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I found a beef sausage recipe using ground beef. The flavor is great, but it fries up kind of stiff. I was wondering if I could put oatmeal or something in it to give it a more spongy texture, like traditional pork sausage. My question is: How can I make my ground beef breakfast sausage have a pork texture?

Aaronut
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Blaine
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    What kind of ground beef did you use? I believe that pork sausage is usually in the 30-35% fat range so if you used a leaner ground beef (like 90/30 or 80/20) that could contribute to the "stiff" result. I would think you would need to buy at least 70/30 to hope to have a good result. – djmadscribbler Feb 11 '14 at 18:05
  • I'll try that, and keep you posted on the result. Thanks, in the mean time if you across another recipe let me know. – Blaine Feb 11 '14 at 18:56

2 Answers2

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Professional charcutier here. We usually only make beef sausage from grass fed beef, which means our ground beef is very lean. Depending on the recipe, we have various tricks for improving the texture:

  • We add beef fat if available to add richness, or even pork fat if we don't have enough beef fat.

  • For a 5lb batch of ground beef for hamburgers, we'll add an egg or two and that
    will give it some cohesion.

  • As thatdude says, cooked rice is a good way to give your sausage some starchiness, as in boudin.

  • You could try mixing your sausage with heavy cream in addition to
    adding eggs (as is done with traditional bratwurst)

  • Add about half a cup of milk powder for every 5 pounds of sausage.

Any one of the above should accomplish what you're seeking. You can even combine some methods. In our bratwurst, we add milk powder, eggs, and heavy cream. Experiment and see where your texture is after that!

JoshieSimmons
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  • How does milk powder affect the batter? – Captain Giraffe Feb 11 '14 at 22:11
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    Since milk powder is dried milk, adding liquid reconstitutes it. Most sausages require some kind of liquid to mix with (this is what, in part, creates a cohesive sausage.) Adding milk powder to a sausage will make it richer and give it body. – JoshieSimmons Feb 11 '14 at 22:29
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Another alternative would be to possibly try adding rice to the sausage like a boudan (sp?) that you would find in Louisiana and Alabama. This may change the flavor a little bit, but it will make it a softer sausage.

thatdude38
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