All Beef Sausage Recipes

The specific cut of beef that you use isn't all that important when you are grinding it into sausage meat. It should be of good quality of course, but it need not come from the "expensive" parts of the cow.

Beef for Sausage

The only real considerations in choosing a cut of beef to grind for all beef sausage are price and fat content. With some of the more lean cuts, you'll find you need to use additional fat to get a good product.

You could always add pork fat or trimmings, but if you are trying to keep to an all beef sausage, you should add beef fat or suet.

• Beef Chuck
  
  This is, for me, the best kind of beef to make into sausage. It has a relatively high fat content and is one of the more economical cuts.

  Just like the Boston butt cut of pork, chuck comes from the front shoulder and lower neck muscles of the cow.

  When you use chuck to make sausage, you will likely not need to add any additional fat to the meat mixture

  
  
• Eye of Round and Sirloin Tip
  
  These come from the hip and upper portion of the cow's rear leg. Both cuts are very good, but do tend to be a bit more lean (and expensive) than the chuck.

  I almost always find that I need to add fat to the mixture when I use either of these cuts for grinding into sausage.

  
  
• Brisket, Short Plate, and Flank
  
  These tough cuts of beef come from the belly section of the animal, and used to be quite inexpensive. You will now probably pay a premium for them, thanks to the popularity of BBQ and ethnic dishes these days.

  I seldom use Brisket and flank for sausage making anymore, because of the price, but if you are butchering your own beef you may have a reasonable supply to use.

  Just remember that all of these cuts are very lean and fibrous. They will definitely need the help of additional fat to make good sausage meat, and they work best when ground finely.

  
  
• Hamburger
  
  Hamburger is ground beef. Sometimes the butcher specifies the cut that it was ground from (ground round, ground chuck), but what is more important is the fat content listed on the label. I always look for approximately 15% fat.

  I see nothing wrong with using hamburger in any of my sausage recipes. I may decide to re-grind it if I want the texture different than it comes from the store, but it is, after all, "ground beef".

  If you watch the specials at your meat counter, you can sometimes get very good deals on ground beef. If you trust your meat cutter to give good quality product, why not save some money and effort.
  
  
  
  

  

  Dead Simple Beef Summer Sausage
  
  All Beef Chorizo
  
  European Beef Sausage Recipe
  
  Beef Breakfast Sausage Recipe
  
  Beef Bangers
  
  Kosher Hot Dogs
  
  Rustic Beef Hotdogs
  
  

  

  
  
  
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