leggs anyone?

[in. pred]

i picked up two packs of leggs#10 at the shop. a friend that had a sausage business suggested it. anyone here use it for breakfast sausage? maybe your tips on production. just making loose breakfast sausage.

 

[CRB]

i picked up two packs of leggs#10 at the shop. a friend that had a sausage business suggested it. anyone here use it for breakfast sausage? maybe your tips on production. just making loose breakfast sausage.

I have never used leggs products but as far as the production of breakfast sausage I just grind, mix and stuff into 1lb bags and freeze. I keep meat COLD during all steps

 

[chopsaw]

leggs#10 at the shop.

Yup . It's a good one , and popular . I also have AC Leggs 109 .
No. 10 is a basic pork breakfast sausage and the No. 109 is hot . Has red pepper flakes added .
Mix it up per directions , but if you like hot pork sausage add some pepper flakes to a batch .

I always weigh the bags when I get them , then divide that out by how much it seasons .
Then mark it on the bag .

maybe your tips on production

I have several different breakfast seasonings , so I have a system of keeping them straight .
Just doing one brand you won't need to worry about that .
I used to use the meat bags , but for me , it keeps better vac packed , and I don't have to tie a bunch of bags . I always do some links as well .

When I make sausage , I grind , then clean .
Mix then clean and into the fridge .
Stuff the next day or two , three . Whatever . Gives some options and your not trying to clean a huge mess in the end .
I did 2 1/2 pounds of bratwurst , 2 1/2 pounds of Italian , and 2 1/2 pounds of breakfast sausage yesterday . In the fridge , waiting to be stuffed on Friday .

 

[zwiller]

LOVE Leggs and have a bunch. I have 10 and it IS good. It's not "the one" for me but I am being picky. I am aiming for something like spicier McDonalds. However, if you wanted the flavor of local producer, #10 will rock that.

Same as Rich, I break the process over days. Sounds like it's simply for making it easy but the sausage marries with the spices over this time yielding a better product. Also, I tend to think BF sausage is higher fat than 80/20.

 

[in. pred]

thanks for the input guys! im looking forward to mixing some up this week.

 

[tallbm]

i picked up two packs of leggs#10 at the shop. a friend that had a sausage business suggested it. anyone here use it for breakfast sausage? maybe your tips on production. just making loose breakfast sausage.

Hi there and welcome!

I think you have some good feedback.

My 2 cents is to measure out seasoning for 1 pound of sausage per the instructions and weigh that amount of seasoning in grams. Write that number down.
Mix up 1 pound of breakfast sausage with it and then pinch off a small amount and fry it up to taste it.

If it's too bland weigh out a few grams of seasoning and mix it into what is left of the pound and repeat until it tastes right.
If too salty then weigh out 10 grams less of seasoning from your 1st one pound attempt and mix up and test again.

Repeat steps until you get the flavor you like and then write down how many grams of seasoning you need per pound of sausage.

Why do all this? I have yet to find a store bought seasoning that simply just nails the measurements. If it did work for 1-5 pounds well it did not scale properly at 10-20 pounds because it's all measured by tablespoons, etc.
If you figure out the weight of seasoning per pound of sausage then you can scale it properly and never be wrong about it... unless they change the seasoning itself hahaha.

Please learn from out mistakes of mixing up 5-20 pounds of sausage per a packages instructions just to find out that it's too salty or too bland. At that point, it is very disappointing and angering to figure out how to save the sausage after all the work you put into it.

Best of luck! :D

 

[chopsaw]

The Leggs is pretty spot on , but still subject to personal taste .
I have some from Adkins that's salty per the directions , but some breakfast sausage is like that .
I cut it back some . Most of these commercial seasonings are formulated at 1 TBLS per pound of grind . Usually a safe place to start , then adjust .

 

[Fueling Around]

i picked up two packs of leggs#10 at the shop. a friend that had a sausage business suggested it. anyone here use it for breakfast sausage? maybe your tips on production. just making loose breakfast sausage.

What blend of sausage meat are you making? It really changes the flavor depending on the meat.
I don't use any commercial seasoning. Too much salt for 1 and often the flavor just isn't there.
The best so far is a custom blend using this thread

Jimmy Dean regular Premium Pork sausage, breakfast clone by Dave in AZ

Someone was asking for Jimmy Dean clones, I thought I posted this here, but I posted it on meatgistics.waltons.com on 7Oct22. Here is a copy paste so I can link to it. Chasing a recipe and testing is like an adventure and detective story for me, I love the process... so this post is mostly...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

I made this with a 25% venison and 75% ground pork and all that tasted loved it.

 

[chopsaw]

im looking forward to mixing some up this week.

Something to understand in my opinion about commercial sausage seasonings , is that they are formulated for a specific weight . Usually 25 pounds .
So cutting down batches will leave room for error and adjustments on the user end .

So ,
I always make sure I mix the dry seasoning in the bag before weighing it out .

If I think it needs more flavor , I don't add more of the mix . I add the other spice that's in the mix .
Like sage or black pepper for breakfast sausage . That way you're not adding more salt , but I have most of the bulk spices on the shelf .

Get some mixed up and let's hear what you think .

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Hi there and welcome!

I think you have some good feedback.

My 2 cents is to measure out seasoning for 1 pound of sausage per the instructions and weigh that amount of seasoning in grams. Write that number down.
Mix up 1 pound of breakfast sausage with it and then pinch off a small amount and fry it up to taste it.

If it's too bland weigh out a few grams of seasoning and mix it into what is left of the pound and repeat until it tastes right.
If too salty then weigh out 10 grams less of seasoning from your 1st one pound attempt and mix up and test again.

Repeat steps until you get the flavor you like and then write down how many grams of seasoning you need per pound of sausage.

Why do all this? I have yet to find a store bought seasoning that simply just nails the measurements. If it did work for 1-5 pounds well it did not scale properly at 10-20 pounds because it's all measured by tablespoons, etc.
If you figure out the weight of seasoning per pound of sausage then you can scale it properly and never be wrong about it... unless they change the seasoning itself hahaha.

Please learn from out mistakes of mixing up 5-20 pounds of sausage per a packages instructions just to find out that it's too salty or too bland. At that point, it is very disappointing and angering to figure out how to save the sausage after all the work you put into it.

Best of luck! :D

Thank you for this reminder. I will be firing up soon to do some of my own sausage making for myself now that I have a 5# stuffer to do small batches to figure out what we like and use the most. I haven't found much that I really dislike but the family sometimes is more picky than me.

 

[zwiller]

If I think it needs more flavor , I don't add more of the mix . I add the other spice that's in the mix .
Like sage or black pepper for breakfast sausage . That way you're not adding more salt , but I have most of the bulk spices on the shelf .

You will probably beat me to it but want to try adding thyme to #10 and then some garlic and onion powder maybe. The McD clones I see have these. I've not had thyme in the house in 30 years. Made something with it one time and wife said to NEVER use it again and threw it away.

 

[tallbm]

Thank you for this reminder. I will be firing up soon to do some of my own sausage making for myself now that I have a 5# stuffer to do small batches to figure out what we like and use the most. I haven't found much that I really dislike but the family sometimes is more picky than me.

No problem. This seasoning and then frying a little to check is basically a best practice for every batch of sausage being made. Even when you know the amount there are times where a brain fart happens or someone helping you mixed something incorrectly and you don't know any of this unless you do a "fry test".

2 batches of sausage ago I forgot to add the Cure #1 hahahaha, Caught it in the fry test when it tasted different AND didn't have any pink cure color to the meat when cooked. That would have ruined my 20 pounds of smoked sausage. So even when you become an experienced sausage maker the fry test will keep you honest and keep things from going wrong :D

 

[tallbm]

You will probably beat me to it but want to try adding thyme to #10 and then some garlic and onion powder maybe. The McD clones I see have these. I've not had thyme in the house in 30 years. Made something with it one time and wife said to NEVER use it again and threw it away.

Thyme and sage are clutch when it comes to soup making so I always have booth.
Also they rock in breakfast sausage :D

 

[luvcatchingbass]

No problem. This seasoning and then frying a little to check is basically a best practice for every batch of sausage being made. Even when you know the amount there are times where a brain fart happens or someone helping you mixed something incorrectly and you don't know any of this unless you do a "fry test".

2 batches of sausage ago I forgot to add the Cure #1 hahahaha, Caught it in the fry test when it tasted different AND didn't have any pink cure color to the meat when cooked. That would have ruined my 20 pounds of smoked sausage. So even when you become an experienced sausage maker the fry test will keep you honest and keep things from going wrong :D

Do you have a scale for your measuring that you recommend? That is the only piece I do not have yet, I have an old dial meat scale but it doesn't so the fine tune work just gets me close for bulk packaging.

 

[chopsaw]

I've made the Len Poli " Breakfast links " that has rosemary in it . I added a bit of thyme too .
Good stuff .

I've not had thyme in the house in 30 years.

She'd go hungry around here . I grew both . We use it all the time . Ryan made some " French onion pasta " last night . I saw he had chives , rosemary and thyme all tied in a bunch and cooking in the sauce . Lol .