What kind of "beef" do you prefer in your pork/beef sausage??

[HowlingDog]

Went to Costco today and picked up a 17lb pack of pork shoulder butt and a pork belly (for a little extra fat) because I am running out of sausage. Generally, I only use the pork shoulder butt, but I have received a couple comments that the sausage from the Costco pack is a smidge dry. so a little belly fat will hopefully add some flavor. Gonna make some pizza sausage from a recipe I cobbled together, some breakfast, maybe some variation of Polish but I want to make a new sausage that is a beef mix. If I had to pick which sausage I may try to make, it would be a Texas Hot Link style.

I did some searching on the forum and some recipes I have seen just say Beef. A fair number of folks seem to use basic store bought ground beef. A few use either chuck or brisket. There didn't seem to be any real consensus and since I have some ground beef in the freezer, I may use that, but what is your general go to Beef in a pork/beef sausage?

Oh, and don't worry about the belly. Whatever I do not cut off for the sausage will become bacon, because.... BACON!!!!

Thx for sharing your go to Beef!!

HowlingDog

 

[DanMcG]

I'd go with lean beef since you have the fat covered with the pork. Any cut would do for me.

 

[SmokinAl]

I usually use brisket trim, but in this case it may be too fatty.
Al

 

[chopsaw]

I agree with Dan . Go for something lean . I use the clean trim and tails from sub primals I break down .
This is what I end up with from a beef knuckle .

 

[indaswamp]

All great advice given. I would use any lean cut I could get for a decent price. That's usually Top round.
I also save all the brisket trimmings like Al....it makes great sausage fat and we also use it in the venison/beef 50/50 bulk grind we make on processing day.
FYI- tallbm has a great Texas hot gut sausage recipe posted on SMF....he has it dialed in.....

 

[HowlingDog]

Thanks Everyone! Guess I will mosey to Ralphs/Smart & Final to see what they have available. Sounds like for sausage beef is just beef and nothing really specific. For some reason, I kinda expected a friendly spirited debate on chuck vs brisket vs round vs rib eye....

Thanks Inda... I looked at tallbm's Texas hot gut and will give it a try with a minor mod or two (a bit less cayenne).

Have a great day All.....

 

[jimmyinsd]

if you want great beef flavor and thats why you are adding the beef, IMO sirloin is the most flavorful cut on the animal, and is pretty lean. Also it wont break the bank for price. if you want to find something that already provides a fair amount of beef fat with the lean beef, then brisket or chuck would be my go to, or just ground beef, but I raise my own and have a pretty good idea what is going into my ground beef, i might be a bit more selective if I was buying the beef from a discount mart or other.