Beef sausage fat content

[wallie]

I suppose the answer to this is a No No but I will test it out.
I have noticed in Tesco packs of Britannia Beef dripping it is hard like suet.
I wonder if I could use this as the fat content in beef sausage?

wallie

[saucisson]

I would say yes, but with one or two reservations:). You will get the fat content and most, if not all, the flavour. What you won't get is the cellular integrity of normal cut off the carcass fat which helps hold the fat in place in discrete pieces. For a fine/emulsified sausage this may not be a problem, but for a coarser sausage you won't see any bits of fat after cooking as it will all just melt into the rest of it. With "real" fat the fat is released more slowly on cooking (a slow internal basting?) and some is retained in the fatty tissue in the final product.

Herein may lie the second problem, with nothing to hold it in place, when it melts the fat needs somewhere to go, so you may need extra binders. Alternatively if it all leaches out on cooking you may have the benefits of the flavour, but a lower fat final cooked product.

This is all pretty much conjecture on my part but based on my experience with suet. I think it will be a bit like a haggis; where you use a scary amount of suet, but you end up with an amazing amount of fat in the cooking water. The fat content is based not so much by the amount you put in but the quantity of binders that can retain it.

Apologies for the ramble...
Dave

[wallie]

Thanks Dave
Just what I was thinking.
If I add too much binder it will be like fried bread, if I don't I may end up with a pan full of fat.
So on reflection I will not bother.
As you suggest I may try it on a small batch of emulsified sausage.

wallie