ground hamburger for sausage?

[double rr]

I was cosidering using ground beef from sams or costco to save time and keep from grinding myself they usually have a 10-20 percent fat ratio at a good price  which works for me but the grind is fine and i know twice grind is standard for hamburger i want to make a beef sausage with the 10 percent fat however in concerned about how the finished product will turn out i have never used a fine grind myself 3/8 in plate is what i use , i also thought it would be good for snack sticks and summersausage ? seems like i read somewhere if you use a fine grind the sausage will be chewy -rubbery thanks for any help.

 

[woodcutter]

I was cosidering using ground beef from sams or costco to save time and keep from grinding myself they usually have a 10-20 percent fat ratio at a good price  which works for me but the grind is fine and i know twice grind is standard for hamburger i want to make a beef sausage with the 10 percent fat however in concerned about how the finished product will turn out i have never used a fine grind myself 3/8 in plate is what i use , i also thought it would be good for snack sticks and summersausage ? seems like i read somewhere if you use a fine grind the sausage will be chewy -rubbery thanks for any help.

It is more your personal preference on the texture of what ever kind of sausage you are making. Wieners, baloney etc. normally are ground much finer than what you mentioned. Brats, summer sausage etc. is usually coarse ground. It depends on what you like.

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Of course you can use it, but I don't think it's a good idea, often there's a lot of fat spear in commercially ground meat, and that sure ain't a good thing when you're making sausage.
I also avoid all pre-ground meat due to potential high pathogen count.



~Martin

 

[shannon127]

X2

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Yes you can

Get the GB in the clear chubs at Sams. I use it allot and never had any problems.
 

 

[reinhard]

I have used ground beef as an additive over the years. For example if i have 7 pounds of pork butt left over but want to do 10 pounds of sausage i go buy a 3 pound chub of ground chuck. Beef  adds flavor to sausage as well. Yes i prefer to grind all the meat myself but there is nothing wrong with using ground beef.. Texture would be an issue for some as it is for me, but i dont use ground beef exclusivly for that would be too fine for me. For an all beef sausage i do buy chuck roast when they are on sale.  Personaly, using all ground beef is fine for jerky but for someone who likes a medium or course grind sausage it just comes down to texture for me. Remember ground beef is ground twice as a rule already. Reinhard

 

[snorkelinggirl]

Of course you can use it, but I don't think it's a good idea, often there's a lot of fat spear in commercially ground meat, and that sure ain't a good thing when you're making sausage.
I also avoid all pre-ground meat due to potential high pathogen count.



~Martin

Martin, a question.  If you used pre-ground meat to make a cured sausage like summer sausage, would the Cure #1 kill all the pathogens (or does it work on botulinum spores only)? 

Just trying to further my education in sausage making!  Thank you!!

Clarissa

 

[diggingdogfarm]

According to the meat science books I've read, there's a lot of conflicting information on how reliably effective nitrite is on pathogens other than botulinum.



~Martin

 

[snorkelinggirl]

According to the meat science books I've read, there's a lot of conflicting information on how reliably effective nitrite is on pathogens other than botulinum.



~Martin

Thanks for the info!  I'd been thinking of Cure #1 as a silver bullet for all pathogens, but sounds like maybe not. Good meat handling practices still required!

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Thanks for the info!  I'd been thinking of Cure #1 as a silver bullet for all pathogens, but sounds like maybe not. Good meat handling practices still required!

It's definitely not a silver bullet.

Here's just one example:
Nitrite isn't a reliable preventive of listeria growth at levels less than 1000 ppm, way more than the recommended maximum level.

Advanced Technologies For Meat Processing - Google

• diggingdogfarm
• Jun 2, 2013

Source: Advanced Meat Technologies.

Food safety is a statistical phenomenon.
If food is highly contaminated with pathogens and resulting toxins (a very realistic possibility in the case of pre-ground meat) you may get sick even if you follow the safety guidelines; if it is not highly contaminated with pathogens and toxins then you may get away with a lot. Unfortunately, there's no reliable way for us common folk to determine pathogen and toxin load, you can not smell pathogens and their resulting toxins.
That's why I avoid pre-ground meat and buy meat that's as far from the best by/use by date as possible, especially if I don't intend to cook it immediately.

~Martin

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Hey i had a silver bullet, but i drank it

 

[snorkelinggirl]

Hey i had a silver bullet, but i drank it

I bet that killed off any pathogens in your stomach! 

 

[double rr]

thanks for all the info, always great here i never thought about pathogens thanks martin i just wanted something that i could mix and stuff i think i will try a small batch just to experiance the texture of a fine grind i usually use a brisket or deer to grind for meat ,reinhard i will try a chuck roast next time thanks again!

 

[diggingdogfarm]

I'm a bit OCD and I'm especially cautious since one of my cousins was poisoned by the toxins in "fully cooked" ground beef several years ago.


~Martin

 

[bbqonice]

old school Ukrainian sausage maker here.

Use ground meat all the time.  Certainly want to get as fresh as you can but once you add cure...we use TQ exclusively....all is good.  Our regular recipie is beef with Deer or Beef with 70/30 ground pork, etc.  Hot smoke for couple of hours then hot bath to fully cook it.

then ice bath.

when to eat just heat through broil, bbq, microwave, etc.

 

[roller]

I use it all the time...even use ground pork from the market..

 

[snoopkat]

Hey, SorkelingGirl, what is "fat spear" you refer to in the above post?  Thanx!  sk

 

[BGKYSmoker]

 
Hey, SorkelingGirl, what is "fat spear" you refer to in the above post?  Thanx!  sk

That may have been a typo and meant to be fat-smear.

 

[pafret]

Digging;

I agree with you on the pathogen situation with pre-ground meat.  You used a term I am not familiar with, "fat spear", can you enlighten me?

 

[chef jimmyj]

Most Tube Beef is A LOT more sanitary than anything you buy on Foam Trays at the grocery store. The national packers have very strict cleanliness regulations, HACCP Programs and Sanitation practices they follow so Beef can be ground in the midwest, be stored, transported across the country to a grocery chains warehouse, sit in cold storage there until ordered by the individual stores, transported again across the State, then sits in the Grocery stores refer and in the Case until the consumer buys it. This process can take 3 weeks or more. Go to the Piggly Wiggly, buy a pound of Ground Beef on the Pink Foam trays, ground in house by minimum wage, undertrained, can't give a crap meat room workers who ran the Beef through the dirty grinder after working up the Ground Chicken on Special, and let THAT sit in your Refer for 3 weeks and see what you got!

Yes, there are Butchers and Meat Dept. Managers that take great care of their product and hold high standards. Yes, bad stuff happens at the National Packing Houses and people get sick off of Tube Beef. We see recalls from time to time.  But, overall, I will take Tube Beef anyday over the stuff on the Foam Trays! I have been eating Med/Rare Tube Beef Burgers in my home, fed it to my Family and have used Tube Beef over 20 years in the Restaurants I worked and nobody ever got sick...JJ