Breakfast Sausage Fat Content.

[Bruce56BB]

Can a too high fat content overpower the seasonings?

We have done 350 pounds of Holly breakfast sausage for several years now and all of them have turned out great, except our last batch. It has a very strong fresh pork taste to it. Everything has been done the same:
Ground and mixed in 25 pound batches
Stuffed in 1 pound meat bags and froze.

The only difference this year was our hogs had more fat on them. Could that be our issue with the strong “pork” taste?

[Austin]

@Bruce56BB
Usually, adding fat to sausage will add to the overall flavor and help the seasoning flavor come through more, but at some point, more and more fat can overpower in a way. Too much fat can start to make the meat just taste fattier and the texture can be slightly different which can slightly affect flavor. However, with a breakfast sausage, it is typical to see fat ratios between 20 and 30% and even up to 40% at times. I wouldn’t expect to notice the fat ratio affecting things adversely until it was pushing that 40% mark.

Do you have any idea on what your fat ratio would have been?
Do you have a way of comparing the taste between the different 25 lb batches to see if it was just a few select batches and the mixing not being perfect, or did the meat bags get mixed up together afterwards?

[Bruce56BB]

@Austin We do not have any way to accurately measure the fat content.As the mixing is done in bulk and the different tubes of sausage have had a consistent flavor.The hams,roasts, chops and bacon all turned out great. So it wasn’t “bad” hogs.

[Austin]

@Bruce56BB Was the seasoning recently bought, or was it leftover from an older purchase?
Seasoning doesn’t go bad, but we recommend to use it within 1 year because potency can dissipate over time.
If the seasoning was newer, I’ll see what else I can find for possible causes, but there is a chance it could be older seasoning.

[Bruce56BB]

@Austin No, the seasoning was purchased just prior to processing.

[Austin]

@Bruce56BB I’m running out of ideas. Probably is just the fact that the hogs had a bit more fat, and they have just a slightly different/stronger flavor. There’s nothing else I can really associate to it other than that.

[djtcds]

@Bruce56BB one thing to look at is if any of the hogs were boars or possibly cut late. They can give off a strong taste in fact old boars are sometimes condemned for it at slaughter.