Beef and Sausage for a Tailgate
Steaks are the wrong call in a car park. Here is what actually works, and roughly how much of it to bring.
We get asked this every autumn, and Gray's answer has not changed.
“Well, you should probably should not go to a tailgate without some sausages. So our link sausages, both the beef and the pork sausages, you know, combination of maybe some brats, beef brats and some pork Italian or chorizo.”
Gray Shipley
Links and a mix, in other words. There is a reason that is the right call rather than just the easy one.
Why not steaks
A good steak needs a hot, even surface, a thermometer and somewhere to rest it. A car park gives you none of those. You will spend the premium and eat it overcooked off a paper plate, which is a bad trade on both sides.
How much to bring
Planning estimates for adults who are standing up and drinking.
The practical part
- Links go on frozen-to-cold and cook forgivingly. Burgers want to be cold, not frozen.
- Bring more buns than meat. Buns are cheap and running out of them ends the tailgate.
- Cook links first, burgers second. Links hold well; a smash burger does not wait.
- Ground beef has its own doneness guidance, which is covered in ground beef temperature and in the agency pages below.
“There's a saying that farming isn't rocket science. It's way more complicated than that.”
Gray Shipley
“Support, they need the community around them to be invested in helping that farm survive and thrive.”
Gray Shipley
Beef garlic bratwurst links, which is where he starts.
View Product
Dry-aged patties, so nothing needs weighing in a car park.
View Product- Cook to a Safe Minimum Internal Temperature, FoodSafety.gov
- Grilling and Food Safety, USDA FSIS
Food-safety temperatures and storage times on this page are cited to the agencies above rather than to us.
Written at Shipley Farms in Vilas, North Carolina: a family cattle farm raising and dry-aging beef in the Appalachian Mountains, now in its fifth generation. No shortcuts since 1872.
Every quote on this page is Gray Shipley talking, the man who runs this farm. We sat down with him, turned on a recorder, and kept his own words. Hesitations are trimmed so they read on the page. Nothing else is added or reworded, except where Gray revised his own words in review.
Nobody knows this beef better than we do. On food safety we leave it to USDA FSIS and FoodSafety.gov, and we have linked their pages above. Reviewed 3 October 2026.
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