homemade pork sausage
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Sausage is an easy to make from scratch and more importantly, you know exactly what goes into it. In contrast, purchased ground meat be from many hundreds of animals and random'parts.' Homemade sausage is only is this much easier than I imagined, but less expensive and just tastes better.
Easy case of where 'made' beats 'bought' every time.
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Prep (10-15 minutes)
Mix dry spices together in a small bowl and set aside.
Cut pork into small chunks and toss in the food processor. When it is is the consistency of ground meat, dump it into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle spices in and mix well. I use a flat wooden spoon. Add maple syrup last and mix well.
Before you get your hands full of raw pork sausage, cut 3 sheets of parchment paper on the length of cookie sheet.
Leave sheet #1 on the cookie sheet and set the other two aside. Form golf ball-sized meat balls and lay them out onto the first sheet of parchment paper, spacing them out as you would with cookie dough. It will be sticky. Get sheet #2 of parchment and press down on the meat balls to form patties. Carefully and slowly peel away the top layer of parchment.
Leave the patties on the parchment and set the first batch aside. Lay sheet #2 of parchment paper onto the cookie sheet, clean side down (i.e., the sticky-porky side will be up). Repeat with batch #2 of golf-ball sized sausage balls, placing them in the sticky areas of the parchment paper. Take sheet #3 of parchment, smash down to make sausage patties, and peel away sheet #3.
Wash your hands well. Cut the sheets so that each sausage sits by itself. Then you can either fold the paper of to cover the sausage or make squares to cover the sausage patties. This is so that they don't stick when you freeze them and can be used individually. Stack them carefully on each other, put in a ziploc bag. Gently get as much air out as you can and freeze.
Cooking (10-15 minutes)
Peel off paper and cook over medium heat on a non-stick pan or grill. To get the nice brown crust on them, drop a little water on the sausage and cover. Flip and repeat.
NOTES:
1) Many other recipes I found online also added thyme to their sausage recipes, so I added some here. Sage is definitely a requirement.
2) Did not use the 1/4 water as noted in the Brunch! recipe.
3) It's important to sprinkle the spices into the meat. If you dump the meat into the spice mix, it will be harder to mix the spices consistently throughout the sausage. I did this the first time and got pockets of nutmeg or sage here and there.
Mix dry spices together in a small bowl and set aside.
Cut pork into small chunks and toss in the food processor. When it is is the consistency of ground meat, dump it into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle spices in and mix well. I use a flat wooden spoon. Add maple syrup last and mix well.
Before you get your hands full of raw pork sausage, cut 3 sheets of parchment paper on the length of cookie sheet.
Leave sheet #1 on the cookie sheet and set the other two aside. Form golf ball-sized meat balls and lay them out onto the first sheet of parchment paper, spacing them out as you would with cookie dough. It will be sticky. Get sheet #2 of parchment and press down on the meat balls to form patties. Carefully and slowly peel away the top layer of parchment.
Leave the patties on the parchment and set the first batch aside. Lay sheet #2 of parchment paper onto the cookie sheet, clean side down (i.e., the sticky-porky side will be up). Repeat with batch #2 of golf-ball sized sausage balls, placing them in the sticky areas of the parchment paper. Take sheet #3 of parchment, smash down to make sausage patties, and peel away sheet #3.
Wash your hands well. Cut the sheets so that each sausage sits by itself. Then you can either fold the paper of to cover the sausage or make squares to cover the sausage patties. This is so that they don't stick when you freeze them and can be used individually. Stack them carefully on each other, put in a ziploc bag. Gently get as much air out as you can and freeze.
Cooking (10-15 minutes)
Peel off paper and cook over medium heat on a non-stick pan or grill. To get the nice brown crust on them, drop a little water on the sausage and cover. Flip and repeat.
NOTES:
1) Many other recipes I found online also added thyme to their sausage recipes, so I added some here. Sage is definitely a requirement.
2) Did not use the 1/4 water as noted in the Brunch! recipe.
3) It's important to sprinkle the spices into the meat. If you dump the meat into the spice mix, it will be harder to mix the spices consistently throughout the sausage. I did this the first time and got pockets of nutmeg or sage here and there.
