I have not ground my own meat as yet but I have wanted to do some experimenting. So found a local butch shop that makes a lot of sausage and bought some pre-made seasoning mix for Italian and breakfast. I then bought some ground pork and mixed up about a pound each.
The breakfast sausage turned out great, although next time I may add just a dash of sage and kick it up a notch or two. The breakfast mix is Zack's out of Texas and the Italian was from some bulk the shop uses but I don't know what brand it was.
I did not grind the breakfast mix but did add some water which did help it mix better. The Italian I ground and added a bit of garlic powder, pepper and red wine for moister.
I pan fried a small patty of both and as I said the breakfast turned out great. But the Italian was way salty and I did not have any more meat to add and tone it down now here it the kicker.
I was smoking some country style ribs so I made a rather large Italian patty and put it on, despite the salty taste. When I took it off and tried it there was not a strong saltiness at all and was very good, prof being my wife took it to work for her lunch and she does not tolerate a lot of salt.
Could it be I just did not mix the seasoning in well enough even though it seems like I did or will pan frying produce more of a concentrated saltiness since its cooking in its own juices? And in the smoker the juice are falling away from the meat?
Dave
The breakfast sausage turned out great, although next time I may add just a dash of sage and kick it up a notch or two. The breakfast mix is Zack's out of Texas and the Italian was from some bulk the shop uses but I don't know what brand it was.
I did not grind the breakfast mix but did add some water which did help it mix better. The Italian I ground and added a bit of garlic powder, pepper and red wine for moister.
I pan fried a small patty of both and as I said the breakfast turned out great. But the Italian was way salty and I did not have any more meat to add and tone it down now here it the kicker.
I was smoking some country style ribs so I made a rather large Italian patty and put it on, despite the salty taste. When I took it off and tried it there was not a strong saltiness at all and was very good, prof being my wife took it to work for her lunch and she does not tolerate a lot of salt.
Could it be I just did not mix the seasoning in well enough even though it seems like I did or will pan frying produce more of a concentrated saltiness since its cooking in its own juices? And in the smoker the juice are falling away from the meat?
Dave
