Breakfast Sausage

Breakfast sausage was a key part to the large American breakfast, when hard, back breaking, calorie burning manual labor was the norm for most Americans working on their farms. Now, it is an afterthought, added to the breakfast selection at most diners and restaurants and typically is an inferior product. There is no comparison of the flavour, texture and juiciness of a homemade breakfast sausage stuffed into a natural casing.

Sausage:
3 lbs loin pork
1 lb pork fat

Seasonings:
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. ground or rubbed sage
1 Tbsp. black pepper, freshly cracked
1 Tbsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. ground cayenne (preferred) or red pepper flakes

Grind the pork and mix all of the seasonings, cover and refrigerate for a at least three hours, but better to allow the sausage mixture to rest overnight.

Prepare your casings and then stuff the casings with the mixture. Once finished stuffing, twist the sausage coil into links and if possible allow the sausage to air dry in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

The sausage will remain fresh in the refrigerator for a few days. Four pounds is more sausage than can realistically be eaten in that period of time, so I package portions of 5-6 links in saran wrap and aluminum foil and freeze them until I am looking to make homemade sausage for breakfast.

Note: Recipe can be halved to make a 1 or 2 lb batch.