Walton's Summer Sausage H

[Marty1979]

Looking for some advise for my first batch of Walton’s Summer Sausage. In the past I’ve used 17lb of venison and 8lb of pork butts. Is this a good ratio? I’ve never added a binder before, but see other people suggest this.
I really enjoy reading everyone’s questions and the knowledgeable answers.
Thanks for the help.

[Jonathon]

Marty1979 if we assume that your venison is 0% fat and your pork butt is 30% fat (a bit generous but its a good round number and should be close) then what you have is basically 30% (technically 32% but again, nice round #) of you entire meat block (25 b) being 30% fat, so you will have

So, that gives us 22.6 lb of lean and 2.4 of fat. This would be a fat % of around 10%. I’d recommend that you increase that fat content to at least 20% for the best tasting product.

FYI I was born in 79 too!

[Jonathon]

Sorry, the above formatted terribly once I hit submit so I took a screen shot of it and inserted it. The # is on the top and whether it is Lean or Fat is on the bottom.

[PapaSop]

Marty1979
I used those same quantities for a long time. Then I started hanging around this place. I now use 50/50 venison, pork butts. Better result and also stretches that precious venison a little.

One I started using a binder, aka Sure Gel, getting better protein extraction and a better finished product.

[Marty1979]

Jonathon
Thanks Jonathon, unfortunately I graduated in 1979.
Thanks again.

[Marty1979]

PapaSop
How much binder would you add to a 25lb batch ? Sure Gel would be a better binder than the high temp nonfat dry milk?

[kyle]

Marty1979 I use 50/50 also. I think if you buy sure gel from Waltons, I believe one pack is for a 25# batch, but I have not used it before. I use soy protein powder or nonfat dry milk in mine. I put 2 1/2 cups per 25# batch

[PapaSop]

Marty1979
Yep, what kyle said.

[Marty1979]

kyle Thank you everyone for your help. Just received a new smoker and hoping to do more and better smoking projects.

[bocephus]

Jonathon 1979, still just a pup!

[Marty1979]

bocephus I try to keep that outlook.

[Jonathon]

bocephus Oh no, pup no longer, maybe not a grizzled vet yet, but my body has been through the ringer do to abuse I put it through from about 12 to 30 years old!

[bocephus]

Jonathon I graduated high school before you were born. Reminds me of a day at work where we all talked about the year we graduated HS, one of the guys I was working with started to snicker, and he said that was the year he was born. Made him do all the heavy lifting the rest of the week.

[calldoctoday]

bocephus Whipper Snapper.