Low Carb Sausage Balls - an experiment

[dward51]

A few weeks ago Disco made a post about making some Sausage Balls. You can see his post here:

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/sausage-balls.277649/

Now I for one just love sausage balls. However I'm on a low carb diet and working on loosing weight after some other health problems cropped up. Fortunately I do not have "fat" restrictions and no issues with cholesterol so my doctor did green light me for low carb meat fest 2018. But, this is about my experiment, not my "issues"....

So after seeing Disco's post, I got to thinking "that looks like it would be easy to modify to a low carb version". The flour is basically the only thing that is needing to be changed. There are several alternatives on low carb diets, and some work better than others (and some taste better). I recently ordered a couple of boxes of CarbQuik from Amazon and have used it for several recipes already. This was a logical choice to substitute for the flour in Disco's recipe. I also substituted ground Jalapeno for the cayenne as I like the flavor and wanted no so much heat. So onward with the experiment I went.

Disco's original version was based on 300g of sausage meat (about 10.5 ounces). His version lists both the metric and "American" weights/volumes. I had a pound of sausage I bought just for this so I had to modify the recipe. Here is the 1 pound version:

• 1 pound of ground bulk breakfast sausage
• 257ml of CarbQuik (I used a cup)
• 2ml of salt (I used 1/2 tsp)
• .8ml of pepper (I used 8 grinds on my grinder or about 1/4 tsp)
• .8ml of ground jalapeno pepper (a little over 1/4 tsp - added a smidge extra)
• 6ml of baking powder (I used 1 1/4 tsp)
• 151g of extra sharp cheddar cheese (weighed it as is, and shredded from block)
• 114ml of fine chopped onion (I used 1/2 cup)
• 76ml of milk (I was out, used a little over 1/4 cup of half/half instead)
• 8ml of lemon juice (I used 1 1/2 tsp).

1. Mix the CarbQuik, salt, pepper, jalapeno and baking powder.
   
2. Make a well in the dry powder and add the milk and lemon juice.
   
3. Cut or combine until the "cornmeal" texture stage.
4. Add the sausage, cheese and onion
5. I had mixed well.
6. Line a pan with foil for easy cleanup
7. Roll into walnut sized "balls" and place on foil
8. Bake at 400* for 22 minutes

Doing the math on the carbohydrates for the entire batch (as measured above):

Sausage - 0 grams
CarbQuik - 6 grams (2 grams per 1/3 cup)
salt - 0 grams
pepper - 0 grams
jalapeno - 0 grams
baking powder - 0 grams
cheese - 0 grams
onion - 6 grams (1/2 of a medium yellow onion at 12g per whole onion)
milk - 0 grams
lemon juice - 0 grams
-------------------------------------
Total for entire batch = 12 grams of carbohydrate

I got 23 balls out of my batch. So a batch should make roughly 24 balls, or 0.5 grams of carbohydrate per ball.

Here is the rolled balls ready for the oven. Looks like sausage balls to me!

The finished balls. Smell like sausage balls. Look like sausage balls. And most important, they taste like sausage balls. They did fat out some when cooking. Not sure how much was from the sausage and how much was from the extra sharp cheese as both will do it. Not 100% like Bisquik based sausage balls, but it's like 98.9% the flavor to my taste. The jalapeno adds just a little heat on the back end but not enough that someone might complain they are hot.

Overall it's a great recipe and a keeper. Thanks to Disco for the inspiration!!!!!!

 

[flatbroke]

Looks good. I might try this. I got some healthy table muscle I could lose

 

[gmc2003]

Looks tasty to me.

Point for sure.

Chris

 

[ddufore]

These look yummy. I will have to try this. I don't have the carbquik so I may play around with almond meal, ground flax seed, or coconut flour.

 

[SmokinAl]

Those look delicious Dave!
I probably could eat that whole plate!
Congrats on making the carousel!!
Al

 

[crazymoon]

DW51, They look awesome ,I have to try these soon ! like

 

[dward51]

Thanks Guys!!!!! Wow, I did not expect to make the carousel. That's an extra bonus.

If you are going low carb, these are about as close to the "regular" sausage balls as I've tasted. I'm like Al, I could have ate the whole pan last night but I had for force myself to put some back. Next time it will a bigger batch. At 1/2 gram per sausage ball this will make a nice finger food snack or even pair with a good salad and call it a meal.

 

[krj]

I've been on Keto for 5 months now, those look amazing. Toss with some low carb marinara and put it atop some zucchini noodles. Mmmmm

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Looks good!

I'm guessing it's the cheese that fatted out. If you use real cheese and not shredded stuff with fillers etc, it tends to look like this when baked.

 

[dward51]

Yep, it was real cheese from a block of extra sharp cheddar (which tends to do that). Not the pre-shredded stuff in a bag with the additives to keep the shreds from sticking together.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Yep, it was real cheese from a block of extra sharp cheddar (which tends to do that). Not the pre-shredded stuff in a bag with the additives to keep the shreds from sticking together.

You should look into harder cheddars maybe? The type that crumble when cut. Kerry Gold makes this type. It's the type I use for a tomato dish to avoid the pools of fat all over. <Or maybe you are using the crumbly type. I know alot of block cheese you can buy in stores is still pretty soft, great for sandwiches, but eh>.

I wonder if using low fat mozz would work. Alot of cheeses out there... almost enough to convince me to try it low carb style. Almost ;)

 

[dward51]

It was grocery store cheddar. What I happened to have on hand when the urge to make sausage balls hit me. Kerry Gold would likely be much better and have a great flavor as well. There is also a wonderful Mexican Parmesan that a buddy of mine uses as one of the cheeses in his mac & cheese recipe that would add both a nutty note and do well in these as part of a cheese blend. I forget the brand name he uses off the top of my head though. This was a first run just to see how the carbquik tasted. I will be doing this again and may tweak it some to see what other flavors I can incorporate.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

It was grocery store cheddar. What I happened to have on hand when the urge to make sausage balls hit me. Kerry Gold would likely be much better and have a great flavor as well. There is also a wonderful Mexican Parmesan that a buddy of mine uses as one of the cheeses in his mac & cheese recipe that would add both a nutty note and do well in these as part of a cheese blend. I forget the brand name he uses off the top of my head though. This was a first run just to see how the carbquik tasted. I will be doing this again and may tweak it some to see what other flavors I can incorporate.

I vote Pepperjack ;)

 

[forktender]

Yum, I would be all over those any kind of meatball works for me.
Heck of a job.

 

[disco]

What a great version! Big Point!

 

[dward51]

Thanks!!

 

[DanMcG]

Thanks Dave and Disco for the recipe. I'd need to look up your carbquik and give it a shot.

 

[browneyesvictim]

The Disco Balls got me interested for sure, but these lo carb ones sealed the deal for me! Just placed a Carbquick order on Amazon. And thanks for the lead on that!

 

[dward51]

Cool. I hope you like them. CarbQuik is not exactly BisQuik in taste, but it's about as close as I've found.

 

[dward51]

Ok, I did a further revision of the "low carb sausage ball" concept today with a different recipe. Basically has 3x the CarbQuik "flour" to meat ratio that this one has and I changed the cheese from all cheddar to a 50/50 mix of cheddar and pepper jack using a AC Legg #10 sausage mix for the meat (good southern style breakfast sausage). Still has around 1g of carbs per ball as it makes a bigger batch from the same amount of sausage. Much, much, better results and taste. To me, it tastes just like the regular Bisquik sausage balls. Basically I see no need to tinker with the recipe further, as the 2.0 version is just that good.

The "Low Carb Sausage Cheese Balls - Version 2.0" recipe and thread can be found here:

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/low-carb-sausage-cheese-balls-version-2-0-a-winner.278525/