Elk fatties question...?

Clay Q

I'd like make and smoke two elk fatties tonight on the small egg. I have 1.5 pounds of ground meat. Elk is very lean so I need to add some fat and I'm thinking of adding 3/4 pound ground pork along with spices. Is this good or what should I do? Thanks for your advice.

Gator Bait

 
I would like to try Elk someday, I know Molly cooks it. I have made my own sausage in the past and the amount of fat was important to how it cooked, tasted and it's dryness and tenderness. I was making an old fashion breakfast sausage shaped into patties and found that if there was not enough fat it just wasn't anywhere near as good. Having never had Elk I am not much good with what kind of fat to use. Ground up bacon could add some good flavor, ground up fat back would have less flavor and if you could find it ground up beef suite would probably have the least effect on the flavor of the Elk. In my breakfast sausage 25% fat was pretty much a minimum, if you have time I would experiment with small quantities. It sounds wonderful.

Looking forward to seeing the out come, good luck Clay,


Blair


 

GW

Wow, what a great idea. I have a ton of the stuff so let me know how it turns out. I think ground pork with spices will work good. Might think about some hot italian sausage too. I have some venison hot italian that would be real good to mix in. Might try that if it works out for you.

thirdeye

In our wild game sausage I go at least 40% ground butt. You can go as high as 50% without loosing the elk flavor. I also like to keep the wild meat grind coarse, this keeps it from getting mushy, and lets it mix with the pork better. Also be sure and temp the fatty so you don't overshoot the 160°-165° doneness, then foil wrap and rest a while. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here is a 60% lamb, 40% pork mixture coarse grind.




On another subject, can you tell me the width and height of the lower vent opening on a mini Egg?

Gator Bait

 
Oh Man! . . . That looks good!      


Blair


 

Clay Q

Man those coarse grind sausages look good. Thanks for the tip. Going to mix and blend in spices right after lunch. Will post results.

Lower draft door max opening mini egg; 1.750" width, 1.375" height. This opening is located 1.000" up from the base bottom of the egg.

BobS

You could use pork or beef fat. We had a friend that used to make deer salami for us and he used beef fat.

I think that 3/4 lb is a bit on the high side. That is 50% fat and I think 20-25 would be adequate.

Clay Q

I'm off the butcher. He will grind pork with 20% for me, no problem. This will make the elk fatties around 7% because there is next to no fat in the meat. Still lean by my estimate but more juicy and richer with the pork added, no doubt.
Thanks for the tip, I appreciate all the help I get here. :cheer: