Pork to venison ratio- summer sausage

[tbum19]

When making venison summer sausage, is 50/50 venison and pork butt a decent ratio? Or is that overkill on the pork? I have seen different ratios from 80/20, 60/40, etc… just curious what the general consensus on here would say. This is my first time making summer sausage. If I can get away with 50/50 that would keep me from wasting as much venison (harder to come by obviously) if something goes wrong.

[Denny O]

I think my ratio is about 75 deer and 25 pork butt

[kyle]

tbum19 on a 25 pound batch, I go 12# venison and 13# porkbutt… when I am running low on venison, I will use 6# venison, 6# 85% lean beef and 13# pork butt. Seems to turn out fine

[Jonathon]

tbum19 It really is mostly about what you like. A pork butt is roughly 30% fat, so if you are 50/50 on a deer that has very little to none you are going to be around 15%. Generally in the 20-30% range is where we recommend but if you like it at 50/50 you can do that for sure!

[processhead]

Jonathon said in Pork to venison ratio- summer sausage:

tbum19 It really is mostly about what you like. A pork butt is roughly 30% fat, so if you are 50/50 on a deer that has very little to none you are going to be around 15%. Generally in the 20-30% range is where we recommend but if you like it at 50/50 you can do that for sure!

I usually will try to find a source of pork fat to add to lean venison/pork butt to get to a higher fat to lean ratio. Any other way using just pork butt and lean venison makes a pretty lean sausage that is not representative of the meat block used for a commercial summer sausage or bratwurst.
If you like a leaner product , then it is fine to use just pork butt and venison.
Otherwise, find a source of pork fat to add to the venison, and pork butt.
My preference is 50% venison 35% pork butt and 15% pork fat.

[bocephus]

processhead I look for a box of ends and pieces of bacon if i want to raise the fat content, sometimes I find them pretty reasonable and adds a nice flavor.

[DJS303]

I like mine a little on the dryer side so I use 60 percent venison to 40 percent pork butt.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

tbum19 I do 50/50 pork butt and ground venison. I usually add beef fat so that the venison is 80-85% lean before adding the pork butt.

[paulsje]

I just made a batch with 16 lbs(64%) Venison and 9 lbs (36%)Pork butt. It is a little dry. Wish I would have added more pork fat and water.

[salmonmaster]

paulsje how much water did you use in your mixture?

[WallStreetRanch]

I use a third Venison, a third whole pork, & a third whole beef. Don’t trim anything, loses 25% smoking

[Denny O]

Yep, I just looked mine up.
I have 2 different summer sausages that I do and one is at least 20% and my other one follows,
For 6 - 3 pound logs, 12 pounds deer, 3 pounds fatty pork shoulder (I’ve never added extra back fat) and a short 3 pounds of my smoked pepper cheese, then the seasonings and cure. It is very creamy and not dry at all. Still seems to have enough grease in it to carry a great flavor. I smoke them to a finished temp of 154/156 degrees.

[Denny O]

Jonathon Ok, question for all the ratio gurus out there in Meatgisitics land,

From the recent thread that salmonmaster just did

https://meatgistics.waltons.com/topic/6208/cotto-salami-h-summer-sausage-the-results-are-in

He spelled out very clear his meat block ratio for instance, “50/50 pork butt, deer burger 80/20 w/ beef fat”.
Is he assuming that the pork shoulder is 50/50 meat to fat? Never mind that is a no.
He is mixing 50% butt with 50% deer that has 20% beef fat in it, correct?
With that in mind then what is the fat %? Give me the math equation please.

[processhead]

Denny O said in Pork to venison ratio- summer sausage:

Jonathon Ok, question for all the ratio gurus out there in Meatgisitics land,

From the recent thread that salmonmaster just did

https://meatgistics.waltons.com/topic/6208/cotto-salami-h-summer-sausage-the-results-are-in

He spelled out very clear his meat block ratio for instance, “50/50 pork butt, deer burger 80/20 w/ beef fat”.
Is he assuming that the pork shoulder is 50/50 meat to fat? Never mind that is a no.
He is mixing 50% butt with 50% deer that has 20% beef fat in it, correct?
With that in mind then what is the fat %? Give me the math equation please.

For me, a simple way to figure out the ratios on a problem like this is to substitute an actual weight for each ingredient.
For example we know that it is a 50/50 mix of pork butt and deer burger. So pretend your are using 1 lb of pork butt and 1 lb of deer burger. The Total Weight is 2 lbs.

Assuming the 1 lb of pork butt is 80 / 20 lean then that is .8 lb lean pork and .2 lb fat pork.

The 1 lb of deer burger is 50/50 Fat/Lean. So that is .5 lb of lean and .5 lb of beef fat. Now add up the lean from each source to get a total lean and the fat from each source to get a total fat.

Total Lean = Pork lean + Deer lean = .8 +.5= 1.3 Total Lean
Total Fat = Pork Fat + Beef Fat = .2 + .5 = .7 Total Fat

Percent Lean = Total Lean / Total Weight x 100 = 1.3/2 x 100= 65%
Percent Fat = Total Fat / Total Weight x 100 = .7 / 2 x 100 = 35%

You know you got the math right when the sum of Percent Lean and Percent Fat = 100%

[Jonathon]

Denny O processhead math above checks out, the two “arguments” would be the on why we are assuming the deer burger is 50/50 deer and beef fat. I think it is 80/20 and then what the pork butt starting fat content is. So, if we go with an 80/20 deer burger mix that changes the math, but the equation is correct.

Also, it depends on if the fat cap was scrapped off or not, and how big it was, to begin with. I see pork butts occasionally that are very fatty and sometimes ones that have a minimal fat cap.

From what I see he is mixing 50/50 with straight pork butt and then deer that has had 20% beef fat added. So it is 70/30 (pork butt and being generous with fay%) and 80/20 for the deer burger. So, the fat content of 50% of the mix is 30$ and the other 50% is 20%, making it 25%.

It’s early though, so my brain may be misreading something, however, it was even earlier when processhead responded. Either way, the equation he provides above it correct.

[zerr]

We do 50/ 50, can be fried, used in spaghetti, chili, BUT the best is, make a 1.5" roll and wrap in foil. Bake for 30 Minutes at 350 and slice thin for a hot snack watching football.

[zerr]

OH sorry this is Sausage. For summer sausage i just follow the spice box.

[Denny O]

Jonathon What I seem to be seeing on various threads lead me to believe is most of you are doing a 50/50 fat to lean meat ratio when using equal parts of pork butt and deer, 50% fat. I believe the fat ratio would be 33.3%.

[salmonmaster]

Jonathon I live on the west coast, just got up, first cup of coffee, you guy’s are way ahead of me in the thinking dept. I was thinking when I wrote the meat block I should have wrote it a little defferent, might be a little confusing. I’ll try to do better next time. You got it right. Say on a 8 pound meat block, half of the meat, or 4 lbs. is whole pork butt, the other half of the meat block or 4lbs. is venison burger . The burger is 80% deer or elk, and 20% beef fat. So I was figuring that an average fat content for the meat block, as a whole, would be 25% or so. I have seen those 2" thick fat caps on some of those pork butts, haven’t had one for awhile, but I would probably just wack some of the fat off till it looked right. So yes, 50/50 pork butt, deer burger 80/20 w/beef fat COFFEE!

[Denny O]

Denny O
salmonmaster Please, I’m not picking your thread out! You’re just a very recent example of what I’ve been seeing.
Seems to me sitting here reading I seem to get the impression that most of you prefer a fatty summer sausage that leans to a 50% fat content. I also think that 33-1/3rd% is very high too.