Pre-mixed seasonings are notorious for being heavy on the salt. Salt makes thing taste better, and it's cheap.... so it's understandable.
When you make your own seasoning (and start with a proven recipe and adjust), YOU control everything, and frankly it's fun to make adjustments and dial in the precise flavor your family likes. You should be able to locate a sweet Italian and breakfast sausage for starters. I mix a hot Italian, and here is the breakfast sausage I like, but we often use it in patties for a sausage burger. Once you add some good mustard, and onion it's not a breakfast sausage anymore.
FARM SAUSAGE
Unknown source on this one. Wonderful stuffed, in bulk or packaged for fatties. This has the classic flavors of a Midwest breakfast sausage but it is also right at home served on a bun or as a main dish with fried potatoes and onions. It's a 3# batch and you might have all the ingredients at home. (Remember the golden rule of sausage...., add or subtract anything you want to!)
3 lbs. ground pork butt
2 teaspoons ground sage
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons coarse black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon minced garlic
¼ cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
¼ cup ice cold water
Grind the meat, mix in the seasonings and water until well blended. Let rest overnight for seasonings to blend.
Here is one that took me many years to nail.... but I did. It's very simple, and when you taste it you understand why sometimes.... "less is more better".
LUKAINKA
Lukainka is a French Basque farm style sausage. I was introduced to this sausage about 30 years ago, but never had a recipe. It's popular in cities having a Basque community and is served at Basque festivals and sold through small meat markets, but otherwise it's relatively unknown. The closest place I can buy it is 120 miles away. Starting only with a list of ingredients (and 3 different test versions) I developed the recipe below. The balance of flavors and simplicity of it makes it a good candidate for bulk or stuffed into links. It makes a very good sausage sandwich.
The quantities (in grams) shown are per 1 kilogram of pork. Weighing the ingredients is much more accurate than measuring with measuring spoons. Weigh your pork and convert to kilograms. Then just multiply each ingredient amount shown by the number of kilograms. For example, 5 pounds of pork is 2.27 kilograms. To determine the amount of salt: 15g X 2.27kg = 34.05g of salt. The amount of black pepper would be: 2g X 2.27kg = 4.54g of black pepper.
1000g - ground pork butt
15g - salt - (1.5%)
2g - black pepper - (0.2%)
1g - white pepper - (0.1%)
3.5g - Minced garlic - (0.35%) - Note: use 5g if you really like garlic (.5%) as much as I do.
0.7g - crushed red pepper (0.07%) -
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley (or just eyeball the amount)
Grind the meat, mix in the seasonings and water until well blended. Let rest overnight for seasonings to blend.
I rarely buy pre-mixed sausage seasoning, however one exception is Walton's Chorizo. It leans toward an Americanized chorizo and we make no adjustments or additions. It's good in red chili, or as an adder to taco meat. Measure the seasoning per the instructions, add the correct amount of vinegar and you are all set. I have heard Curley's Hot Dog seasoning is very good, but never tried it as I have my own recipe. Hot dogs have a lot of different spices so it's understanding using a pre-mix for them.
