What the heck's in sausage?

[Deleted]

I mean the seasonings. If someone knows and can point me in the right direction that would be WONDERFUL.

I go to the store and the stuff is $2-$3 a lb! for fatty ground pork (which I can buy for $1/lb) and it has nitrates, corn syrup solids and all sorts of junk... I don't want to buy a seasoning mix cos those all have something that is questionable. My kiddo is going through an allergic to everything phase.

Soooo... what's in breakfast sausage? or italian sausage?

THANKS!

[kitaye]

I can tell you whaqt we put in ours but every person's tastes are different. There is a book available on sausage making that includes recipes from all over the world, www.berryhilllimited.com/b-cart/Product.asp?pid=6937&cat=74. Perhaps it would be a good primer?

We use fennel, garlic, salt, pepper (black or chili depending on heat levels wanted), and maple syrup if we want a sweet breakfast sausage. Use pork shoulder with the fat still attached or mix 30% fat with lean meat. AS you are grinding and mixing you can fry up small pieces to taste which lets you adjust flavours before you freeze it. Just remember, the longer it sits the more pronounced the flavours become.

[kyosa]

In addition to Kitaye's ingrecients I like sage in my sausage. Here are just a few sites to look at. Google 'sausage-making' and you'll get about 25,100-odd hits:

www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/he176w.htm#Sausage%20formulations
www.bbq-porch.org/recipes/html/C6.htm
schmidling.com/saus.htm

[Kathy]

This recipe is pretty close to what I used to make breakfast sausage when I had my own pork.


tinyurl.com/2j8k7r

[kyosa]

Thanks for that link Kathy! I've bookmarked it for future use. I like it because it's for a small quantity, whereas lots of the other recipes call for a zillion pounds worth of product and I'm either too lazy or stupid to reduce those huge recipes. I'll be using the one in your link!

[mogrrrl]

I find I really enjoy sage in my homemade sausage. We made a batch of breakfast, hot Italian and mild Italian in the fall. It was so much cheaper and I'm sure HEALTHIER. We used our KitchenAid mixer with a grinder attachment.

Manicmommy, you child isn't allergic to pork, is he? DH had an allergy to pork when he was very young.