This post is about making better beef sausages, without the use of pork or pork fat. We’re after an all-beef link that has the cohesive, juicy texture of a pork sausage.

To make a simple, fresh pork sausage we start with pork butt, ensure it contains about 25% fat (adding fatback as necessary), cube it, chill it, grind it, add 1.5% salt and 5% water by weight of pork, then mix until it binds. This yields a cohesive, juicy sausage. If we do the exact same thing with beef, say, bottom blade, which is analogous to pork butt, the final sausage will be fine, but it will not have the same, well-bound, juicy texture as the pork version. It will be slightly crumbly, and probably remind most people more of hamburger or meatloaf than a juicy bratwurst. But why is this?

I’m not a food scientist, but it seems that the myosin in beef is not as readily extractable, and then is reluctant to develop a cohesive protein network compared to pork. What can we do to improve our protein extraction and matrix formation?

Finer Grind / Progressive Grinding. If we grind finer we expose more surface area to protein extraction. For beef sausages I grind at minimum twice, say with a 1/4″ plate followed by a 3/16″ or 1/8″ plate. This doesn’t necessarily mean all our beef sausages need to have a fine even texture; see Note below.

Increased Salt Concentration. Myosin is better extracted in the presence of salt. Standard dosage when working with pork butt is 1.5%. If we increase this

Increase Water Content. I use 5% water by weight of meat for pork sausages, but 7-10% water for beef sausages.

Secondary Binders. 3.5% low-fat milk powder by weight of meat.

Longer Mixing. Pork sausages bind easily, typically with less than 60 minutes of mixing. Beef needs longer. Look for the bind.

Another Observation: For Beef Sausages, Vary the Cut when you Vary the Grind. Pork butt is relatively tough, but only compared to other cuts of pork. One technique I use to add some textural interest to simple pork sausages is to grind all the pork butt and fat through a 1/2″ plate (very coarse), then to set aside 1/3 of this mixture, and re-grind the remaining 2/3 a second time through a fine plate. This yields a nice forcemeat studded with some larger, slightly chewier chunks of meat. Beef chuck, however, is much toughter than pork butt, and if you try the same method most eaters will find the beef forcemeat chewy. So if you want a rustic, coarse texture, your larger pieces of beef should be from a more tender cut, like sirloin cap.

Standard Forumla for Beef Sausage

Ingredients

• 1 kg beef bottom blade (also called chuck eye roll) – 3:1 lean to fat (I add brisket fat if my blade is too lean)
• 1.5% kosher salt
• 0.3% Cure #1 (~5% sodium nitrite)
• 1.0% white sugar or dextrose
• 3.5% low-fat milk powder
• 10% cold water

Procedure

1. Cube the beef chuck and fat. Toss with the kosher salt and curing salt until all the salts are adhered to the surface of the beef. Spread the meat on a bake sheet lined with parchment and chill thoroughly in the freezer.
2. Grind the meat through a 1/4″ plate. Re-chill the meat. Grind a second time through a 3/16″ or 1/8″ plate.
3. Trasnfer seasoned ground beef to bowl of stand mixer. Add water. Paddle on low speed for 2 minutes. Add sugar and milk powder and paddle on medium speed for 1 minute.
4. Cook a small piece of the forcemeat and taste. Adjust salt and sugar as necessasry.