This homemade breakfast sausage recipe is going to up your breakfast game. Big time.
A Need for a Homemade Breakfast Sausage
Breakfast sausage is one of those things that’s difficult to find fresh––it’s all usually in the frozen foods aisle. Pre-cooked, probably some preservatives thrown in there, and a bunch of ingredients that are hard to read.
When a certain ingredient or food is hard to come by, what do we do? We figure out how to make it ourselves at home!
Our Sausage-Making Beginnings
This was never more true than when my parents and I were living in Beijing for a few years. I learned how to make my own English Muffins, Bagels, and—our own sausage! (I’m just now realizing that they’re all breakfast items. You can find lots of different cuisines in the city of Beijing, but a really good American breakfast? Hard to come by.)
We would buy spices, toast them, and mix them up at home to create spice blends for spicy Italian sausage, sweet Italian sausage, and of course, breakfast sausage.
We would then put the mixes into little Tupperware containers, hop in a cab, and ride to a local wet market, where we beelined for a very particular butcher’s stall specializing in pork. Oh, and sorry for the bad photo quality!
The woman behind the counter would help us pick a piece of fatty pork shoulder, grind it to the texture we specified, mix in our spices, and then stuff the sausage into casings while we did the rest of our shopping.
On our way out, we would pick up a bag full of fresh sausage links for the freezer.
That was really how we started making homemade breakfast sausage, and the recipe has changed a bit over the years with lots of family discussion on recipe variations and improvements.
Who Cracked the Code to This Recipe
This version of breakfast sausage is actually my aunt’s, who is also responsible for our delicious Disney Smoked Turkey Legs recipe.
Her homemade breakfast sausage recipe uses a mix of classic spices and herbs, along with a couple tablespoons of maple syrup (anyone who knows how good sausage dipped in maple syrup is also knows why this is a necessary ingredient). Two very important points to make:
- The texture of the ground pork is very important. You generally want a coarser grind than the ground pork found at the supermarket. The best thing you can do is hand-chop the meat. My mom has a great post on how to grind meat without a grinder––just a knife or cleaver.
- Fat is very important to great sausage. For this recipe, you want a mixture of 70% meat, 30% fat. Another reason to hand-chop your meat! You can control how much fat is in the mix.
Ok, let’s get to it. Making breakfast sausage at home is easier than you think!
Breakfast Sausage Recipe Instructions
Pre-ground pork at the supermarket is generally too fine for sausage. You can coarsely grind your own meat using a meat grinder, but if you don’t have a meat grinder, you can also use a cleaver or chef’s knife to chop the meat finely. (Find instructions for this in our post about how to grind meat without a grinder.)
Toast the fennel seeds and peppercorns in a pan over medium low heat until fragrant. Add to a mortar and pestle or spice grinder along with the sage, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, pepper flakes, and cloves. Grind the spices and herbs until you have a coarse powder.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the pork with your spice mixture, salt, and maple syrup.
Allow to chill for at least 2 hours.
Form into patties and fry in a lightly oiled pan over medium high heat until browned and crispy.
If you want to store the sausage for later use, form into patties and put between squares of parchment paper. Transfer to an airtight container or freezer bag and transfer to the freezer.
This homemade breakfast sausage has a strong, but nuanced flavor, and goes wonderfully with just a couple eggs and toast, pancakes, omelettes, or any other breakfast item you can dream up!
Our Homemade Breakfast Sausage Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ teaspoons fennel seeds
- 1 ½ teaspoons black peppercorns
- 1 ½ teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 pounds coarsely ground fatty pork (70/30 meat to fat ratio)
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
- Pre-ground pork at the supermarket is generally too fine for sausage. You can coarsely grind your own meat using a meat grinder, but if you don’t have a meat grinder, you can also use a cleaver or chef’s knife to chop the meat finely. (Find instructions for this in our post about how to grind meat without a grinder.)
- Toast the fennel seeds and peppercorns in a pan over medium low heat until fragrant. Add to a mortar and pestle or spice grinder along with the sage, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, pepper flakes, and cloves. Grind the spices and herbs until you have a coarse powder.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the pork with your spice mixture, salt, and maple syrup. Allow to chill for at least 2 hours. Form into patties and fry in a lightly oiled pan over medium high heat until browned and crispy.
- If you want to store the sausage for later use, form into patties and put between squares of parchment paper. Transfer to an airtight container or freezer bag and transfer to the freezer.
Tips & Notes:
nutrition facts
What cuts of pork typically found in the market would you suggest for making the breakfast sausage?
Pork butt.
Finally I have found my perfect breakfast sausage recipe. Many thanks. Exactly what I have searched for over many years. The others were never just right.
woohoo! That’s what I told my sister (her recipe) after we made and tried it for the first time!
Guess who bought a sausage making machine last month ? I’ve always wanted one but it seemed easier to get the butcher to make sausages when he processed our own home grown beef . Our neighbour raises rare breed pigs so we always swap some meat . I’ll be making these next week . Once again, thank you
You’re welcome, Paul! We really hope you like it. This is our favorite breakfast sausage to make––better than anything storebought! If you’re grinding your own rare breed pork, all the better. I think it’ll come out amazing.
Great recipe! Exactly what I wanted. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Donaleen!
Wowser! You did it again. Your recipes Always work for me. I used bog standard supermarket ground pork and let the spices marry overnight in the fridge.
What a great result…..in fact too good. I had envisioned freezing much of the batch for Sunday brunches but hubby snapped it up and made sausage rolls. They were awesome also. Looking forward to the Italian sausage recipes as we can’t get them here in Scotland.
Thank you again for another taste treat and accurately written recipe.
Hey Wren, I’m so glad that you and your husband enjoyed this recipe! We’ll have to perfect our Italian sausage recipe and post that one soon. :)
Will this work for turkey also?
You could certainly try it with turkey––just make sure there is enough fat in the mixture, or the sausage will be very dry.
ooo..are you doing a post on the spicy italian sausage mix?
Yes, that’s definitely on the to-do list!
Thanks…I look forward to trying this recipe out! Will you be sharing your Italian sausage recipes too? (I hope so!)
Yes we definitely will!
Is that photo of the Sanyuanli Market in Beijing? I shopped in that one many a time.
I’ve been making my own breakfast sausage for years, but your recipe takes it up a few notches. If not using right away I usually form into a log which can later be defrosted and sliced before frying using the following method:
Lay an 18 inch long piece of plastic wrap on counter or board. Take a one-pound lump of the mixture, shape it into a single, fat sausage about two inches in diameter, and place it on the near edge of the plastic wrap. Roll the sausage away from you, enclosing it in the wrap. Gather the loose “tails” of the wrap in each hand, squeeze to compress the ends of the sausage, and then, holding the tails of the wrap, roll the sausage towards you to twist the tails closed. Do this several times to tighten the wrap, then place the wrapped sausage on a tray for freezing. When frozen place in plastic bag, label and date, and store until needed.
Well spotted! Yep, it is Sanyuanli market in Beijing––we used to go there for imported ingredients and of course, our homemade sausage. Thanks for the tips on storing the sausage in the freezer as well. :)
Sarah you may get several marriage proposals as a result of this recipe. :-)
Wow – looks amazing and is now in my queue of things to make.
Thanks Alan!