Replacing Animal Fat with Olive Oil

[Anya]

Hi,
We want to make our own sausage to have a healthier product for seniors. My research has shown that leaving out the fat is like leaving the alcohol out of a coctail. Has anyone tried replacing part of he animal fat with olive oil? Any other suggestions to make a product healthier for seniors (you know, keep down the cholesterol and all).
Thank you.
Senior Sausage Maker

[Fallow Buck]

Anya,

I have put olive oil into a mix once before and some of it leached out during cooking. However I think it is not a bad idea but I would not substitute all the fat in a sausage for olive oil. 50-50 should be a good place to start off with I would have thought.

FB

[Wohoki]

You could try vegetarian suet instead. It won't have the supposed health benefits of olive oil, but it's easier to handle, just mix it with the mince before stuffing.

[aris]

What is vegetarian suet made from? From the sounds if it, it might just by hydrogenated vegetable oil - which defeats the health aspect as it is full of unhealthy trans-fats.

Do a search on this board for a poster called _darkstream_ - he did quite a bit of low-fat sausage.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/search.p ... arkstream_

[Wohoki]

Quite right, should have thought of that. I did a quick check and it's usually hydrogenated palm oil, sunflower oil and rice flour. Not that healthy.

[Anya]

Thanks for the help. I'll try small recipes with lower fat and some olive oil. I hope it works.
Anya

[roseway]

I'm not sure that pork fat is particularly bad for you anyway. I haven't got any medical knowledge to back this up, but it seems to me that hard red meat fats are much worse for you than soft white meat fats.

Eric