Spicy Breakfast Sausage

I love good sausage patties for breakfast. I’ll admit it, I love good sausage for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! I started from Spicy Fresh Country Sausage from Bruce Aidells’ Complete Sausage Book, by Bruce Aidells, and added more spice and herbs.

Serves 12 to 16

Ingredients

• 3 lbs fresh pork butt
• 1/4 to 1 lb of pork back fat (optional, but if leaving out, make sure to use a fatty pork butt)
• 4 teaspoons of kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of fresh ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of ground sage
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons of powdered garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon of dried savory
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup of cold water

Tools:

Meat grinder with 1/4 inch plate or food processor, pepper grinder or spice grinder, microplane grater (for the nutmeg), large bowl, baking sheet

Instructions

1. Put your meat grinder, plate, and bowl in the freezer overnight, or for at least a couple of hours. You could put them in the fridge overnight as well.
2. Follow the instructions that came with your meat grinder on how to cut your pork butt and fat up so it will successfully feed through the grinder. (I cut my pork butt and fat into strips about 1 inch wide and 3 to 5 inches long and 1/2 to 1 inch thick.) As you cut up the pork butt, remove any connective tissue or gristle. Do not use connective tissue or gristle in the sausage.
3. Freeze your meat and fat for about 30 to 45 minutes on a baking sheet.
4. While your meat is getting cold, grate a nutmeg on the micoplane grater until you have at least 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg.
5. Grind your black pepper so that you have your 2 teaspoons of fresh ground pepper.
6. Measure out your salt, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, sage, coriander, powdered garlic, dried thyme, dried savory. Mix together with the black pepper and nutmeg.
7. Set up your meat grinder and grind the meat and fat into a large bowl.
8. Mix all your salt, spices, and herbs and water with the meat and fat.
9. Knead and squeeze the meat until everything is blended.
10. Make a small patty and cook it. Determine sausage needs anything, and add more salt or spices/herbs at this time. (If it is to spicy, you’ll have to grind more pork.) Repeat until you have sausage that is to your taste.
11. Once seasoned to your taste, you can divide up the sausage for storage. It will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days, and up to 2 months in the freezer.

Notes:

You can cut back on the various peppers if you don’t like things as spicy. Start with 1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon of cayenne, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. You can always add more at step 10.

If you haven’t made sausage before, read the instructions on how to clean your sausage maker. Put your grinder in the sink to soak in hot soapy while you mix up the sausage. Clean your equipment right away when you are done making sausage.

If you don’t have a meat grinder, you can use a food processor. See https://wellfedeveryone.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/homemade-pork-sausage-using-a-food-processor/ for instructions on making sausage in a food processor.