re: Elk meat

Killed a bull a few weeks ago. Ate some blackstrap, 2 roasts and 3 packs of ground meat so far. Did it all myself and didn't add anything to the meat . I was pretty picky about what got into the grinder though (very little tendon, fascia ,etc). It has been VERY good. Had tacos and burgers so far and both have been great.

My read is , the posters who are adding 5% fat are adding pure fat . The 40% is alternate meat-fat combo.

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So try to find straight beef fat or can I find fatty ground meat and use it?

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Yes, and again the percentages get tossed around so much that people get them mixed up.

30-40% blend = using ground beef or boston butt

5-10% blend = using PURE fat that has been gotten from a butcher or trimmed from something

Most people feel like a 5% final fat content is the best. Most ground beef has a fat % on the label. So for instance if I was to buy 1lb of 80% lean ground beef its assumed to be 20% fat. That means to get to 5% final fat I would add that 1lb of ground beef to 3lbs of elk. Alternatively, I could add half a pound of fat trimmings to 9.5lbs of elk. Beef vs pork and pure fat vs meat will depend on taste and how easy it is to get.