Meat classification

Meat for sausages

Meat Classification

Meat Color

Meat Classification

All Polish sausage recipes call for meat that belongs to a specified class: I, II, III or IV. When making a few pounds of a sausage we can use names like ham, butt or picnic, but when a meat plant makes thousands pounds of sausages a day a different system is employed. It takes a lot of knife carving to obtain meat cuts like loins, slabs of bacon, butts, hams or ribs and a butcher segregates remaining scraps of meat into corresponding piles called classes.

Understandind meat classes will help you when shopping for better deals at a local store. Instead od studying in detail a label you will study the meat cut itself to see what quality or meat class it represents. When trimming pork chops, loins or ribs for roasting, save all those remaining meat pieces by placing them in a freezer. They will make fine sausages at a later date. When trimming pork butt, save the skin and fat for later use in a head cheese or liver sausage.

Kill Floor - Photo courtesy of Koch Equipment, Kansas City, MO

Imagine a butcher cutting pork into pieces until nothing is left on the table. Before he can carve out a ham from the leg he has to separate it from the body, then cut off the lower leg, remove the bones, tendons, gristle, sinews, skin, pieces of fat etc. To get a clean piece of meat like a ham, butt or pork loin a lot of work has to be performed first that leaves scraps of meat which can not be sold in one piece.


Professional butchers carving meat. The same can be accomplished at home as show the photos on the right.		Roman says all he needs is an axe, knife and a pig. As the above picture depicts a kitchen table will do just fine.	If you trim like Paweł you will be in total control control of what goes inside of your product. Most good recipes specify how much lean, semi-fat and fat meat should be used.

Remember, the meat plant was established to bring profits to its owners, and every little piece of meat and fat, blood included is money. A recipe might call for 5 kg of pork class II B and it really does not matter whether this meat comes from ham, butt, picnic or from the container with little meat pieces as long as it fulfills the requirements of the recipe. Only after all those scraps of meats are depleted, then a meat plant may resort to using noble parts like ham or loin for sausages.

	Class II A, no bone, medium fat , some tendons. Fat between muscles up to 10 mm . No more than 30 % fat. Pork butt, also known as Boston butt. You can obtain all meat grades from pork shoulder. Class II B, no bone, some tendons. Fat between muscles up to 10 mm. No more than 45 % fat. Pork picnic (pork shoulder). You can obtain all meat grades from pork shoulder.
Class I, no bone, lean, no tendons. Fat between muscles.up to 2 mm. No more than 15 % fat Ham (rear pork leg). You can obtain all meat grades from pork leg. Pork loin is the leanest cut of all and definitely Class I. It is also expensive and ends up cooked or smoked in one piece.		Class III, lean or medium lean, with many sinews. No more than 25 % fat. Pork picnic, legs, other cuts. Picnic is a good substitute for pork head meat when making a headcheese.	Class IV, no bone, traces of blood, tendons, glands.No more than 36 % fat.Other criteria not defined. Pork picnic, legs, other cuts.

Bacon. Soft fat.	Jowl fat. Harder fat with meat in it, a good substitute for pork jowls/dewlap.	Backfat I. Hard fat, good for sausages and for making lard.	Backfat II. Hard fat, good for sausages and for making lard.

There are seven USDA Beef Grades : Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial and Utility, Non-graded beef and Natural beef. In addition there thirteen major steak names and a number of beef roasts. From a sausage making point of view all that is needed is the table that follows below :

When carving ham or butt you will get all meat classes, of course in different proportions. Picnic which is mainly class III, will also provide class II or even a piece of meat class I. It is a good substitute for pork head meat.



Class I, no none, lean, no tendons. Fat between muscles-none. No more than 7 % fat.	Class II , no bone, lean, some tendons. Fat between muscles up to 2 mm . No more than 16 % fat	Class III, fat beef. Fat between muscles up to 10 mm. No more than 45 % fat.	Class IV, no bone, traces of blood, tendons, glands. No more than 40 % fat.

Beef fat also called tallow or suet.


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