Country-Style Breakfast Sausage

[gmc2003]

I made this recipe yesterday, and they were delicious. They reminded me of the breakfast sausages I enjoyed growing up. I used less salt to suit our tastes.

Ahhh shucks, you just missed an opportunity to enter the gone but not forgotten throw-down. I'm glad the sausage turned out well.

Chris

 

[KimberlyO]

That looks delicious!

 

[SLR65]

A few weeks ago I made some of Pop's Breakfast Sausage. I followed the recipe as closely as I could because I just hate it when people comment on a recipe and say they made the recipe EXCEPT they did this, that, etc.. In my opinion NOPE, you didn't make the recipe!

I have to admit that at first I was sort of disappointed. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't knock your socks off. Then it dawned on me that Pop never said it would! It's just billed as a good basic breakfast sausage, and it accomplishes that goal perfectly! Especially when you consider that it does it with only three spices!

I have one patty left for next weekend's breakfast, so it's time to make some more!

My views on the original recipe, and what I plan on trying in the next batch:

*) It's almost too salty. Sampling a patty by it's self it seems just a tad too salty, combine it with something and it's fine. My family shares this view - one bite it seems too salty, the next it seems OK, combined it seems fine, so it's just on the edge of too salty.

I did a little number crunching and it appears this recipe has about 2.2% salt in it and somewhere around 1.7% is more common in breakfast sausage recipes, so I'm going to bump the salt back a little.

Pop said he used cheap, un-iodized, fine grind table salt and that's what I used too. I don't see a reason to change that, the salt should migrate throughout the mix anyway, so I don't see any advantages to using coarser canning/pickling salt.

*) I'd like a little more sage flavor.

Pop said he used ground sage from Butcher & Packer. I used Walmart's generic ground sage because that's all they had in stock at the time and I didn't want to order just one spice.

Doing a little research, it seems this can be a variable. Ground sage has lesser flavor to start with, then the quality can vary between brands, and the generic brands are more focused on price than quality, so this may have contributed to a weaker sage flavor in my sausage. I've read rubbed sage is a stronger flavor, and the majority of breakfast sausage recipes I've ran across use rubbed sage, so in the next batch I'm going to use the same amount but try some rubbed sage from a name brand.

*) I'd like a little more heat.

This is a personal preference, I just like a little more heat, but this isn't billed as a hot sausage so I'm addressing my preference rather than a shortcoming in the recipe. My first thought is to simply add some red/cayenne pepper, but I'm wondering if adjusting the black pepper is also an option here? Pop's just used off the shelf, ground black pepper. I used McCormic brand ground black pepper. I just purchased a really nice Peugeot black pepper mill, and there is a marked difference between freshly ground and the standard off the shelf pre-ground pepper. There's also a marked difference between finer and more coarsely ground pepper in a dish. So I'm going to hold off on the hot pepper addition for now and stick with just black pepper in the same amount, but I'll freshly grind it and I think I may try a middle of the range coarseness setting on my new grinder.

In addition to the above ingredient changes, I'm thinking I may make a couple process changes too:

I'm moving to measuring the spices by weight. It just increases accuracy/repeatability and allows for easy adjustments during the experimentation stage.

Last time I did everything from trimming and grinding to patties in the freezer in one day. This time I'm thinking I may let the ground and seasoned meat rest in the fridge over night to let the flavors meld a little. I dunno if this will make a big difference or not, I imagine the salt will migrate, but I dunno how much the pepper and sage will. Sausage making day gets to be a big day though, so this is as much for convenience as it is for possible flavor enhancement...it just splits the work up between a couple days.

I'll report back after the next batch.

Steve

 

[chopsaw]

I'd like a little more heat.

I use red pepper flakes .

Pop said he used cheap, un-iodized, fine grind table salt and that's what I used too. I don't see a reason to change that, the salt should migrate throughout the mix anyway, so I don't see any advantages to using coarser canning/pickling salt.

Any of those work , just weigh it . He's staying away from table salt that has additives . His original formula was salt heavy for a lot of people .

seasoned meat rest in the fridge over night to let the flavors meld a little. I dunno if this will make a big difference or not,

It makes a difference .

Sausage making day gets to be a big day though, so this is as much for convenience as it is for possible flavor enhancement...

I do my sausage making over a 3 day stretch . Keeps it fun instead of a chore .

Also , a little dextrose will aid in browning without adding a lot of sweetness .

 

[Brokenhandle]

I almost always make the original recipe 1st, then change from there... unless I know before I start something will be to hot for us. It took a little tinkering to find our happy place with Pop's sausage.

Ryan

 

[SLR65]

I almost always make the original recipe 1st, then change from there... unless I know before I start something will be to hot for us. It took a little tinkering to find our happy place with Pop's sausage.

Ryan

Where did you end up?

 

[Brokenhandle]

Where did you end up?

I would have to go back through my notes to find it. We haven't made any for quite some time... mainly because we got some seasoning from Owen's BBQ, called Dakota sausage, and was given some seasoning from Butcher & Packer, farm sausage I think it was called... enough to make 25 lbs of each... and we love them both!

Ryan

 

[JckDanls 07]

A few weeks ago I made some of Pop's Breakfast Sausage. I followed the recipe as closely as I could because I just hate it when people comment on a recipe and say they made the recipe EXCEPT they did this, that, etc.. In my opinion NOPE, you didn't make the recipe!

I have to admit that at first I was sort of disappointed. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't knock your socks off. Then it dawned on me that Pop never said it would! It's just billed as a good basic breakfast sausage, and it accomplishes that goal perfectly! Especially when you consider that it does it with only three spices!

I have one patty left for next weekend's breakfast, so it's time to make some more!

My views on the original recipe, and what I plan on trying in the next batch:

*) It's almost too salty. Sampling a patty by it's self it seems just a tad too salty, combine it with something and it's fine. My family shares this view - one bite it seems too salty, the next it seems OK, combined it seems fine, so it's just on the edge of too salty.

I did a little number crunching and it appears this recipe has about 2.2% salt in it and somewhere around 1.7% is more common in breakfast sausage recipes, so I'm going to bump the salt back a little.

Pop said he used cheap, un-iodized, fine grind table salt and that's what I used too. I don't see a reason to change that, the salt should migrate throughout the mix anyway, so I don't see any advantages to using coarser canning/pickling salt.

*) I'd like a little more sage flavor.

Pop said he used ground sage from Butcher & Packer. I used Walmart's generic ground sage because that's all they had in stock at the time and I didn't want to order just one spice.

Doing a little research, it seems this can be a variable. Ground sage has lesser flavor to start with, then the quality can vary between brands, and the generic brands are more focused on price than quality, so this may have contributed to a weaker sage flavor in my sausage. I've read rubbed sage is a stronger flavor, and the majority of breakfast sausage recipes I've ran across use rubbed sage, so in the next batch I'm going to use the same amount but try some rubbed sage from a name brand.

*) I'd like a little more heat.

This is a personal preference, I just like a little more heat, but this isn't billed as a hot sausage so I'm addressing my preference rather than a shortcoming in the recipe. My first thought is to simply add some red/cayenne pepper, but I'm wondering if adjusting the black pepper is also an option here? Pop's just used off the shelf, ground black pepper. I used McCormic brand ground black pepper. I just purchased a really nice Peugeot black pepper mill, and there is a marked difference between freshly ground and the standard off the shelf pre-ground pepper. There's also a marked difference between finer and more coarsely ground pepper in a dish. So I'm going to hold off on the hot pepper addition for now and stick with just black pepper in the same amount, but I'll freshly grind it and I think I may try a middle of the range coarseness setting on my new grinder.

In addition to the above ingredient changes, I'm thinking I may make a couple process changes too:

I'm moving to measuring the spices by weight. It just increases accuracy/repeatability and allows for easy adjustments during the experimentation stage.

Last time I did everything from trimming and grinding to patties in the freezer in one day. This time I'm thinking I may let the ground and seasoned meat rest in the fridge over night to let the flavors meld a little. I dunno if this will make a big difference or not, I imagine the salt will migrate, but I dunno how much the pepper and sage will. Sausage making day gets to be a big day though, so this is as much for convenience as it is for possible flavor enhancement...it just splits the work up between a couple days.

I'll report back after the next batch.

Steve

I also cut back (50%) on the salt and add more sage... I then ad more to each pound...

 

[SLR65]

I would have to go back through my notes to find it. We haven't made any for quite some time... mainly because we got some seasoning from Owen's BBQ, called Dakota sausage, and was given some seasoning from Butcher & Packer, farm sausage I think it was called... enough to make 25 lbs of each... and we love them both!

Ryan

LOL! Yeah, it'll take a while to go through 50lbs of breakfast sausage!

 

[SLR65]

I also cut back (50%) on the salt and add more sage... I then ad more to each pound...

Sounds like where I'm headed too!

 

[SLR65]

I use red pepper flakes .

Any of those work , just weigh it . He's staying away from table salt that has additives . His original formula was salt heavy for a lot of people .

It makes a difference .

I do my sausage making over a 3 day stretch . Keeps it fun instead of a chore .

Also , a little dextrose will aid in browning without adding a lot of sweetness .

Start to finish sausage making does make for a long day, so I'm following suit and breaking the process up a bit too to keep it fun and ejoyable!

 

[SLR65]

Hi Guys,

I tried Pop's Breakfast Sausage again, this time with a few tweaks:

I backed the salt off to 1.7%. It was much better, but I think I'll back it down even more in the next trial.

I kept the black pepper amount the same but I used fresh ground from my new Peugeot pepper mill. The new mill has a range from very fine to coarse, I decided to try very fine. It definitely amped up the pepper flavor, but I wasn't dissatisfied with off the shelf pre-ground pepper. All in all, for ease and convenience I think I'll stick with off the shelf pre-ground in the future.

I went with rubbed sage instead of ground sage in this trial, with the amount kept the same. The sage flavor was more subdued and, hmmm, can't find the right word...maybe less "harsh". I'm thinking I'll up the amount and stick with the rubbed next time as I enjoyed the flavor, just wished there was more of it.

This trial I also used some MSG - 1/2 tsp per lb. I can't say it added or subtracted, just too many changes to tell. In general, I enjoy MSG, it adds flavor and helps me cut the salt back in my foods and I have some heart issues where they suggest I cut my salt back.

I also let the meat / spice mix sit over night for the flavors to meld...and to break up the process a bit as sausage making day can get kinda long.

All in all, not dialed in yet but getting better!

One interesting thing though, I enjoy spicey food but my family doesn't as much so I've been resisting the urge to add any heat to the mix. This time while I was making the final few patties I decided to add some diced, pickled jalapenos (from an off the shelf jar). OMG! Those patties were DELICIOUS! I could call it quits right here with the jalapenos added! But I'll plod along tweaking the base recipe to something we all really enjoy.

There were a couple process changes too:

I bought a Victorinox Fibrox Pro 6-inch Curved Boning Knife with Semi-Stiff Blade...OMG! I think this knife could split an atom! We'll see how long it stays sharp, but for now I'm very happy with it! I just wish it came with a sheath.

I like my sausages to be smaller than a burger, so that rules out using the burger press, and I don't like making the patties by hand, so I bought a Shape & Store Burger Master 10 in 1 Slider Press and Freezer Container. I like how it works if you let it freeze for a couple hours before you empty it and load more in. Trying to load it and then remove the unfrozen patties is a little cumbersome. Letting the patties freeze works well and they pop right out, but waiting a couple hours between every 10 patties drags the project out a little too much for me. I'd like to just buy a few more, but the darn things are kind of expensive. There are some 7 patty knock offs out there that are cheaper, but I took a look at one of them and I'm not overly happy with the size - they're a little smaller in diameter and a little thicker. My wife has some flat cookie sheets, I'm thinking about making some spacers and just rolling the meat
out into an evenly thick square and using a pizza cutter to cut them into squares and freezing them, once frozen they should break apart easily I would think. Then again the Shape & Stores you can just leave them in until you're ready to use them....decisions, decisions...

I've converted to using weight for my recipes. For this trial the amounts were:

Meat: 1kg
Salt, generic uniodinized: 17g
Black Pepper, fresh finely ground: 6g
Sage, rubbed: 3g
MSG: 4g

Take care all, I'll post back after my next trial.

Steve

 

[JckDanls 07]

S SLR65 ... I too use Pops recipe... Salt at 1-1.5% and also a little heavy on the sage... But then I also add a little more per lb of meat as I like a little stronger taste as well... Try crushed red peppers one time instead of the jalapeno...

A quick way to make patties symmetrical... Make logs (8-10'' long) to the diameter (of the patty) you like... wrap/roll in saran wrap leaving long ends to grab ahold of and hold still while rolling the chub on the counter.... This tightens the saran wrap as the ends are twisted.. until the meat gets good and tightly packed.... fold ends over and set chub on top to keep from untwisting

Put in freezer until partially frozen and then slice (slicer works best if you have one) to the preferred thickness... Slicing needs to be done rather quickly as the chub will start to soften as it thaws... Then lay out on a wax/parchment paper lined cookie sheet... Do in layers if you have to... Freeze solid and vacuum pack in your favorite qauntity...

 

[chopsaw]

I like my sausages to be smaller than a burger, so that rules out using the burger press,

I kind of do like described above , but use 1 lb. meat bags for storing , then use a serrated knife when it's semi thawed .

 

[GatorAGR]

First breakfast sausage try. Need to confirm my measurments. I'm following Pops recipe but backing the salt down to 6 oz. I'm using a scale for weights. Making a 4# batch I'm showing 1.08 oz Salt, 0.36 oz pepper and 0.18 oz sage. Can someone confirm or correct me? Thanks in advance.

 

[SmokinEdge]

First breakfast sausage try. Need to confirm my measurments. I'm following Pops recipe but backing the salt down to 6 oz. I'm using a scale for weights. Making a 4# batch I'm showing 1.08 oz Salt, 0.36 oz pepper and 0.18 oz sage. Can someone confirm or correct me? Thanks in advance.

It looks like Pop’s mix is bulk and once mixed you use 4 oz of mix to 8 pounds meat, so if you are doing 4 pounds meat you would use 2 oz of the premix. Maybe I don’t understand your question though?

 

[GatorAGR]

It looks like Pop’s mix is bulk and once mixed you use 4 oz of mix to 8 pounds meat, so if you are doing 4 pounds meat you would use 2 oz of the premix. Maybe I don’t understand your question though?

Thanks. I think I figured it out that his ingredients are volumetric measurements. Just made my first batch and it came out great.

 

[Brokenhandle]

You can back the salt down to 6 oz. But for simplicity sake then add it to 2 oz black pepper and 1 oz of ground sage. Use that mixture at 1/2 oz per lb of meat... or as SmokinEdge stated use 2 oz mix for your 4 lbs meat.

Ryan

 

[GatorAGR]

You can back the salt down to 6 oz. But for simplicity sake then add it to 2 oz black pepper and 1 oz of ground sage. Use that mixture at 1/2 oz per lb of meat... or as SmokinEdge stated use 2 oz mix for your 4 lbs meat.

Ryan

Thanks! I did back down the salt to 6 oz., but kept the overall mix rate. Might even back the salt down a bit more. Also going to add red pepper flakes to some for a little heat.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Thanks! I did back down the salt to 6 oz., but kept the overall mix rate. Might even back the salt down a bit more. Also going to add red pepper flakes to some for a little heat.

That's the nice thing about Pop's recipe... you can tailor it to your own tastes. You could up the pepper in it as well. We played around with it a few years ago... just takes time... never ate a bad batch, just found what we liked the best.

Ryan