Sausages were commonly made out of brisket once upon a time, but with the growing popularity of smoking and barbecue, the price of brisket has gone up. What was once a really cheap and tough cut of meat can now fetch premium prices. Another reason for this rather specific type of beef sausage is the prevalence of having sausages made from random beef parts all glued together to make a sausage. With beef brisket sausages, you’re sure that all of the meat in your sausage comes from a certain part and not just a bunch of trimmings lumped together.
Beef Brisket Sausage Trivia
- The sausage was mentioned in “The Odyssey” when Homer compares Odysseus to a fat sausage.
- Germany produces the most varieties of sausages with over a thousand combinations.
- Most commercial beef sausage uses synthetic casings as opposed to traditional hog casings.
- The term sausage comes from the Latin Word “salsus” which means salted.
- The longest sausage was 62,745 meters long, this was made in Romania in 2014.
Beef Brisket Sausage Buying Guide
When buying beef brisket sausage from supermarkets, check the ingredients tab for the following ingredients and make your decisions after.
- TVP — Textured Vegetable Protein. This is exactly what it sounds like, a vegetable protein that is treated to feel like meat. This is used as an extender to bulk up the sausage.
- Wheat Flour—Another extender used to bulk up the sausage and reduce costs.
- Hydrolyzed Soy Protein—Used as a binder as well as to bulk up the sausage to reduce costs.
- MDM/Mechanically Deboned Meat—This is basically meat glue. Meat from whichever part of the animal that has meat all mixed into one homogenized paste.
One of the reasons you will be paying a premium for beef brisket sausage is because you’ll want beef brisket in your sausage, and not starch or vegetable protein.
Beef Brisket Sausage Production & Farming in Texas
Commercial Beef Brisket Sausage Production
Large-scale commercial beef brisket production involves standard sausage-making processes. The meat, in this case, brisket, is ground up to the required size before being blended up with a mix of spices, binders, and preservatives for maximum shelf life. Depending on the target demographic or the price range of the product, extenders like soy protein or MDM may be added. Once the blending is complete, the meat is stuffed into synthetic sausage casings. These casings are made from collagen harvested from pork and cowhide. Synthetic casing is the preferred casing as this produces uniform-sized sausages.
After the meat is stuffed, it is then cooked in a walk-in oven where it can be cooked with just dry heat or smoked, depending on the requirement.
After smoking, the sausages are then packed in vacuum-sealed plastic containers to prolong their shelf life and ensure maximum viability.
Additional information: Meat sources for commercially produced sausages may be sourced from multiple farms and growers. This means that the source of the meat cannot be easily pinpointed to one source.
Traditional or Artisan Beef Brisket Sausage Production
Specialized butchers and artisanal sausage makers also produce beef brisket sausage. Their stocks are usually sold directly to the consumer or at farmers’ markets.
Production usually starts with meat selection. The meat is sourced from cattle that they raised themselves and the majority of the time, these cattle are grass-fed and raised organically. The brisket is then trimmed to remove the excess fat (hitting the perfect ratio of fat to meat) and the gristle. The meat is then ground up and mixed with herbs and spices to get the taste that they’re aiming for.
Depending on the producer, they may add some smoked brisket to emphasize the smoked brisket flavor to the sausage.
The mixture is then stuffed into natural casings before being smoked for three to four hours.
The sausages are then packed in vacuum-sealed bags to preserve the quality and increase shelf life.
With proper production methods, artisan beef brisket sausages can be made with minimal preservative use. Although very time consuming and may be a little bit expensive, it is still a healthier and tastier choice.
Preservatives and Chemicals:
For sausages, the following preservatives are just some that are added to commercially made beef brisket sausages:
- Sodium Phosphate—This is used as an emulsifier and acidity regulator.
- Sodium Erythorbate—Used to speed up the curing process.
- Sodium Nitrite—Sodium nitrite is added as a curing agent, as well as to prevent botulism.
- Sodium Diacetate—This is added to prevent microbial growth
- Sodium Lactate — A preservative, acidity regulator, and bulking agent.
Now with all of those chemicals added to commercial beef brisket sausages, it’s not surprising to see a lot of sodium and preservative-linked conditions come up. There are still artisanal sausage producers out there that properly cure their sausage the traditional way and make sausages safely without the overuse of chemicals.
Packaging:
Sausages, both commercial and artisanal are often vacuum-packed in plastic bags to prevent contamination and to extend shelf life.
Enjoying Beef Brisket Sausages
Most beef brisket sausages are “Heat and Eat.” This means that they are ready to enjoy with minimal preparation.
Storage:
Store unopened beef brisket sausage packs in the fridge for up to a month. Once the pack is open, they can stay good inside the fridge for up to a week or two, but they do tend to dry out if they’re not in an airtight container.
Unopened beef brisket sausage still in their vacuum-sealed packs can be stored in the freezer for up to six months. Once the pack is open, you can either place the sausages in a freezer-safe container or re-bag it in a Ziploc bag and store in the freezer for up to two months.
Cooking:
Even though beef brisket sausages are pre-cooked, it is always a good idea to heat them up to 165 degrees to kill any foodborne bacteria that might have contaminated it.
The most popular way to prepare beef brisket sausages is to throw it on the grill. This enhances its smoky flavor and gives it a nice visual touch with the grill marks. You can also heat the beef brisket sausage on the stovetop or inside the oven to hit that 165-degree mark.
