Breakfast sausage is a favorite food of the men (including the little ones) in our home. I love it too, but don’t love that many store-bought breakfast sausages have nitrates or nitrites and other preservatives and flavors added.
When a local farmer started selling pastured pork, I decided to figure out a recipe for homemade breakfast sausage. This recipe can actually be made with beef for those who don’t like pork, though the taste will be a little different.
I originally made this recipe with diced pieces of pastured Boston butt, mainly because I had an awesome (and somewhat scary looking) old fashioned metal meat grinder that a relative gave us. I soon realized, after spending much cleaning time on said scary meat grinder, that this made the process more time consuming. I now just buy ground (pastured) pork for this recipe. However, if you also have a scary meat grinder and the patience to clean it, I highly recommend that option as well.
I pre-make this in two-pound (or larger) batches and refrigerate or freeze for quick breakfasts. The patties turned out pretty light in the picture but are typically darker and have more visible spices.
Homemade Breakfast Sausage Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground pork
- 1 TBSP Himalayan salt (or sea salt)
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp fresh sage leaves (finely chopped, or 1 tsp dried sage)
- 1 tsp dried fennel (crushed)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp fresh thyme (or ½ tsp dried thyme)
- 1 dash cayenne pepper (optional)
- 1 dash cloves (optional)
Instructions
- If grinding yourself, grind meat with the finest blade of the grinder.
- Combine ground pork with all other ingredients and mix well.
- Form into 16 one-inch patties.
- Store in the refriferator or freezer until ready to use.
- To cook, heat in skillet over medium heat for 5-7 minutes per side until cooked through.
Notes
- Form patties
- Lay on wax-paper lined baking sheet
- Freeze until firm
- Store in a sealed container in the freezer until ready to use
Nutrition
Like this recipe? Check out my new cookbook, or get all my recipes (over 500!) in a personalized weekly meal planner here!
Ever made sausage? Ever used a scary meat grinder? Share below!
Natural Diaper Rash Cream Recipe
I made this recipe Friday night. (Bought the boston butt on sale and froze it till I had the time.) I did not have fennel, but added garlic powder and, paprika and seasoned salt. Kept it in the refrigerator for two days, stirring twice a day. Simply amazing. It took two days for the seasonings to blend together well. Thanks again for this recipe,
Great recipe! It was a tad salty for us, but not too much:)
We are going to add veggies to the next batch so our 11 month old may not notice she is benefitting from the added nutrition that she doesn’t necessarily enjoy on it’s own (she loved the sausage!)
Thank you and will report back on how she likes it with the veggies!
Perhaps this is in another post on your site and I just haven’t found it yet, but can you tell me why avoiding nitrates/nitrites is so important. Obviously additives of any kind are good to avoid, but so far I’ve only come across advice to avoid the nitrates but not heard why. I am moving more and more toward making my own foods at home (like hopefully this sausage soon!) and really want to make bacon, but almost all the DIY recipes I’ve seen still have you cure it with sodium nitrate. I don’t want to ruin the pastured pork I’ll be receiving soon, but I do want to eat the bacon!
The best way to can pork sausage is to cook it in a frying pan. Divide the patties into clean sterilized jars. Then pour the leftover hot grease into the jars, screw the lids on tight, and turn them upside down. By morning they will have sealed. Keeps for months, great for taking camping because it’s already cooked. I learned this from Freda Bell who grew up in West Virginia.
How much hot grease do you actually pour into the jars ? Thanks
Thank you for some great ideas. I am off of red meat and didn’t know what to do with ground poultry.
I’ve made something like this with some homegrown chicken. Used curry powder and other spices and they were great. Pork can take a lot of different flavors like chicken. I used two big knives to chop up the chicken so it was still slightly coarse, learned that from my mom’s old school Chinese friend. Very easy to clean.
I make something similar but I only put mixed herbs, salt and pepper in the mince (pork, turkey or chicken). I make them into flat patties, bake for 20 mins and then use instead of the buns in a burger! Truly amazing! In between the buns, I put anything in like mashed avocado, red onion, baby spinach, bacon, tomato, Greek dip, etc…
Hey, great idea! I can’t wait to try a “bun” like this!!
please mention another type of meat as i do not use pork at all.
thanks.
I haven’t tried it with other meats meats, but I bet would work with turkey or chicken. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!
Polish Sausage. Sounds amazing. Are you able to share the recipe please – or is it a family secret
Do you think it would be better to cook the Boston Butt first, and then grind it up?
Well, I mix it (as ground meat) uncooked, then cook it before serving. The pork may not mix well with the other ingredients if it’s already cooked.