Black Bear/ venison summer sausage
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A friend of mine wants me/ us to make up some black bear/ venison summer sausage, never worked with bear in this way before, so you think we should add pork to the mix? Or would black bear fat work the same? Was thinking 60/40 bear to venison ratio. Haven’t seen the bear meat but if it’s fatty like pork do you think this would work?
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YooperDog Team Orange Masterbuilt Big Green Egg Dry Cured Sausage Sous Vide Canning Power Userreplied to Hog Pen on last edited by
Hog Pen I didn’t care for black bear fat from my bear, I would rather eat venison fat in my sausage. In my opinion I would go with pork fat, it is fairly neutral, has a creamy texture and blends well with the proteins. From my one bear I just didn’t enjoy the bear fat in the sausage. Venison is a bit more waxy than pork, but more neutral then bear. Just my opinion and experience.
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lkrfletcher Sous Vide Canning PK100 Team Blue Power User Colorado Military Veterans Veteranreplied to Hog Pen on last edited by
Hog Pen
IMO you cant go wrong with Pork fat. I think it is better on the pallet. -
lkrfletcher that’s what I was telling my friend, he seems kind of determined just to use the wild game. Hopefully can talk him into pork fat.
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lkrfletcher Sous Vide Canning PK100 Team Blue Power User Colorado Military Veterans Veteranreplied to Hog Pen on last edited by
Hog Pen
Well with bear fat, it depends a lot on what the bears are feeding on. I tried some that were gorging on wild blueberries and it was good, but not as good as pork. Deer fat can also be in adundance as they fatten up for winter, but I find a stronger taste with it. Probably because our Mule deer here in Colorado fatten up on sage, where other areas are more likely corn. It is a toss up. Maybe run a few test batches. -
lkrfletcher hate the tallow from deer, gives you bad mouth feel in my opinion, in the long run its his sausage, but don’t want him getting a bad product that no one wants to eat.
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Hog Pen We almost always recommend Pork fat over anything else (though some people argue duck is about as good or better) but we have never had the chance to work with bear. I’d imagine if you are adding about 20% of the meats weight in pork fat and relying on the intramuscular fat from the deer/bear you will be right in the 70/30 range.
This is second-hand knowledge but apparently, with bear (even more than other animals) the diet mostly affects the flavor of the fat more than the muscle. So, if you are going to trim most of the fat what it has been eating might not be as big of a problem. That’s just my thoughts on this, take it or leave it!
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Jonathon thanks for the reply, I agree with using pork fat, but thanks for reaffirming, I will talk him into it because I think it would improve the sausage, otherwise u don’t think i want to do it. Lol
I’ll let you all know how it turns out. -
YooperDog Team Orange Masterbuilt Big Green Egg Dry Cured Sausage Sous Vide Canning Power Userreplied to Hog Pen on last edited by
Hog Pen good luck. I have seen some recipes using deer fat and I have tried some with both animals and I would go with pork fat. Deer was like eating sausage mage with a candle, the bear was like eating sausage made the a funky candle.
