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Pork and apples- there is something magical about those two ingredients combined. Whether it’s a pork chop with an apple cider glaze or applewood smoked bacon, you just can’t go wrong. It was this classic pairing that inspired me to create this seasonal sausage recipe years ago. And for years, this sausage variety was included with every Fall package that went out to my club members at the Restaurant and Charcuterie. This seasonal breakfast sausage is a little spicy and a little sweet with apple, sage, brown sugar, and hot chili flakes. The perfect side to pancakes or eggs, or addition to your Thanksgiving stuffing.
Home-made breakfast sausage is the best. For this recipe, you don’t need a bunch of special sausage-making equipment. You can buy high-quality ground pork (20-30% fat) and mix up a small batch quickly in your stand mixer or by hand.
You will notice that this recipe, like all my sausage recipes, is set for 10 pounds of meat. This is for easy scaling and consistency. If you are making sausage links, any smaller quantity, in my opinion, just doesn’t justify the mess and effort. But for this sausage, I always leave it in bulk form for patties, and a 2 lb batch is fast and easy to whip up in your stand mixer and totally worth it. Simply multiply all ingredients in this recipe by 0.2 for this smaller size batch.
MIXING OPTIONS AND BATCH SIZES
If you don’t want to invest in a bunch of specialized equipment to make sausage, stick to 2lb batches (5 lbs absolute max) of bulk sausage recipes.
Sausage making can be an equipment-intensive process. And having the right equipment for the size batch you want to make is essential to a successful batch of sausage. I’ve spent a lot of time in kitchens being resourceful and making things without “recommended” equipment and for most things, you can totally get away with that. But because sausage needs to be cold when you’re mixing it, and because your equipment and meat mixture will warm as you work with it, it requires that you have adequate fridge or freezer space and that you either can mix it all in one batch or spend a lot of time waiting between batches for equipment and ingredients to cool back down.
For a 2lb batch of bulk sausage, you can simply use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Easy!! And you should make your own sausage because it’s fun and when you grind your spices and use fresh herbs and other high-quality ingredients it tastes way better than store-bought. I do not recommend doing more than 2 lbs in your stand mixer though (even if you split it up among multiple 2lb batches) because you can blow out the motor. I learned that the hard way😩.
For batches up to 5 lb, you can use your hands and a large mixing bowl but note: this is harder than it sounds! I would recommend kitchen gloves and a steely disposition as the meat mixture is very cold and you need to mix it for about 5 minutes. Have you ever plunged your hand in ice water and seen how long you can leave it there? It’s like that.
For batches over 5lbs, I recommend buying a meat mixer like this one for $180, which can handle up to 20lbs at a time.
If you are new to making sausage, I recommend checking out this thorough step-by-step guide, “How to Make Sausage“.
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Spicy Apple Breakfast Sausage Formulation
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: n/a
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 11 lbs 1x
- Category: Sausage and Charcuterie
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
A perfect Fall breakfast sausage with fresh apples, sage, chili flakes, and brown sugar.
Ingredients
10 lbs pork butt, trimmed and cubed OR high quality ground pork between 20-30% fat.
(see note below about scaling recipe)
DRY MIX
70 grams (8 1/3 T) salt
4 grams (1 1/2 t) ground allspice
10 grams (4 1/2 t) red pepper flakes
8 grams (6 2/3 t) dried sage
12 grams (3 3/4 t) ground black pepper
15 grams (3 3/4 t) brown sugar
FRESH INGREDIENTS
1 lb apples, peeled and ground or minced (can do this step with the meat if grinding your own)
LIQUID MIX
3/4 cup apple cider
1/4 cup water
Instructions
If grinding your own meat:
Trim your pork butt and note the final weight. Scale the recipe based on the quantity of meat you have after trimming (see note below).
Mix the cubed pork with the dry mix and diced apples and grind everything together (except the liquid mix) into a chilled mixing bowl.
Begin mixing the sausage mix for one minute then slowly add the chilled liquids while mixing. Continue mixing for 4-5 minutes after all the liquid has been added. When it’s done the sausage meat will look tacky or sticky.
If using ground pork
Grate or mince the apple with a box grater or food processor first and set it aside to be added with the liquid.
In a chilled mixing bowl, combine the ground pork with the dry spice mix. Mix for 1 minute.
Add the liquid while mixing and the minced apple and continue mixing for 4-5 minutes longer.
To Finish
You can check the texture and seasoning by cooking 1 Tablespoon of the mixture in a frying pan and tasting it.
Package the sausage meat in usable portions and freeze until ready to use or stuff into sausage casings for links (optional). (See How To Make Sausage for detailed step-by-step instructions to filling and twisting sausage casings.)
The sausage (and all sausage) is best if allowed to sit in the fridge for a day or so before serving to allow the flavors to mingle.
To serve this sausage, make patties and pan fry or brown in a skillet.
Equipment
| Kitchen Aid 6 Qt Stand Mixer |
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| Weston Manual Vertical Sausage Stuffer, 7 lb Capacity |
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BATCH SIZES AND MIXING LOGISTICS
Sausage making can be an equipment intensive process. For a 2lb batch, you can use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
For batches up to 5 lb, you can use your hands and a large mixing bowl but note: this is harder than it sounds! I would recommend gloves and a steely disposition as the meat mixture is very cold. Have you ever plunged your hand in ice water and seen how long you can leave it there? It’s like that.
For batches over 5lbs, I recommend buying a meat mixer like this one for $180, which can handle up to 20lbs at a time.
TO SCALE THE RECIPE
All my sausage formulations are meant to be scaled. Why? Because unless you are buying ground meat, you will end up with all different amounts of trimmed meat for making sausage. Pork shoulders range from 5-10 lbs at the store and you’ll lose 5-10% trimming it up which means when it’s all said and done you’ll have 4.2 lbs or 9lbs or some other random amount. If you use wild game or a farm animal that you harvested you will likely be making sausage with a random amount of trim as well and you want to use it all.
To scale the recipe, divide the amount of meat you have by 10. Multiply all ingredients in the recipe by that number. For instance – if you have 23 lbs of trimmed pork butt, multiply all ingredients in the recipe by 2.3 (23/10). If you have 2 lbs of trimmed pork butt (or store-bought plain ground pork), multiply all ingredients in the recipe by 0.2.
WEIGHT VS. VOLUME
I included the volume weight of the spices for your convenience and because I know many home cooks that do not use a scale. That being said I highly recommend using a scale for any of my sausage and charcuterie formulations, especially if scaling the recipes. A scale is also super handy for baking, and for seasoning large roasts to perfection.
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