Homemade Sausage Making

Hi Guys, long time no see.

I am trying to convert some of your amazing recipes to halal/kosher using only beef chuck meat.

If a recipe says pork shoulder, this means AFAIK 20% fat already exist in the meat. That is if 1Kg of pork shoulder, 200g of fat is there or at least expected to be there.

If I replace pork shoulder with beef chuck and from my research it seems chuck contains 15% of fat. So 1Kg of chuck has 150g of fat.

And then I will top up the recipe to a desired level of fat with this conversion in mind.

For example, for Len Poli's Hot Salami-Salame Picante recipe which says
4083g pork shoulder
454g pork fat

So 816.6g fat is already exist in the pork shoulder and another 454g added in total 1270g of fat

If beef chuck is used
4083g beef chuck
454g beef back fat

Chuck has 612.45g of fat already in it. Plus 454g = 1066.45 which is short. So I add another 204.15 to get to the 1270g of fat.

Am I right in this calculation method?

I would sharpen my knives and trim the beef lean from the fat and weigh them separately. Remember that there are many types of fat in meat. The cutaneous fat just under the skin, the marbling fat within the muscles and the internal fat from around the organs. and then there is the fat on the brisket which is quite different from all of the other fat tissue on the animal. All of these fats have characteristics that are slightly different in terms of melting temperature and mouth feel. I have cut quite a bit of meat and some is more fat than other.

Thanks Ross,

So trimming is the way.

That is the way I would choose. The internal organ fat is very hard, almost like wax, The fat from the brisket seems to be softer. I would experiment with different cuts of meat and different types of fat. We already know that chuck meat is quite different than hind quarter meat. As I recall hind quarter meat is never kosher.

Pork and beef are not necessarily interchangeable. Recipes developed for pork products have spices and other seasonings that harmonize with pork but might not work with beef. What I would do is find recipes that in fact ask for beef. And be careful how much beef fat you add to the sausage.

Thanks for the advice Redzed.

So, am I right in my findings?

Beef Chuck is about 15% fat

Pork Shoulder is about 20% fat

???????????????

I have made all beef csabai in collagen casings for a friend of mine. I used 20% beef fat total
and the meat was cryovac rumpsteak. Added extra rumpsteak fat to bring it all up to 20%.
The end result was very nice, my friend and family raved on about it. I still prefer all pork shoulder Csabai sausages.
Good Luck,
Jan.

Recipes developed for pork products have spices and other seasonings that harmonize with pork but might not work with beef. What I would do is find recipes that in fact ask for beef. And be careful how much beef fat you add to the sausage.????

Tim, Do you not understand the statement? Pork has a more delicate and slightly sweet taste and beef has a more robust flavor. I often use just salt and black pepper for seasoning pork but for seasoning beef I often add the more pronounced flavors of rosemary and garlic. Sage does not work well with beef but is pleasing with pork. Most of the convention has come from long experience. Beef fat has a different mouth feel than pork fat and a different taste.
I hope that this answers some of your questions.