can i use pork or beef dripping in sausage making

[Griffshrek1]

hello all .

great forum i'm a newbi to the magical art of sausage/burger making, i started as i stalk and was getting a fair bit of excess meat off the deer after the prime cuts were taken .

i have made two batches of both sausage and burgers , i am using either belly pork or cheeks to get pork fat content. i am having trouble sorcing "pork fat" my question is can i use pork or beef dripping as the fat content in sausage .

the batches of burgers and sausage i made one of each was made with shop bought flavoring the other i made up . the sausage with the shop bought veison mix is good better than my own make , but the burgers were the other way around the one's i made with my own flavoring were outstanding . i just added some fennel coriander pepper chilli garlic salt .

sorry if the question is sound stupid but i have no where else to ask . i cant wait to get my next deer to convert it to sausage and burgers........neil

[wheels]

Hi Neil

Welcome to the forum - you'll find all the answers you need here.

Personally, I would not use dripping, you really need 'hard fat' for sausage making. Your butcher should be able to supply 'pork back fat' - tell him your problem he'll no doubt help.

Others on the forum have far greater experience of venison sausage than I do though - I'll leave them to advise further.

Phil

[saucisson]

Welcome, glad you made it

If you can chat up your local butcher and get back fat that would be your best bet, but they often keep it for their own sausages. Belly pork as you are using is probably your best bet if you can't get back fat. This recipe uses shoulder though:

I just finished mine,

For the sausage we always add pork, one year we did not (the first) and it was like cardboard. Pork fat rules, a minimum or 20% pork is needed by my humble opinion I like 30%, it still gives the deer a wonderful flavour and is a nice balance. We went with a Italian style sausage;

15 pounds of deer, all fat and tallow removed
7 pounds pork shoulder (no skin)
150 grams kosher salt
75 grams paprika
20 grams cayenne pepper
75 grams oregano
75 grams fresh garlic
75 grams dehydrated onion
75 grams whole fennel seed
75 grams crush coriander
75 grams course black pepper
500 ml of ice cold water
500 ml of port wine

(Sorry no rusk here)
called for 75 grams of crushed red chile flakes but we omitted as there a people with sensitive plaits. Mix and stuff, was just fracking fantastic

Dave