Fresh Chorizo, the Easy Way
 | Author:
Eileen Clarke - Rifles and Recipes
Author: Rifles and Recipes |
Fresh Chorizo, the Easy Way
Eileen Clarke
Rifles and Recipes
I’ve heard a lot of people say 25% fat is ‘perfect’ for wild game sausage, but I’ve never bought into that theory. I’ve eaten that game sausage. It’s way too dry for me.
Simply put, game sausage should give us the same pleasure that commercial meat sausage does. Not quite fat dripping down your arm, but a definite ‘Ahhh’ at the first bite. To get that rich and pleasurable mouth-feel in wild sausage, it takes more than 25%. Hillshire Farms beef sausage for instance, is 31% fat, more than 20% more fat than that 25% some think is perfect
Let’s do a bit of simple math: Using 1 pound of ground, carefully trimmed wild venison with ½ pound of fat (be it pork or beef fat) combines for a 33% ratio. There’s a bit more math though: A 4-ounce serving of beef flank steak has more than 9 grams of total fat, with nearly 4 of those being saturated. Venison contains 3 grams of total fat and only 1 of those grams is saturated.
Just a tiny bit more math?
I did an experiment when writing Sausage Season, my wild game sausage cookbook. I cooked one 4 ounce patty of commercial beef sausage in a cast iron pan, and a 4 ounce patty of my sausage (1 pound lean to 1/2 pound fat) in a second cast iron pan. When they each reached 170°F, I removed the patties and poured the rendered fat left in each pan into 2 measuring cups. Each measuring cup held exactly the same rendered fat. Why? Read the last sentence of that third paragraph again.
Fresh Chorizo
1 pound ground venison
½ pound finely ground beef fat
½ cup minced jalapeno peppers (about 1½ 6” jalapenos)
2 tablespoons garlic, minced (about 6 cloves)
⅓ cup grated Mexican Cheese Blend, tamped down
2 teaspoons kosher (or non-iodized) salt
1½ teaspoons baking soda, dissolved in
3 tablespoons cold water
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Grind together the venison and beef fat.
Throw all the ingredients into a large bowl. Mix thoroughly, then chill 24 hours to let the flavors fully develop, and the salt work on the meat protein (myosin).
After 24 hours, place the meat mixture in a stand mixer bowl and mix on medium about 2 minutes, or until the sausage clings to the paddle. (You should be able to suspend the sausage-laden paddle over the bowl and not have any of it drop off. [If it does, mix it a bit longer, until it doesn’t drop off].) Now you can wrap and freeze it for later, or cook it right away. No need to case. Sausage is delicious as patties too.
To enjoy: shape into patties and cook on medium-high heat in a skillet until all the pink is gone, about 170F.
Eileen’s wild game book, Sausage Season, has over 70 sausage recipes, plus the science behind creating the texture that’s the magic of sausage. (Not the crumblies of ground venison.) https://www.riflesandrecipes.com/406-521-0273.
Eileen Clarke
https://www.riflesandrecipes.com
406-521-0273
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PhotoCredit: Photo Credit: Eileen Clarke
Image 1 Caption: Bear sausage
Photo Credit: Eileen Clarke
