018

scubohuntr said:
20% bacon ends and pieces. Works for me without overpowering the venison flavor.

this is exactly what I do. It is usually smoked too so it smells great when you are grinding it as well.

Rat Fink · Nov 27, 2018

22 lbs of venison mixed with 3 lbs of bacon ends is the perfect mix for my burger grind. When making sausages I do 70% venison, 15% pork fat, and 15% pork butt. That ratio has turned out a bunch of excellent sausages over the years.

NEWHunter · Nov 27, 2018

Nice thread. I have never made sausage but my grinds are always done straight up with nothing added. If you haven’t had it, ground bear makes the best burger ever. Throw on provolone, nueske’s bacon, and a dill pickle for the greatest cheeseburger mankind has ever known. So irritated I have to wait another 10 years for a WI bear tag! I digress - good luck with your decision.

riley · Nov 27, 2018

vikingsguy said:
so, next weekend we are grinding this year's wild game (plain groundmeat and sausage) - we have antelope, whitetail and cow elk in the freezer. In the past we had a butcher do it, but doing on our own this year. Looking for a little advice from htnation.

What source for added fat do you prefer? Pork? Beef? Bear? pork

do you try to get straight fat or just blend with a fatty cut? go to butcher/meat shop ask for "pork trimmings" very cheap very fatty. Just a side note - no butcher around my house sells straight fat, maybe they do around you.

Does your preference vary by wild game meat? E.g., pork for whitetail but beef for elk? pork good with everything

does your preference vary for plain grind vs. Sausage? yes it does very .

What target fat percentage do you target in finished plain grind?

plain-go lean 80/20 ....sausage- go 50/50. when your done with the plain grind 80/20 patty out a couple burgers and cook them up right away if they are to lean for ya go 70/30. no more then that though.

HSi-ESi · Nov 27, 2018

Mark me down as a straight grind, no additives.

I'll add pork fat to sausage (15-20% by weight), ground bacon ends to burgers (sometimes) if I have it thawed and handy. This weekend I did a lasagna, 2 lbs of moose grind and about 3 ounces of ground bacon ends in the sauce.

I grind all my fat and store them in the plastic Cabela bags with hog staples. I will thaw one out and leave it in the fridge and use it till it's gone and thaw out the next one.

So kind of mix as you go for me.

Gr8bawana · Nov 28, 2018

scubohuntr said:
20% bacon ends and pieces. Works for me without overpowering the venison flavor.

I also use bacon end and pieces but I usually go about 30% because there's actually quite a bit of meat in the bacon as opposed to just fat.

88man · Nov 29, 2018

When making sausage regardless of species with wild game I always add 30% pork such as a picnic or boston butt. When making ground meat "hamburger" I almost always add 80/20 ground beef to my elk and deer at 30% also.

CForest · Dec 2, 2018

Like many others have mentioned, I do pork fat with sausage and beef fat with the buger. Not always straight fat, sometimes it depends on how much I want to end up and what is available. If I want a lot of sausage I'll try to find a boston butt. If I want a lot of burger I will get beef trim.

ImBillT · Dec 3, 2018

I get pork back fat for about $2/lb or beef fat for free. Mix ratio really isn’t worth losing sleep over. Do you want super fatty meat? 25-30%, normal is more like 20%, and lean would be in 5-10% range. I don’t like adding a fatty cut of meat because I want my game to taste like the animal it is. If I wanted it to take like beef, I would just buy beef. Pork fat definitely adds a quality that can enhance things a bit. Beef fat with deer seems to make it taste more like just plain deer. Both are still more like eating venison that when you blend it with another meat.

Brachii · Dec 5, 2018

I go 10% fat— just enough to bring some moisture to the burgers without changing flavor. My local butcher carries cod fat and beef suet that I buy for my grinding. Both have tasted great for my pronghorn and venison!

O C Hunter · Dec 27, 2018

Beware of ground beef or other meat bought from a store that adds preservatives. When added to cured sausages, etc., the cures don't work properly. You end up with rotten meat in the end product.

MJE2083 · Dec 27, 2018

20% beef fat + 5% smoked bacon makes some fantastic sausage. I like to try to keep my meat lean, but that mix is damn good.

sbhooper · Dec 28, 2018

We make a lot of summer sausage. We use the Cabela's Jalapeno Summer Sausage mix. We add eight pounds of pork butt-or whatever is the cheapest-to 17 pounds of wild meat-duck, goose, deer, elk, antelope-doesn't matter. We have never added straight fat to anything.

We also make lots of bacon burger. We mix 12 pounds of deer, with three pounds of bacon/ends and a five-pound roll of the cheapest beef, for the fat. To this we add jalapenos and sometimes, cheese. We have a patty maker that attaches to the grinder, so we make patties that are vac sealed and frozen in the bag.

It can be very inexpensive to get fat from a butcher shop. The local one, here, throws lots of it away, I have been told. We just have never seen the need to go that route.

Boarmaster · Jan 6, 2019

We used to use pork trimmings but they got hard to come by. We now use pork butt from Costco or GFS at $.99 to $1.40 lb. I like the butts better. We usually go 70/30 or 60/40. We usually grab a few more butts and do up some pork sausage while we are messing with it. I get my straight up venison fix with steak and roasts.

PrairieHunter · Jan 6, 2019

The issue with fat is it's not stable and can go bad and as mentioned the meat may have had other things added to it like preservatives or be contaminated (happened to me 3 years ago). If you want a stable alternative go with lard. It's better for you and does not go bad like fat will.

Which fat? What percent?

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