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 |
Buy Now →
Buy Now →
| Weston Manual Vertical Sausage Stuffer, 7 lb Capacity |
Buy Now →Notes
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.