I am planning to use some of the ground venison that I have to make sausage or snack sticks. I know that I am supposed to add fat. In the past, I ran raw bacon through a grinder but I am wondering if there are other options without having to deal with the grinder. What about rendered lard that you buy at the grocery store? Would that be about the same? Any other ideas? Thanks

I am no authority by a long shot, but normally I freeze my pork fat so the grinder cuts it cleanly into the fine tiny 'cubes'...which is what the books recommend. But once due to an oversight, the fat was ground room temperature, almost like rendered lard. It tasted ok, but the texture was slimy and kind of reminded me of that store bought Jimmy Dean (which tastes ok) but is kind of nasty textured, more like a pork puree than sausage. You may like Jimmy Dean.

For me, burger gets beef fat; sausage gets pork fat.

Neither gets bacon or pork shoulder or anything else.

That way, it's real, and it's fabulous!

I added lard to some Chorizo I made and it only helped when frying the pan sausage. It would just make link sausages greasy. It is best to use a cut of pork like a Boston butt at around 40% of the total weight. Pork bellies can be used but I like the lean pork from the shoulder. Bacon ends are OK for a little flavor but will be too much if that is the only fat used. Check out some recipes for exact amounts, I like Rytek Kutas's books https://www.amazon.com/Great-Sausage-Recipes-Meat-Curing/dp/0025668609

Pork butt is cheap and fatty.

JMHO- I prefer the cheap ground beef.
Has the flavor I'm going for, and doesn't
overpower the main ingredient, the venison

Compliments it instead, like it should

For summer sausage I like beef. For snack sticks and brats I like pork.

I make a lot of sausage. For snack sticks, I use the following: 66% Venison,14% Beef Suet, 20% Pork butt/shoulder (70/30 ground beef works too)

For a 25 pound batch that works out to: 16.5# Venison, 3.5# Beef Suet, 5# Pork butt. That makes roughly a 80/20+/- fat ratio and well works well snack sticks.

Me too...

Pork butt

i save all trimmings from pork in the freezer and use it for venison sausage and jerky. if i don't have enough, i go buy the cheapest pork shoulder i can find and use it.

Nailed it.

Used a lot of pork butt, but would like to find other ways.

I have used pork fat in a batch and beef fat in another, really hard to tell the difference. I keep both vacuum sealed in the freezer. So I have both to choose from. Really when you add the spices the type fat does not matter.

I use pork butt for sausage. In the past I used pork butt for burger but this year I left most of my burger just venison. I use it a lot for meat sauces and chilis and it seems to work. I might try beef fat for some burgers if I can find any.

It depends on what you want the results to be... I have shot better than 70 deer in the last 15 years so I experimented just a bit.

Steak trimmings are by far the best - 15lbs to 100lbs of clean cut venison.
The result smells like ribeye’s when you cook things on the Grill.. The down side is that Women will now start eating your deer meat without regard to Bambi anymore.
Suit like beef fat is pretty good / second best IMO...
Brisket fat works well but for some reason the meat has a creamy taste to it.

Next you get into Pork fat - here almost everything comes out the same...
I just buy pork butt and mix it 30-40% with the Venison


For Jerky - Beef is the only way to fly
For Great hamburger .. Beef
For sausage like stuff - Pork works just fine.

Good luck

Thanks for the ideas guys. I think for the snack sticks I may try mixing high fat content ground beef. That seems easier than having to grind fat. Since you say beef fat is good for sticks, I'm going to try it.

For Beef Sticks I'd try and stay around 80/20. You don't want it too far or they get greasy.

Sausage is different, usually straight pork shoulder butt will make half way decent sausage, they are closer to 78/32%. I prefer sausage around 75/25.

Summer Sausage, thats a different animal. You want closer to 65/35% or even 60/40%. You only want to cook it low and slow around 160F and do lower finish temps but hold it longer for the lethality. For instance I follow USDA Appendix A in which I cook mine to 135F and a hold time of at least 40 minutes. You don't want to render the fat, thats why the lower temp and a hold temp. At about 145F they can start to render, and different fat types render before others.

Now I use a calibrated thermometer for all my cooking.

Thanks. I haven't been to a grocery store in years but I seem to recall seeing 70% lean ground meat. I figure I could mix this with venison at 50/50 and end up with something close to 15% fat.

I prefer;

- Adding 30% pork butt to venison for sausage.

- Adding 30% whole fatty brisket to venison for burger. I can buy brisket when it's on sale cheaper than the cheapest burger. I will also grind whole briskets when I want traditional hamburger.

Our local IGA grocer has a meat dept where they actually cut carcasses. They will save and sell the trimmed fat.

It’s a better way, IMO, because I can weigh the meat and fat to hit the % fat I want in a product.

Pork butt (shoulder) makes a good sausage by itself, but using that in the sausage grind does not allow accurate fat calculations.

YMMV, as always.

My processor adds pork fat he gets from an inspected butcher to the sausage he makes. Not a lot, there’s very little grease in the pan, or more often, on the foil I use when I cook it in the oven, far less than commercial sausage.

No added fat in my burger either. My son buys prime rib fat to grind into his deer burger.

I prefer pork fat to beef for sausage and beef fat for deer burger.