Homemade Sausage Making

Pretty much every recipe I see for beef sausage seems to include pork fat. I have people ask me for all-beef sausages, but I've read that beef fat behaves differently than pork fat once cooked and gets quite greasy and leaks. I don't want to use any binding agents if I can avoid it. A supplier near me has decent prices for brisket point which I'm considering playing with as it should have a decent amount of fat to it.

Has anyone one made fresh sausages with all beef? How did it go? Any tips?

See my question to jcflorida on page 84 viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5407&start=1245 where he sent me to this page http://twoguysandacooler.com/making-a-100-beef-salami/

sorry - realized you were looking for fresh not a salami....my bad

I make smoked all beef sausage using brisket flat and brisket fat at about 80/20. There is very little connective tissue in this, so mixing enough to get a good bind is quite difficult and not always entirely successful. Lately, I've given up and used non fat milk powder to improve the bind. But its cooked, and you asked for fresh. I've read somewhere that beef sausage can be made using "suet". All I know about suet is that birds like it in the winter and that it is fat from somewhere on a cow.

I have also made a fresh Brazilian sausage that contains only beef and beef fat. But it also contains milk and cheese so those are probably considered "fillers". The sausage is delicious. Here's a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL6r9r9aDfU&t=41s . Its in Portuguese, but the recipe in English is given in the text below.

The meat supplier that I mentioned above does sell suet which I was considering using, but again it's the question of how beef fat behaves during cooking/grilling.

@jcflorida - You say you had trouble achieving a good bind? I think I've read (here or possibly in a book) that beef has a HIGHER level of myocin which I thought meant getting a good bind was easier. I'm slightly confusing by your experience. Also, connective tissue doesn't enter into it from what I've been led to believe, as the salt draws the proteins out of the meat itself. Am I wrong?

LinkMeAllOver wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 06, 2021 15:34

jcflorida - You say you had trouble achieving a good bind

Just passing along my experience, If the reason is other than my assumption, so be it.
I make small batches for just the two of us. Either mix by hand or with Kitchen Aid mixer. So maybe that has something to do with it.

I'm not a fan of all beef sausage but this topic piqued my curiosity. The Marianski's kosher Beef Sausage calls out for "beef fat (suet)" Then other recipes call for "beef with connective tissue" and any type of beef trimmings, like in their Polish Beef Sausage.
I never heard of using suet, or beef sausage needing connective tissue, so I guess I learned two new things today!

Well, the grocery store had a sale on some top sirloin (not my favourite cut, but whatever) with a good looking fat cap on it. I'm going to do a test batch today and I'll report back.

Well, I made them and they kinda sucked. Lol. It's hard to know where I went wrong, but it's likely a combination of:
- I screwed up the fat percentage with dumb math. I wanted 70-30 but ended up with 77-23.
- I added a bit of vinegar to the mix at the end. Not a ton (a tablespoon, so about 15 grams to 800g meat)
- It was 100% beef as planned

The bind seemed okay during the mix but it felt weird after I stuffed them. Not sure how to describe it, but the farce felt "moveable" inside the casing. After cooking, they leaked a lot of water when you cut into them (I rested them for a good 5-8 min. first) and were dry. Not terrible, but not great.

I guess I'll try again with no vinegar (the recipe I was playing with was Boerwors) and a higher amount of fat. I'm not wild about the idea of using soy protein or milk powder, but if I have to then so be it.

Post some pics and the recipe. Also what size plate did you use to grind? Temps of meat while grinding? Etc. I haven't done all beef but am hoping to try tomorrow myself, but I personally find with pork I like the ratio 70/30 and can even increase the fat a bit from there if I feel the sausage warrants or to use things up. I have no idea if beef can handle the same ratios.

I don't really have any pics, unfortunately. I neglected to take some and froze the remainder.

Recipe:
1480g beef
10g coriander
1g nutmeg
2g allspice
4g pepper
1g clove
20g salt
1 tbsp vinegar + 1 cup water

Old post, I know, but bargain priced whole cuts of beef sure do dry cure well. Better than all beef sausage in my humble opinion. I've made a "bresaola" out of all kinds of lean cuts called "Steak" with a lot of success, that probably would have been as tough as a shoe off the grill.
Good luck though and please share a recipe when you come across a winner. We raise beef, so always have quite a supply. We have success with a farmer style dry sausage about 60-70% lean beef and the balance pork trimmings.80-20 would probably work too, obviously not 100% beef, though. My two cents.

There are some very good options for in the recipe list compiled by Stan Marianski. For starters, take a look at Boerewors, English Beef sausage, Kosher beef Sausage, Epping Sausage, Brazilian Linguica, Makanek, and Butifarra. You can also make an excellent Merguez, substituting the lamb with beef. The recipes are here: https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes Beef makes a great sausage, especially when its grilled.