Meat Selection And Fat Content
The quality of the finished product can only be as good as the quality of the meat selected. The meat needs to be fresh, clean, not contaminated with bacteria, and frosty cold. Start with meat that is between 32 deg and 35 deg F. For food safety the meat should be kept below 40 deg F. through the entire process and one should be aware that meat will warm as it moves through the different stages of grinding, mixing, and stuffing.
Higher quality classes of meat should be used for fresh sausage. Pork shoulder butts and picnics are good choices as they contain good amounts of fat. Loins and hams can be used to produce a much leaner but drier product. Whole hog sausage is made with parts from the entire hog, including muscle by-products like tongue and heart, in proportions consistent with the natural animal.
Smoked sausage refers to a number of sausage varieties that are usually made from low quality cuts, organ meats, and left over trim but many of these same sausages can be made with better quality selections as well. With some exceptions, nearly any species will do or even a blend of species can produce a good quality product. Plenty of folks will make a whole deer into summer sausage and I have made fresh and smoked sausage from beef, pork, antelope, elk, bear, venison, goat, turkey, goose, duck, rabbit, along with a few others. The duck and the rabbit were a pleasant surprise but I have to say that Snow Geese are not high on my list of favorite sausage meats.
Fat content is an important consideration as some fat in the meat mix will aid in binding qualities, moisture retention, and flavor. Legally, fresh pork sausage, country sausage, whole hog sausage, and breakfast sausage can contain up to 50% fat. Something to remember when you see that 99 cent sausage sale in the store.
The flavor and juiciness of sausages made from lean game meats can be improved with the addition of fat pork trim. As a rule I do not like to use the fat from wild game, especially the heavy external cover fat from the back and rump areas. This fat can be dirty and can have a thick, greasy, sticky, or even gritty mouthfeel. Some creamy white intramuscular fat is ok. This internal fat is generally of higher quality and a creamy white color is a good indicator that the meat is fresh and has been handled properly so it is less likely to contribute to a wild or gamey flavor. Avoid using grey or pink colored fat from your game animal.
Always use good quality pork trimmings, to adjust the lean/ fat ratio. Learn what your preference for fat content is for different varieties of sausage. The finished product should contain somewhere around 15%-25% fat. Fresh sausages can be made leaner if that is your preference but smoked sausages usually need a little higher fat content to keep the sausage from drying out.
To calculate fat/ lean requirements the math goes like this: Lean meat weight divided by desired lean meat percentage = Total weight. Total weight minus lean meat weight = weight of fat trim. Here’s an example where 20 is the weight of our lean and the desired lean percentage is 80%: 20 ÷ .80 = 25, 25-20 = 5, so we’re going to add 5 pounds of fat to 20 pounds of lean for a total of 25 pounds of product with a lean/ fat ratio of 80/20.
