Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Sunday morning, fresh coffee, fresh hot sausage and eggs for breakfast. Sounds wonderful, right? With a little planning, you can make it yourself. And I mean REALLY make it yourself. No preservatives, no high package prices. I’ve already talked in my blog about making Italian sausage, but  now it’s time for breakfast sausage. My family can never get enough of this. They’d eat it everyday if I made it possible. When I was buying pre-packaged sausage, the price was crazy, so we’d only get small portions and everyone was left with wanting more, plus they left a lot of grease in the pan and shrank down a lot when they cooked. With homemade sausage, you’re controlling the fat content, so the portions will be more meaty, less greasy, and retain their size.

As I discussed in my other sausage post, you can make sausage out of any meat. My preference is pork. Recently pork loin roast went on a great sale of $1.99 a pound and they were sold as large loins about 5 pounds each. This is a nice quality lean meat, almost no fat. So in order to make this into sausage you absolutely have to add fat. I added about 1/2 pound of chopped frozen raw bacon. My loin roast was boneless, so cutting it into small cubes was a breeze.

Meat is easier to cut when its very cold, so keep your meat refrigerated until right when you want to cut it. The colder the better, But frozen will be too hard for you get your knife through. To better handle the meat, I wear a normal knit winter glove covered in a disposable vinyl glove (the kind you see people wear who prepare food at restaurants or delis). Cut up all your meat and mix the bacon pieces in as you cut. Return the cut meat to the fridge for a while. Let it get good and cold again. While it’s getting cold you can make your spice blend. Also chill plain water, the colder the better. Chill a cup of water, you’ll only use probably 3/4 of a cup. Once the meat is cold again, use a grinder to grind the meat into a fine grind. My grinder attachment for my Kitchen-Aid came with two plates, a larger hole plate for coarse grind and a smaller hole plate for fine grind. I prefer the find grind for my sausage because it makes it easier to shape and keep its form. Once all the meat has been ground, its time to add the spices. I’ve looked at many recipes and tested repeatedly. This is my personal blend. You can run with it if you like, or you can adjust to fit your own tastes.

Carol’s Homemade Breakfast Sausage

• Approximately 5 pounds ground pork (including fat)
• 3/4 – 1 cup ice cold water
• 5 tsp. sea salt
• 3 tsp. ground black pepper
• 4 tsp. ground sage
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 3 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 3 Tbsp. packed brown sugar

In a large mixing bowl, pour spices over meat, Add 3/4 cup water and mix well, getting spices well incorporated. If the meat feels a little dry, you can add the remaining water. It’s better to add too little water than too much. Don’t skip the liquid. Even if it seems like you don’t need it, the meat will absorb the liquid and help keep it moist while it cooks. If you skip the liquid because you think you don’t need it, when its time to cook your sausage it will be hard and dry and the taste won’t be as good. After blending, let the meat sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Overnight is okay too. To check your flavor, take a small amount and form it into a patty. Fry it up and try it. If you need to make any flavor adjustments, do it now and let the meat sit for an hour and try again.

When you’re happy with your sausage, it’s time to divide it up. Some can be portioned off into one pound amounts and frozen for times when you want to make biscuits and gravy or other dishes. You can form the rest into patties. I use to make all mine by hand, but they were never uniform. They’d be lop-sided or too thick in the middle. I invested in a hamburger press for about $25. Absolutely worth it! It’s solid metal, made by Weston, and adjustable so I can make patties any thickness I want. It’s also a great investment to buy “patty papers” to keep your meat from sticking to the press. They also work great for freezing as they keep the meat separate and easy to handle when frozen.

So this batch, I decided to make all patties. I got out my kitchen scale (another great investment – cost $10 at Aldi and I use it all the time!) and measured the meat into 2 ounce balls. Each ball was pressed between two squares of patty paper. You can cut your own squares of parchment paper if you like. The patties were stacked on a tray and placed into the freezer. This batch I got 47 patties @ 2 oz. each. and it cost me roughly $12. That’s about $0.25 per patty. Most store packages give you 8 – 1 ounce patties in a box and charge you anywhere from $1.50 to $3.50 a box.

Once frozen I place in gallon zipper bags labeled and dated. Because of the paper, I can take out one or ten, without hassle. Peel off the paper and fry from frozen. Or, if you like (I have done this too) fry the patties while meat is fresh. If you manage to have any left when you’ve cooked it all (my family ate them as fast as I could cook them), the cooked patties can be frozen and microwaved later for a quick on the go breakfast or for kids who you’d rather operate a microwave than a frying pan and hot stove. Just be sure to label the freezer bags as to whether the patties are raw or cooked. ENJOY!

Homemade Fresh Italian Sausage

I never thought I’d be making my own homemade sausage. Well, you know that old saying… Never Say Never! My local grocery store had fantastic fresh Italian sausage that I used for a lot of different meals. But then one week I went in and suddenly it was gone. And the next week and the next. For some reason they decided not to make it anymore. My hopes were dashed as I didn’t have another place close that sold a good flavored sausage at an affordable price. They eventually resumed making it, but by that time I had already begun making my own. Now I don’t pay for other people’s sausage, I look for great buys on fresh meat and make my own.

There are basically 3 steps to making bulk sausage (meaning sausage without a casing):

1. Cut up your big meat into small cubes
2. Put your meat cubes through a meat grinder
3. Season your ground meat into your favorite sausage

I was very intimidated when I began researching sausage making. But I quickly realized its not as complicated as I thought. The physical part is cubing and grinding the raw meat. That is the most time consuming part of the process. In order for the whole the process to be worth my effort, I won’t make a batch of less than five pounds. If there is a really low price on meat, I’ll make batches of 5, 10 or 15 pounds at a time and divide and freeze the finished sausage for later use. You can make sausage out of pork, beef, turkey, chicken, or venison. I prefer pork. And the cut of pork I prefer to use is the pork shoulder blade, also called the Boston pork roast or Boston Butt. Don’t be fooled by the name, the cut comes from the front top shoulder of the pig. It can be difficult to cut because of the bone inside and the connective tissues, but It has an excellent marbling of fat which is essential for sausage.

I can’t always get pork butt on sale, so I do improvise with other cuts. The last batch I made I used picnic shoulder which is farther down the leg of the pig and this cut always comes with a section of the skin still on (a little extra work to cut that off). The picnic is a leaner cut with less fat, so when I used this cut I had to add extra fat into the sausage. Some people will buy fat from their butcher, but I take a pound of frozen bacon and cut it into chunks and mix it in. It works fabulously to add moisture and flavor to a leaner cut. You can also use pork loin, but it’s generally more expensive and has very little fat. You’ll definitely have to add fat or bacon to it in order to have a good sausage.

If you have a Kitchen-Aid mixer, you can purchase the grinder attachment (about $50) and grind your own meat. There are also special grinder machines that are only for grinding, but I love my Kitchen-Aid because it does so many things with only having to store one machine.

Cutting & Grinding Tips:

• The grinder comes with 2 plates: a bigger hole and a smaller hole. This is where its going to squish the meat out. If you cut your meat into big chunks, you have to do the process twice. Once through the bigger hole plate then again through the small hole plate. Save yourself the time and cut the pieces in about 1 inch cubes.
• If you’re using a very lean meat, use additional fat pieces you have purchased or cut from other meat. Cut up bacon works excellent and is easy to find. Try to sprinkle in the fat (or bacon) pieces evenly throughout your container of meat cubes. Then as you’re feeding the meat into the grinder, you don’t have to think about when to add more fat.
• Do your work in stages. Set aside some time to cut up your meat. Return to fridge as soon as possible. Clean up and take a break. Your hands will get tired and a break makes each step easier to get through.
• The colder the meat, the easier it is to cut. Some people will only cut up their meat when it’s near frozen, but I that is too hard for me. I just keep it in the very back of the fridge where it’s the coldest. However, it’s hell on the fingers! I put a knit glove on my left hand, then cover it up with a disposable vinyl glove (my skin is easily irritated, so I have a box of gloves in my kitchen for when I handle certain foods or chemical cleaners). It may look wacky to have two gloves on one hand, but one keeps my left hand warm the other keeps the glove clean.
• NEVER grind room temperature meat if you can help it. The fat portions of the meat get soft and gooey and will clog your machine. Also the fat starts to melt when it comes into contact with the heat from your hands–big greasy mess! So keep it cold right until the time you’re going to start putting it through the grinder. You can even pop it in the freezer for a little bit (15-30 minutes) right before grinding to make it easier to go through the machine.

If you don’t want to cut your own meat, you can buy pork, beef or chicken already cut up. Look for packages labeled “taco meat” or even “fajita” meats. These will already but cut down into small cubes or strips. Much more expensive than cutting it yourself, but you get to skip the cutting process. These you can grind yourself.

If you want to avoid the cutting and grinding all-together, you can buy fresh meat already ground and season it up how you like. Some of the larger grocery stores package fresh beef, pork and turkey already ground, ready for purchase in the meat case. If you shop at a smaller store with a full service butcher, you could ask them to grind your meat for you (they may charge you a fee or they may do it for free).

After you get past the cutting and grinding part, all that’s left is the spice recipe. The same meat can be turned into a variety of sausages. Right now I focus on Italian sausage and breakfast sausage. I have the special “horn” attachment for my grinder so I can stuff the sausage into casings, but I have yet to use it. I find plenty of uses for the meat in its bulk form.

So now that I’ve explained all about step one cutting and step two grinding, step three is seasoning:

Carol’s Italian Sausage Seasoning Blend

This recipe is based on approximately 5 pounds of ground meat.

• 3 Tbsp dried Oregano
• 3 Tbsp granulated Garlic
• 2 Tbsp Sea Salt
• 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
• 2 Tbsp Paprika
• 1 Tbsp dried Parsley Flakes
• 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 Tbsp Whole Fennel Seeds
• 1 tsp Ground Fennel Seeds
• 2 tsp granulated Onion or powder
• 1 tsp Chili Powder
• 1/2 Tbsp Dried Thyme
• 1 Tbsp white sugar
• 3/4 c. to 1 c. cold Red Wine Vinegar (or substitute cold water)

In a large bowl with plenty of room, place your ground meat, then cover with the dry seasonings. Pour 3/4 cup of the COLD Red Wine Vinegar on top. This will ensure the absorption of the seasoning and keep the moisture in the meat. Without the liquid your meat will turn out dry. Using both hands, mix seasonings into meat. If mixture still seems a bit dry, add in the rest of the liquid. If you don’t have red wine vinegar (gives best flavor) use water. I have tried various red wines, but didn’t like the flavor it gave the finished meat.

Liquid must be COLD to absorb into the meat. If you use room temperature or warm liquid you’ll get meat mush.

This is another instance where I wear knit gloves underneath the disposable gloves. That meat is cold!

Let set in fridge for 1 hour for flavor to develop. I have experimented many times with my spice blend based on my own tastes. Whenever you do something like that you have to test it. To test your flavor, take a small portion and fry it up in a small pan. If it tastes good, you’re done. If the flavor isn’t up to your expectations, now is the time to time to add more seasonings. It took me MANY trials to come up with the right balance. If you know your spices and know what you like, you can come up with your own unique blend. Just make sure you write down the spices and amounts you’re trying and what the results are. Otherwise you’ll keep getting your blend wrong (made that mistake and ruined an entire batch of meat).

So, now that you’ve got the sausage, what can you do with it?

•  Fry fresh sausage into crumbles for pizzas. Freeze on parchment paper on cookie sheets. Once frozen, transfer to baggie and return to freezer. This is important–freeze it flat first! If you put it into a bag then freeze it, it will solidify into a brick and you won’t be able to use it unless you thaw the entire block. To use on pizzas, take out what you need and sprinkle frozen sausage pieces onto pizza. Cook pizza as normal. Meat will thaw and heat while pizza dough cooks.
•  Form into patties to make Italian sausage burgers. Place formed patties onto parchment lined cookie sheets and freeze. Once frozen, bag patties individually for freezer or if bagging in bulk, separate patties using parchment or waxed paper to prevent sticking. Frozen patties can be fried in frying pan or on the grill. Thawing patties in advance of cooking will speed cook time. Best thawed gradually in the fridge. Microwave thawing patties will cause the edges of the patties to cook before the middle is completely thawed.
• For bulk sausage for later use in spaghetti or other recipes, measure out 1 or 2 pounds and freeze in bags. Thaw and cook as needed.

If you like this, try my Homemade Breakfast Sausage.