Sausages can be made from pretty much any kind of meat or seafood. Below are some of the most common and recommended. You will note that they generally tend to be secondary cuts of meat.
Pork
Butt/Shoulder: Boneless pork butt is very common for making sausages. It contains 20-30% fat so is perfect for sausages as this is the perfect fat to meat ratio (or you can add another 5% fat for extra tenderness and juiciness). If buying from the butcher, request ‘boneless shoulder/butt’.
Pork Loin: The Loin is a log leaner (5% fat) and generally used for pork chops or roasts rather than sausages. If using for sausages, keep all of the trimmed fat to add to your sausage mix (you might get up to 20% fat including the intramuscular fat in the loin and the trimmed fat). We recommend adding another 5-10% fat trimmings to add to the mix.
Belly: Pork belly is too fatty on its own. If you want to use Pork Belly you need to add some trimmer cuts of meat to reduce the total fat/meat ratio.
Bacon is also great is sausages – it adds flavour.
Beef
Most beef cuts are perfectly fine for sausage making. The only consideration is to ensure you get a decent amount of total fat in your mix. Chuck is a common beef cut for sausage making and comes from the cows neck, shoulder, and parts of the ribs. At 15-20% fat, it as a relatively high fat content for beef. A combination of Brisket (point end) and Chuck is a good combination.
Eye Round and Sirloin Tip are also good, albeit more lean so additional fat will need to be added.
Venison
Venison meat is very lean and can contain as little as 2% fat, so you need to add a minimum of 20% and we would recommend 25-30% fat. We recommend grinding the meat finely. Coarsely ground venison could result in a grainy, chewy sausage.
Lamb
You can pretty much use the entire lamb, except for the chops for sausages. this will give you about 20% fat content. A combination of flap/belly and leg gives a good ratio of fat/meat. Lamb neck is also very good.
Goat
Goat meat is quite lean – about 15% fat content so sausages made with goat will need additional fat added in order to achieve a moist, flavorful sausage.
Chicken
Chicken thighs with skin on are contain about 20% fat and are great for making smooth sausages. Adding additional 5% fat is optional. You could also add cream or egg yolks. If using skinless chicken thighs then additional
We don’t recommend making sausages with chicken breasts as the meat is too fibrous and lean.
Rabbit
Rabbit shoulder, leg, belly and trim can be used for sausages. We recommend saving the loin for another use as it is very lean.