Breakfast Sausage

Within past few days, made breakfast sausage for the first time.  Used Alton Brown's recipe from Good Eats.  Has fresh sage, thyme and rosemary.  Also red pepper flakes and cayenne... some salt and brown sugar.  Had recently "found" a decent home electric meat grinder and wanted to give it a spin.  Recipe called for salt pork... and didn't have any??  SO I subbed bacon.  Flavor was very nice but a little spicey for me.  SO I just added more ground pork.  Next time will go higher fat... sauage a bit on the lean side... better for ya, I guess, but a little "solid"?!?

Yes, pork butt in general has a good ratio of fat to lean for sausage.  I wouldn't be surprised if the flavor you are missing came from high fructose corn syrup and artificial maple flavoring.

mjb.

Isn’t funny that this topic comes up?

I was at my favorite ‘Asian market’ and I found this seasoning mix for our island fav, Portuguese sausage.  Well, our market hasn’t been carrying the sausages for about six months now, so when I saw this, I scooped it up.  I couldn’t find any ground pork that I liked, so I got some pork belly and gave that a whiz in the food processor along with the mix.  Not so much!  TOUGH!!  Back to the drawing board!

Did a fair amt of deer hunting with the hubs #2 and family.

When the season closed we would all gather at MIL's home to make sausage (1/2 & 1/2) venison and pork butt.

Seasoned simply with salt, pepper, garlic powder and a few splashes of whatever beer was being enjoyed ( most often Lone Star) this all started at crack of dawn and was finished by noon *burp*.

There was a "secret ingredient" that "Ma" would sprinkle from a small glass canning jar.

Looked and smelled like (dried and crushed) sage and parsley and maybe some thyme ( and bay?), def saw some sort of red peppers in the mix.

 I would always ask for a few lbs of the mix to freezer wrap for breakfast sausage.

The rest was made into links (hand tied, what a bitch) and smoked out back (mesquite and oak blend).

Well on to Hubs #3 and really miss that sausage.

Not on speaking terms with his wifey #2 (looks like a rodeo clown..no offense to you bull fighters out there) but considering offering his "Ma" a barter opp with some fresh fish.

I enjoy the fight of a biggish red, but not so much the meat so will save some for the stringer if she agrees.

Wish me luck.

*Sorry Mac...no Jimmy Dean recipe for you (cheburger cheburger cheburger pepsi)

Keep at it, but remember that processed food has some binders and probably some sort of chemical to retard bacterial growth.

Keep an open mind while "playing".

You just might stumble across a killer flavor profile all your own.

I have made all kinds of sausage including Kishka. I have found in every one that with the addition of textured soy protein they seem to come out more like what the American Palet is attuned to, without juggeling fat to meat content.

The AB recipe definitely resembles JD's.  The first try... a little spicey.  And I'm not a big fan of thyme, so might skip that entirely, if I make it again.  Cut with more ground pork and seems just right for seasonings.  It's obviously much more lean than JD... very little fat rendered out.  Flavor is very nice but it's kinda solid/hard... for lack of any better description?!?  Ended up with more than I KNEW I'd eat in a few days (tho recipe says it's good for something like 7-10 days in fridge) so rolled into logs and it's in freezer.  Someone suggested that when I thaw it out to add some ground oats... to lighten it up.  Don't think I've ever looked at the label of JD to see what's in his??

I don't know how to make breakfast sausage but i always loved american breakfast sausages, the old fashioned traditional kind.  I grew up with Italian sausages, and my mother disdained anything "American" so i only rarely had them at home but when i'd go to a friend's or out to breakfast later, I would have them.  I'd love to be able to reproduce the flavor too.    But if my memory is correct isn;t there a hint of clove in them?  I think that's the flavor that distinguishes an American breakfast sausage from, say, an Italian one. 

chairlady...

The overly firm texture may be from too fine of grind, overwork when forming patties,squishing down on the patties while frying, lack of fat....anything ring a bell?

Do not think that oats will help, will probably do the opposite by sucking up any moisture that is in the product.

When you defrost the next batch work in (gently) a bit of (crushed) ice and then starting on a low flame with a bit more heat at the end to brown.

Do not squish the meat with a spatula (on any ground meat, actually) as you will loose all the juicy goodness to the pan.

Another way to tenderize would be to break it up, fry gently on low flame, adding a bit of water to moisturize and then tossing it all into a good breakfast gravy.

On biscuits or toast this would be considered to some (me!) as mighty fine eating.