Cooking Live with Slashfood: Homemade Country-Style Breakfast Sausage

I love sausage. All types of sausage. Here in the NYC area it's pretty easy to find all kinds of fresh sausage. Hot or sweet Italian sausage, weisswurst, brats, chicken & sun dried tomato, salmon & chive, andouille, you name it; and some of it is even tasty. The one sausage that is the most difficult to find is a really good, zesty, country style breakfast sausage.

Sadly, right now I don't have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with all the attachments like a meat grinder and sausage stuffer; otherwise I would be making fresh sausage all the time. But wait, why should I let that stop me? I thought about it for awhile and figured out how to get around it. First, who needs to stuff the sausage in casing? I actually prefer bulk sausage made into patties. There's more surface area for browning, the tasty miracle of the Maillard reaction that makes sausage have that extra oomph. Second, why grind the meat myself? I can have my butcher grind it, or even buy it pre-ground at the market.

So I went to my local supermarket to buy some ground pork. What do I find but the new "super pork" products. You know, the pork that is guaranteed juicy because it is pre-soaked in a mixture of up to 10% Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) also known as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, and Hydric acid. This is combined with an assortment of chemicals and salt compounds, making up an artificial, chemical laden brine that preserves and bulks up the meat. Ugh, nasty stuff!

Now I want to be the one adding substances to my ground pork, not some mystery co-packer. So I nixed the idea of buying that crud, even though it was the only type of pork my local market carries. So off to the nearest Asian market I did go. There I was able to find some really nice, just ground fresh pork; as well as some ground pork fat. Ah, just what I was looking for. Now most of the work was done.

I bought 4 lbs. of ground pork and 1 lbs. of ground pork fat. Just about the perfect proportions for sausage which is 25-35% fat to meat. Actually the proportions are pretty much perfect since the ground pork had around 5-10% fat in it already. By the way, a nice untrimmed pork butt is perfect to use for sausage if you are grinding it yourself or having your butcher do it, since they tend to be around 25-30% fat.

I like my sausage to be a little on the fattier side of the equation since it cooks up juicier and tastier. I use a lot of spices so you end up with a very zesty sausage that fills you up fast, so I actually tend to eat less than with a less fatty and flavorful sausage.

Now one of the secrets to good sausage is making sure the meat is really cold when you work with it. The closer to frozen, the better. You don't want the fat to warm up and get greasy, if at all possible. So I put the pork in the freezer in a stainless steel mixing bowl until it was just starting to freeze.



While I was waiting I did my Mise en place. I took all the spices and prepped them, chopping them finely, putting them into separate bowls, measuring them, etc. This way they would be all ready to go when I needed them.



I took the ground pork and fat and mixed it together real well with assorted spices; using a wooden spoon. If you have a stand mixer with a paddle then by all means use it. You will save yourself a good workout. This is the first stage in making sausage, mixing it together. This forms a slight emulsion called the primary bind, which makes the finished product cook well and the texture feel right in your mouth.

Now whatever you do, DON'T be tempted to mix the meat with your hands. They are too warm and will make the mixture 'break' and the finished sausage will cook up with a nasty texture. Even using plastic or rubber gloves will raise the temperature too much.

Then I stuck it back into the freezer again for awhile to make sure it was as cold as possible. When it was just starting to freeze again I added some ice water. I really mean ice water here. Fill a pitcher or large measuring cup with ice and then add cold water and let sit in the freezer a few minutes. Then I thoroughly mixed it together again forming a second emulsion, the secondary bind. This will allow the flavor of the spices to spread throughout the rough emulsion, so that the flavor is equally dispersed through the sausage.



I then covered the sausage mix with plastic wrap pressed down onto the surface so no air could touch the meat. I then put it in the bottom of my fridge, the coldest part, to sit over night for the flavors to develop and blend fully.

A day or two later I rolled the sausage into five- 1 lb. logs around 2" thick and wrapped firmly in plastic wrap. At this point you can refrigerate the sausage for 7-10 days or freeze for 3-4 months. I tossed four logs into the freezer for future use. Most of the rest of the fresh sausage went into a zip lock, except for some I made into small patties and fried up for a nice little snack.


Ingredients

• 5 lbs. of un-trimmed Pork Butt OR 4 lbs. Ground Pork and 1 lb. Ground Pork Fat
• 1 oz. / 28 grams Kosher Salt
• 4 tablespoons / 30 grams finely grated fresh Ginger with juice
• 5 tablespoons / 20 grams finely chopped fresh Sage
• 1 tablespoons / 3 grams finely chopped fresh Thyme leaves
• 2 teaspoons / 2 grams finely chopped fresh Rosemary
• 2 tablespoons / 20 grams finely chopped Garlic
• 3 teaspoons / 7 grams fresh ground Black or Four Color Pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground Cayenne Chili powder
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground Nutmeg
• 1-2 cups / 250-500 ml. Ice Water

Recipe

If using a whole, un-ground pork butt:

• Cut the pork into ½"-1" chunks and mix thoroughly with all the ingredients except the water, and refrigerate until well chilled; at least 1-2 hours, or overnight.
• Chill all the parts of your meat grinder and mixer paddle for an hour or more in your freezer.
• Grind the well chilled meat into a stainless steel bowl set into ice, so that the meat remains chilled at all times.
• Place the ground meat in your stand mixer. If it has warmed up re-chill it thoroughly.
  
• Add 1 cup of ice water to the meat and mix until the mixture is fully integrated and sticky looking, about 1-2 minutes on low to medium speed.
• Cover tightly with plastic wrap pressed flush against the meat.
• Refrigerate for 24 hours for the flavors to develop, and then refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Frozen logs can be cut into patties and fried frozen. If you want you can stuff into casings and make links, or use as bulk sausage for patties and sausage burgers.
• You can refrigerate the sausage for 7-10 days or freeze for 3-4 months.

If using ground pork and fat:

• Roughly mix the pork, pork fat, and all ingredients together, except the water, with a wooden spoon. If the meat/fat starts to warm up and the fats starts to get greasy looking, stop and chill the mixture for an hour.
• Add one cup of the ice water and mix thoroughly, if it has trouble coming together into a sticky paste, add up to one more cup of ice water, a little at a time.
• When the mixture is fully integrated and sticky looking, cover tightly with plastic wrap pressed flush against the meat.
• Refrigerate for 24 hours for the flavors to develop, and then refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Frozen logs can be cut into patties and fried frozen. If you want you can stuff into casings and make links, or use as bulk sausage for patties and sausage burgers.
• You can refrigerate the sausage for 7-10 days or freeze for 3-4 months.