Beef meat for sausages and meat grades

Home
Sausage Recipes

Pork Grades of Meat

Beef Grades of Meat

Beef meat for sausages

There are many sausage recipes that require that some beef will be added to pork. Some are made entirely of beef. Beef when finely ground has excellent water binding qualities. Beef like pork needs some fat to taste juicy and to have good flavor. To make a decent, juicy hamburger standard ground beef needs 18 - 20 % of fat.

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 what is most needed is the fat content in a particular meat. Almost all ground meat sold in supermarkets has a fat content listed on the label and by referring to the table below, one can choose meat correctly and wisely.

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