I absolutely love breakfast sausages, and these do not disappoint. You could go the extra mile when making these and actually buy sausage casings and stuff them, but I didn’t feel the need to expend the extra energy. They turned out perfectly as sausage patties, or you could just form them into small sausage links and cook them that way.
I highly recommend making egg, sausage and cheese breakfast sandwiches with bagels or biscuits and this sausage. Simply outstanding!
Credit to Kenji Lopez-Alt for this recipe from The Food Lab. Please note that this recipe needs 12- to 24-hours hands-off prep time.
What you’ll need (half-recipe makes about 1.3 lbs)
- 340g (0.75 lbs) pork shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-inch pieces
or
- If you want to use pre-ground lean pork, increase the amount to about 1 lb.
- 160g (5.5 oz.) slab bacon, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 8g kosher salt
- 1T maple syrup
- 0.5t red pepper flakes—use 0.25t more if you want it more spicy
- 1t ground sage
- 0.5t finely-ground black pepper
- 0.25t dried marjoram
What to do
Combine the meat, salt, garlic, syrup and seasonings in a large bowl and toss with clean or nitrile-gloved hands until everything is evenly mixed. Cover and let it sit in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
Now you can grind the meat.
If using a stand-mixer attachment meat-grinder, freeze the parts for an hour before grinding. When everything’s cold, fit the grinder with the ¼-inch die, and grind the meat into the mixer bowl. Once done, add the paddle attachment and mix the sausage at medium-low speed until it’s tacky—about 2 minutes. Cook as desired.
If using a food processor, freeze the bowl and blades for 15 minutes. Put about half the meat mixture in a bowl and pulse until the meat is finely ground and combined—about 15 short pulses. Remove the meat and grind up the other half. Shape and cook as you prefer.
Lopez-Alt says the uncooked sausage will stay good in the refrigerator for up to 5 days—which seems too long to me. I would err on 4 days, maximum, just to be safe.
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