Meat Grinder Weekend

[TXGunNut]

Ran out of Italian sausage, down to two pounds of breakfast sausage. Good thing there were several big bags of chunked-up piggy in the freezer! I went to the butcher shop and scored five pounds of pork fat and bought a brisket on sale to make into burger/chili meat. Ground and packaged the brisket and breakfast sausage last night and put the Italian sausage makings in the fridge to marinate. Ground, packaged and froze the Italian sausage this morning and I'm about tired of running that grinder! It looks like it could go a couple more rounds but I'm out of fat and thawed piggy bits, thank goodness!:drinks:

[DougGuy]

I made a 20lb batch of venison Italian sausage, had to go buy some pork blade and brisket to fatten it out. If I get wild pig, will it make venison/wild pig sausage by mixing those or do I still need fat in addition to the wild pig?

[TXGunNut]

I try for a 80-20 mixture, sometimes a bit leaner. Wild pork has a little fat on it, pork fat trimmings have a little meat in them so in this case I used 10 #'s wild pork and 2.5 #'s pork fat. If it comes out a little lean I brown it in olive oil and/or butter.

[jroc]

Do you have a recipe for Italian sausage or do you use a mix. I'm interested in sweet and hot if anybody has recipes.

[kd5exp]

I am looking for a good recipe for some breakfast sausage. Me and my neighbor made some yesterday and we made too much and it was ****. Couldn't get the taste out of your mouth. Wasted a lot of meat. So we are looking for a new recipe. we used sage, thyme, black pepper, sea salt , parsley, red pepper, nutmeg. I had a green taste and hard to get rid of. Would like to find one for a regular old breakfast sausage. We have about 12 lb of dog food so they will eat good for a week.

[CastingFool]

About a month ago, I made some venison breakfast sausage on a trial basis. I had not used that recipe before. I mixed 1lb ground venison with 1 lb ground pork, along with some spices, and called for vacuum packing. Ended up with 3 packages of 4 patties, one I started using almost right away, the other two I froze. Seems like the frozen ones tasted better after cooking, than the one package that was not frozen. I'll see if I can locate the recipe.

[duke76]

I have made quite a bit of sausage and even worked for a butcher part time and I would reccommend just buying the premix, all the butchers I know use premixed packages something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Legg-10-Pork-Sausage-Seasoning/dp/B0063SYLM6/ref=pd_lpo_325_lp_t_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1G7CVYDK1HJ23XQSZY81 I have also used the morton meatloaf and sausage mix and that is good too, I sometimes go to the local grocery store meat department and buy seasoning for sausauge premix most times 3 dollars buys you enough to do 25 pounds

[MaryB]

Leave out the parsley, that is what made it taste nasty.


I am looking for a good recipe for some breakfast sausage. Me and my neighbor made some yesterday and we made too much and it was ****. Couldn't get the taste out of your mouth. Wasted a lot of meat. So we are looking for a new recipe. we used sage, thyme, black pepper, sea salt , parsley, red pepper, nutmeg. I had a green taste and hard to get rid of. Would like to find one for a regular old breakfast sausage. We have about 12 lb of dog food so they will eat good for a week.

[54bore]

Leave out the parsley, that is what made it taste nasty.

I agree with Mary!!

[MaryB]

I need to get a couple pork butts next trip to town. Need hot italian for making patties and bulk for spaghetti sauce. And to make breakfast sausage patties. I use a hamburger press that makes a 3 inch patty that is perfect size for an english muffin or a biscuit. I use the Leggs breakfast sausage seasoning too, it is good stuff!

[kd5exp]

That's what I was thinking. Taste like eating alfalfa. After taste just won't go away. We made this before a long time ago but didn't have any thyme and it wasn't bad. You know it 's a bad taste when whiskey won't kill it.

[kd5exp]

I am not a big fan of maple on my meat. We have a place here that makes their steaks with some kind of maple flavor, never go back. I think they went out of business.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Certainly not green tasting, but I'd skip the nutmeg as well, until you are sure you like it.

[MaryB]

Usually the amount of nutmeg is so tiny you don't taste it. Sage is prominent along with maybe red pepper if making hot sausage.

[CastingFool]

Found the recipe I used. I found it in Food.com, and Nancy from Michigan is the one who originally posted it. I did not use the mace, as we had none. my venison was already ground, so all I had to do was to hand mix it. I made patties after mixing, put wax paper between them, before vacuum packing and freezing.

Venison Breakfast Sausage, by Nancy in Michigan.

"This is the best venison sausage I have tried. It doesn't last long. Make sure to use a vacuum sealer to freeze. the sausage will stay fresh tasting much longer"

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons sea salt
2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper (coarse)
3/4 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon clove
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground sage
4 lbs ground pork
4 lbs venison, cut in 1 1/2 inch pieces.

Directions
1. Put venison through meat grinder, Mix all spices and ground pork with the ground venison thoroughly by hand. Package in 1 lbs packages and vacuum seal.

[Chill Wills]

Casting fool - I copied and will try your posted breakfast sausage. I like making sausage. And.....I have some freezer meat that needs grinding or be tossed.

[762 shooter]

I use these .

http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=86_113

#10, # 29, and Farmstyle are all excellent.

762

[54bore]

Usually the amount of nutmeg is so tiny you don't taste it. Sage is prominent along with maybe red pepper if making hot sausage.

Mary, Have you ever tried the Hi-Mountain Brand Breakfast sausage seasoning? I absolutely love the stuff!! They also sell a brand around here called Hi Country, I am not fond of it at all. BIG difference in the two brands

[MaryB]

Haven't tried that one but my local farm store carries it. I will have to get some and try it.

[Lloyd Smale]

just realized yesterday that my fresh sausage supply is getting low. Told the wife to watch for some cheap pork buts.

[Lloyd Smale]

two things ive learned to ignore in any fresh sausage recipe are parsley and mace. Both will overpower the taste of sausage.
Leave out the parsley, that is what made it taste nasty.

[MaryB]

Be careful of sage and freezing it too, to much and it will taste bitter.

[Lloyd Smale]

my worse sausage disaster was caused by mace. the recipe I had called for a teaspoon of ground clove. I didn't have any ground clove but had whole clove. Well I figured id just smash them up and use a teaspoon of that. It was absolutely terrible. I made 15 lbs of it and it was about uneatable. I kept adding sausage made without any clove at all until it was eatable. At 40 lbs it was diluted enough that we were able to eat it but it was still strong tasting. I don't use a drop of it in sausage anymore.

[LakeviewBulldog]

I know what you mean about being worn out on the meat grinding. Last year I did 2 deer and 3 hog quarters and after 3 days I didn't want to see another grinder for awhile. This is my favorite Hot Italian sausage recipe.

Hot Italian Sausage

5-lbs pork
1-cup cold red wine
1-cup chopped fresh parsley
5-tsp salt
1-tbsp garlic powder or-4 to 5 garlic cloves, minced
1-tbsp fresh ground pepper
3-tsp cayenne
5-tbsp fennel seed
2-tsp crushed chili peppers
5-tbsp paprika

Combine all, mix well & stuff into hog casing

http://thespicysausage.com/recipes/hotitaliansausage.htm

Super simple and tasty.

[kd5exp]

Well we bought dome premix seasoning. I ordered some old fashion breafast seasoning on ebay. It was probly the best. My Bud bought some from Acadamy and was suppose to be hot, not. We went to a meat butcher in town and a little old german lady sold us abpmout 20 lbs of pig fat. She sold us some seasoning to try too. Well we tried our hand at it. Wadn't too bad. I liked the old fashion western the best. Littlebit my bud didn't, as he would say, hanker on any of it. We made 1 lb of each and tried it. It may have been this old pig we had in the freezer sense last summer. A neighbor that has cows behind me shot it and drug it to little bits house. 175 lb sow. We are going to wait on some fresh meat or maybe pull some deer out and try that.

[Bodydoc447]

I use The Sausagemaker brand breakfast sausage seasoning blend called Morning Edge and add 1/4 cup red pepper flakes. This weekend I shot a 160 lb boar and made this and beer brats (a Cabelas kit) and added high temp cheddar to them. Both were a hit with my sons.