Make Breakfast Sausage with Spices

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But how to get that perfectly browned, decidedly juicy sausage patty you look forward to seeing on your plate in the morning? Here are some suggestions.

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds fresh pork or other preferred meat
  • 2 tablespoons Ground Sage
  • 1 tablespoon Garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon Red or Cayenne pepper
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons salt (may be decreased for low sodium diets)
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar or maple syrup (if desired)

Steps

  1. Buy, borrow, or otherwise finagle a portable meat grinder. There are a number of types available, here are a couple.
    • Hand Cranked Grinders. These are the cheapest, and are usually pretty sturdy apparatuses, but they require the user to turn the crank, which in turn spins an auger that feeds the meat into the cutter wheel. They commonly clamp to a table top, to free the user's hands up for other parts of the process. Usually can be completely disassembled for cleaning and blade replacement.
    • Stand-alone power grinders. These an electrically operated units which are plugged in to the outlet, and do the work for you.
    • Mixer attachment grinders. These are grinders which attach to the power head of large kitchen mixers like Hobart and KitchenAid products. They are very similar to hand type grinders, with a coupling to connect to the mixer, rather than a crank handle.
  2. Get your preferred meat. Since "perfect" sausage, or almost anything else, is an individual taste, the choice is up to the preparer, but here we will look at a common recipe for a mild, basic sausage. These are common meats for sausage preparation:
    • Boston Butt pork roast.
    • Pork shoulder.
  3. Bone out the meat, and remove the cartilage, excessive amounts of fat, sinew, and tendons.
  4. Cut the meat into chunks of about one or two inches, depending on the hopper (opening where the meat goes in the grinder).
  5. Measure your choice of spices, making sure they are fresh and high quality. If you open a jar of sage, and do not smell the pungent aroma immediately, either it is stale, or your nose is not working. These are some common spices and seasonings for a breakfast type sausage. The quantity should be appropriate to combine with 2 pounds of fresh meat.
  6. Place a plastic or stainless steel mixing bowl underneath the outlet of your grinder. If you are using a table mounted hand grinder, you may want to place a chair underneath to set your bowl on.
  7. Begin stuffing the chunks of meat, and small scoops of your seasoning mixture into the throat of the grinder, with the grinder turning. You will want to add the seasoning as you process the meat, since it is difficult to mix in thoroughly when the grinding is complete.
  8. Push the meat down the throat of the grinder hopper with a wooden spoon. Some grinders come with a "pestle" like wooded dowel for this, but in any case, never use your fingers to force the meat into the grinder's feed auger.
  9. Check the "grind", or coarseness of the meat as it comes out of the grinder. If it is too coarse for your taste, you may have to run it through the grinder, or change to a smaller grinding blade. Some grinders come with a variety of blades, and the smaller the holes in the blade, the finer it will grind the meat.
  10. "Knead" the ground meat (it is now "mince", by the way), to finish mixing the ingredients. Feel for chunks of meat or tough tissues that did not grind well, and remove them to either discard or regrind.
  11. Form "patties" by rolling 1/4 cup of meat into balls, then flattening them on waxed paper. To store, you can layer the finished patties between sheets of wax paper, and either place in sealable freezer bags, or put in an airtight plastic container.
  12. Fry the patties as you would any uncooked patty type sausages, being sure to cook them thoroughly, since they are made with raw meat.
  13. Test each batch you make, using care to measure the ingredients, so that you can adjust to your personal taste. You may experiment using some brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, pieces of fruits like apple or pear, or any of a host of other ingredients.
  14. Finished.



Tips

  • Because of the processing and seasoning, high quality cuts of meat like loin and chops are noticeably better than the cheaper cuts.
  • Sausages must be wrapped well to blot their sweat.
  • This recipe can be browned in a frying pan loose, instead of forming patties, and milk and flour added, to create a gravy, which is then put on a slice of toast. This was known in the military as "SOS", or "Slop On a Shingle".
  • This is a basic recipe, and again, individual tastes, as well as diet concerns, should be considered for adjusting the recipe.
  • Since many people are especially concerned about their dietary health, you can use your own judgement how much fat you will leave on your meat before processing. This, and the fact there will be no preservatives (nitrates and nitrites), and artificial flavorings, is one advantage to do-it-yourself sausage making.

Warnings

  • Keep all areas, surfaces, utensils, and tools sanitary during the process.
  • Take care when unveiling the sausages from the paper toweling, as they will be hot.
  • Because this type sausage is not smoked or cured, it is best to freeze it if it is to be stored over 2 days in a refrigerator.

Things You'll Need

  • Sausage grinder.
  • Knife.
  • Bowl.

Related Articles

You may like

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Make_Breakfast_Sausage_with_Spices&oldid=358229"