Are you a corned beef lover? I am, and one of my favorite ways to use corned beef is on a Reuben Sandwich. In today’s post we are going to take all those flavors and elements and turn this classic sandwich into a sausage.
What cut of meat to use?
The first thing to consider is meat selection when making this sausage. Beef Brisket is a popular cut of meat for corned beef but since we are grinding it all up you can technically use any cut of beef you want. Just make sure that you have at least 20% – 30% fat in this recipe. A well marbled piece of chuck steak works great.. Using a lean cut is also not out of the question as long as you can buy high quality beef fat from your local butcher. It all works. The only real trick that you need to remember is to keep your meat cold at all times (below 34f). This is where an instant read thermometer comes in real handy! We use the Thermapen One (from ThermoWorks) for instant and accurate readings!
Is High Temp Cheese Necessary?
High temp cheese is great when you don’t want cheese to melt during the cooking process. In this case I want the cheese to melt and get all gooey, so I’ll leave that choice up to you. Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary and melted swiss cheese all over your sausage just adds a delicious creaminess and mouthfeel that otherwise you wouldn’t get..
Is Potato Starch Really Necessary?
We get this question a lot. Using potato starch is not necessary. It does act as a very good binder and helps hold in some of the moisture. So by using potato starch you would end up with an inherently juicer sausage with a better texture. If you don’t have potato starch you could also use High Heat Non Fat Milk Powder, Carrot fiber, Soy protein Concentrate (or isolate), nutritional yeast, or even corn starch. These all do similar things. Just remember that adding a binder to your sausage is always optional and you can just as easily omit it from the recipe with no issues.
I don’t have all those spices, can I still make this sausage?
Corned beef is a unique combination of pickling spices. It’s what gives this cured meat it’s signature flavor. If you don’t have all of the spices to make this sausage, don’t worry. One easy way to make the Reuben sausage is to buy a pack of corned beef (not cooked) from the supermarket. You can either get the kind that has already been “corned” or you can buy the one that has the seasoning packet included. Your end result will taste slightly different but the “spirit” of this sausage will be the same. Just make sure the meat is not cooked, otherwise it will not work.
What should you do if you can’t find Rye Buns?
A Reuben with out Rye bread just isn’t a Reuben. So, if you can’t find rye buns and your local baker refuses to help you out, you can make this sausage as a patty (with no casing). The end result will still be the same (just in a different form). Follow the recipe below and instead of placing the sausages into a casing, simply form them into patties. Enjoy!!
Here are a few things you might find useful when making sausage
- High Quality Natural Casings (AA Grade)
- Kotai Kitchen Knives (for 15% off use discount code – 2guys )
- MK4 Thermapen (Accurate Thermometer)
- Mortar & Pestle (Extra Large)
- 26mm-28mm sheep casings
- #12 Meat Grinder
- Potato Starch
- Meat Mixers
- Sausage Stuffers
- Custom Cutting Board
Enjoy the video and the recipe. If you have any questions feel free to ask away. If you make this at home I’d love to hear about how it came out!!
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Reuben Sausage
Ingredients
- 1000 g Beef 70/30 I used beef brisket but any beef cut will work, just make sure your fat content is between 20% and 30%
- 15 g kosher salt
- 2.5 g Insta Cure #1
- 8.5 g turbinado sugar white sugar will work
- 7 g black pepper
- 2 g ground ginger
- 2 g cinnamon powder
- 4 g mustard seeds
- 4 g toasted coriander seeds
- 2 g all spice berries
- 2 each juniper berries use 2 juniper berries for every kilo of meat
- 3 each whole cloves use 3 cloves for every kilo of meat
- 2 each bay leaves use 2 bay leaves for every kilo of meat
- 20 g potato starch ADD TO THE MEAT WHEN MIXING
- 70 ml ice cold water
- 100 g swiss cheese cut into small cubes
- sausage casings any size you want
For the sandwich
- Rye Bread Bun
- Russian Dressing you can use 1000 Island dressing
- Sauerkraut
Instructions
- Clean meat, cut into small strips or cubes, then weigh the meat and fat. Enter that number in the section that reads "How much do you want to make" in grams. The recipe calculator will take care of the rest..
- Once your meat has been weight place it in the freezer to partially freeze. You want the temperature of your meat to be below 34f (1c)
- Grind any whole spices you might have using a Mortar & Pestle (or a spice grinder). Combine the freshly ground spices with the rest of the spices and set to the side. DO NOT ADD THE POTATO STARCH AT THIS STEP (THIS WILL BE ADDED WHEN WE MIX THE MEAT)
- Grind your partially frozen meat and fat on a 8mm plate (10mm is you like a more course sausage).
- Mix the meat with your spice mix, cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.
- After the 12 hour rest in the refrigerator, rechill your meat. You want the temperature below 34f (1c).
- Once your meat has been rechilled, add the potato starch and the ice cold water and mix till the meat becomes very sticky. As soon as this happens add the cubed swiss cheese and mix till everything is well incorporated.
- Stuff into your sausage casings but do not prick the casings (we don't want that cheese to ooze out😉). At this point you can freeze your sausages for later or cook them.
- Cook your sausage on a low/medium heat till the internal temp reaches 150f (63c)
- Once it's finished cooking, let the sausage rest for 5 minutes,
- To assemble the sausage:1. Take your rye bun and lightly toast it2. Spread Russian Dressing (or Thousand Island Dressing on both sides3. Place your sausage in the center4. Top with sauerkraut
- Enjoy
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Curious as to why you didn’t put the kraut in the sausage casing.
Personally I love a lot of sauerkraut on my reuben. If you add too much sauerkraut to the recipe it disrupts the balance and the acidity. The end result will be a binding issue. You can add sauerkraut but just not very much. For me it made more sense to add it to the top.
Why the insta cure# 1? The meat is always refrigerated. Homemade is the reason to skip the chemicals. I will try this since it sounds interesting. A Sauerbraten sausage would be great too.
You can obviously leave it out for this sausage but I wanted my sausage to have those very familiar “cured” flavors . Adding cure #1 did exactly that..
I agree with you and left it out. So also skipped the 12 hour cure which made it a lot quicker! Turned out great!
Nice!!
I am absolutely making this one: I have a beef neck roast thawing right now! But I can’t help wondering about the leaving it overnight to cure and then stuffing it. Would you not achieve the same thing by stuffing immediately as normal and leaving the sausages to age overnight before cooking?
Thank you for another great looking recipe.
-Bob
It would achieve the same thing to stuff then refrigerate.
i AM USING A FRESH CORNED BEEF BRISKET . I PLAN TO USE THE SPICES AND INST #1 BUT NOT ALL THE SALT AS THE “CORNED” BRISKET IS ALREADY SALTED.
THOUGHTS?
Your substitute for brisket / for packaged corned beef implies this. As you know corning is a salt cure and adding more salt would make it unpalatable. I plan to smoke some so inst #1 makes sense.
I think that should work fine
Don’t have potatoe starch in Israel. What would happen if I leave it out ?
Nothing. It will still be tasty